Letters

QUOTE/UNQUOTE “Lessons from Professor Gert’s class on morality help me teach ethics to medical students almost every day.” —danieL GaLyon ’78

Hoop Dreams

Ralph Wimbish’s article about Dartmouth’s fabled dream team [“The Last Dance,” Mar/Apr] was wonderful! I was privileged to see them play many times.

It would have been appropriate to give Chuck Kaufman ’60 more space in the article. He was the brilliant brains behind that squad. He could do it all and did. I saw him make some plays in Madison Square Garden that were far beyond what a basketball fan of those days had ever seen.

As for that great game at Yale for the Ivy League Championship, everyone in the gym and in Alaska, Russia, Antarctica, the U.S. Congress and The Hague, including the entire Princeton team, knew that Rudy LaRusso ’59 was going to get the ball for the final shot. He did, thanks to Chuck, and with people hanging all over him he muscled through to the basket and scored. He simply wouldn’t be denied! And then the place went crazy. So did I! Rudy was the greatest.

West Lebanon, New Hampshire

Our friend Dave Gavitt ’59 is wrong about LaRusso being the second best player in league history next to Bill Bradley. He was maybe fourth behind Chet Forte (and ahead of Walt Budko, Ernie Beck, Jim McMillian, Ed Leede ’49, et al.). No. 2 in my book was the arch-villain Jack Molinas of Columbia (banned by the NBA and later convicted and imprisoned for game fixing).

As proof, when LaRusso and Molinas played against each other in Saturday pick-up games in Los Angeles, after Rudy had retired and Jake the Snake had finished his prison term, the younger NBA all-star could not, by his own admission, handle the older-by-seven- years ex-NBA-rookie-all-star felon.

Colesville, Maryland

THANKS FOR RECOGNIZING BIG Green athletic accomplishments of 50 years ago with the most recent article on Dartmouth’s last Ivy League basketball champions and your coverage of past football teams a few months ago [“Legends of the Fall,” Sept/Oct 2007]. Add to this the remembrances of Paul Stein ’59 in his Class Notes about the Ivy League hockey champions and you will realize that no Ivy League member has ever matched, before or in the 50 years since, the accomplishment of winning all three major sports titles in the same academic year.

The heart of all three teams were ’60s: Bill Gundy, Jake Crouthamel, et al. on the gridiron; Chuck Kaufman, Walt Sosnowski, et al. on the court; and the hockey defense of All-Ivies Ryan Ostebo, Russ Ingersoll and Tom Wahman (in goal).

Also, Dartmouth’s rugby team was the best in the East that year and the baseball team came close to the Ivy title as well, again both loaded with ’60s.

Lest we be considered an all-jock class, two ’60s won the national college debate championship as well. Yes, there were some good old days!

Newton, New Jersey

Practical Philosophy

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED READING Bernie Gert’s reflections on his decades at Dartmouth [“Examine Assump- tions,” Mar/Apr]. After 25 years of practicing neurosurgery all the biochemistry I studied at Dartmouth is now mostly obsolete and almost completely forgotten. In contrast, lessons from Professor Gert’s class on morality help me make clinical decisions and teach ethics to medical students almost every day.

Binghamton, New York

A Taxing Situation

I AM DISAPPOINTED BY THE LACK of outrage at the nomination and subsequent confirmation of Timothy Geithner ’83 as the country’s new Secretary of the Treasury [“Big Picture,” Mar/Apr].

Some have framed any questioning of Secretary Geithner’s character as a partisan smear campaign. I cheered Obama’s victory over Sen. McCain, but I consider the nomination and the confirmation of Geithner as the country’s Secretary of Treasury a travesty given his past personal tax problems.

How many students have been removed from Dartmouth for significantly less than what Secretary Geithner has admitted? Why are we okay with him running the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service?

Atlanta

Case Dismissed

HAVING SERVED CONSECUTIVE terms as presidents of the Alumni Council when James Freedman was starting his tenure as president, we were surprised to read the comments of Judge Laurence Silberman ’57 [“View From the Bench,” Nov/Dec] that Freedman lobbied against a proposal the judge brought to the floor of the council in the fall of 1987.

His allegation: “I urged a combined alumni-faculty committee to encourage tolerance of diverse political, religious, economic views. There was a very close vote among members of the Alumni Council, and to my astonishment Freedman was lobbying against it. It went down by a close vote. I resigned from the council because I realized that College governance had become too political for a federal judge.”

From the minutes of that meeting, available in Rauner Library: “Larry Silberman proposed a resolution to create an ad hoc committee to promote the tolerance of diverse political, philosophical, and intellectual views at Dartmouth College. He said that the committee should be formed now and should not wait until the spring meeting because it then could be attributed to President Freedman. Discussion and a debate ensued. Many thought the resolution was untimely and antagonistic. Concern was expressed that it violated parliamentary procedure in that any new business must be submitted in writing. A number of councilors said they needed more information before voting on it. Silberman then called for a vote as to whether he should submit his resolution to the executive committee. The council voted 45-25 against it.”

While we were presidents of the Alumni Council, Freedman never lobbied us in regard to anything. Such an activity would have been totally inconsistent with the character of the man. To state otherwise flies in the face of everything President Freedman stood for.

Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts Steve Mullins ’54 Evanston, Illinois

Physical Education

Louisa Gilder ’00 [“The Quan- tum World,” Mar/Apr] speaks of the “profound aspects of the physical world” that the proper teaching of physics must reveal, and the thrill of “facing a piece of that profundity” herself. As a latecomer to the study of very basic physics I can relate somewhat to her experience.

I have yet to tangle with entanglement but look forward to reading Gilder’s book.

Brooklyn, New York

Dress Code

I MUST ADMIT I WENT INTO THE interview with the Imam Muhammad Abdur-Razzaq [“Continuing Ed,” Mar/ Apr] expecting to be annoyed. Sadly, my expectation was fully realized. His personal journey is his to make, but the disingenuous equivalence he draws between compelled and dehumanizing dress requirements for Muslim women in many countries and the claim that they consider “…Western women oppressed because they have to dress to please men and put on makeup before leaving the house,” is something that we all have an obligation to call what it is: bull.

There is certainly a place for a rich dialogue about women’s clothing and makeup in our culture, but we can have that conversation when women are not stoned (in the most extreme cases) for dressing however they see fit.

Peterborough, New Hampshire

Western women don’t have to dress up and put on makeup. Most of us are too busy with more important matters to bother. And when we do, it’s more for ourselves than it is for men.

Why do all orthodox religions persist in indoctrinating their women into a male-centric view of the world? Women drape their bodies, hair and faces in cultures where men are not expected or required to be able to control their impulses. If men were socialized to behave as adults and not overgrown children, the question of women’s dress would be appreciated as the non-issue it is.

Pelham, New York

Huddle Up

AN AD HOC COMMITTEE SHOULD be formed, including representatives from admissions and financial aid, the board of trustees and the association of alumni to study and remedy the dismal state of Dartmouth football [“Campus,” Jan/Feb].

The primary purpose of Dartmouth is to offer an outstanding education. We do that. Admission standards should not and need not be lowered to jeopardize the quality of the student body.

Buddy Teevens ’79 has a fine reputation as a recruiter and as a person. But how can academically qualified, talented high school athletes be attracted to a college known for 2-8 and 0-10 records?

Our college does very well in many sports, but the athletic reputation of a college is measured to a significant extent by the success of its football program. Attendance at games may be poor but might increase if students could witness an occasional victory. The Dartmouth experience should not exclude a competitive football program.

Bend, Oregon

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