Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin 1936-12-01

The Garnet Letter
Published by the Alumni Association in the interests of

S W A R T H M O R E C O L L E G E a n d h er A L U M N I
T)olume

S W A R T H M O R E , PA., D E C E M B E R , 1936

ü\(umber 4

^arthmore Plan o f Sports Education
By M ark M acIntosh
Director of Athletics

The Department of Physical
Education and Athletics for
men at Swarthmore College has
three divisions, as follows:
I. I N T E R C O L L E G I A T E
A T H L E T IC S :
t: Baseball
2. Basketball
3. Cross-country
4. Football
5. Golf
8. Soccer
6. LaCrosse
9. Tennis
7. Swimming
10. Track
IN T R A M U R
A C T IV IT IE S :
1. Basketball
Softball
2. Indoor Relay Carnival
Touch-football

III. S P O R T S E D U C A T IO N :
1. Badminton
10. Paddle Tennis
2. Basketball
11. Rugby
3. Boxing
12. Speedball
4. Corrective Phys. Ed.
13. Soccer
5. Fencing
14. Swimming
6. G olf
15. Tennis
7. Gymnastics
16. Track
Apparatus
17. Volleyball
Tumbling
18. W ater Polo
8. Handball
19. W restling
9. LaCrosse
20. W eight L iftin g
This article is mainly concerned with the program of
Sports Education. A s can be seen, this program is quite
extensive in content and requires many and very exten(Continued on page two)

T h e Swarthmore Club Banquet
The Date — February 27th, 1937.
The Place — Swarthmore College.
The Event — Annual Midwinter Banquet spon­
sored by the Swarthmore Alumni
Club of Philadelphia.

Garnet, the roll call and parade of Classes and an
after-dinner address, the officers are planning the
most attractive Alumni event for men to be held in
years. The Banquet will be preceded by the cus­
tomary Alumni get-together, and adjourn in time
for all Alumni to go to the Field House for the
basketball game which is scheduled for nine o’clock
that evening.

The officers and directors of the oldest Swarth­
more Alumni Luncheon Club enthusiastically an­
nounce that the annual banquet will be held this
year at the usual time, the last week-end in Feb­
ruary, on the campus of the College, instead of in
Philadelphia. A reservation for the banquet will
include a ticket to a special Alumni Reserved Seat
Section for the Haverford game, to be played the
same evening for the first time in the new Field
House at the College.

Plan now to come back to Swarthmore, and be on
hand for the Annual Banquet on Saturday eve­
ning. February 27th, 1937.

W ith this added feature to the traditional Ban­
quet Program which includes the unveiling of the

President, Swarthmore Alumni Club of Philadelphia

George B. Clothier, ’26, is in charge of the Com­
mittee arranging for the decorations and caterer,
and Francis W . D ’Olier, ’07, is Chairman of the
Reservations Committee.

R ichmond P earson M iller , ’24

2

T h e Garnet Letter
The Swarthmore Plan of Sports Education
(Continued from fage one)

sive facilities. But Swarthmore has just that. Few col­
leges in the country are quite as fortunate in possessing
so much per capita athletic playing space, both outdoor
and indoor. For outdoor facilities we have enough ex­
cellent green turf to mark out fourteen football grid­
irons, or the equivalent number of soccer, lacrosse, speedball, or rugby fields. Seven outdoor tennis courts for
men, and hill and dale wooded land, owned by the col­
lege, sufficient for a four and half mile cross-country
course, completes the outline of major outdoor facilities
for men students. Incidentally, Swarthmore co-eds have
outdoor facilities equal to if not better than those for the
men students, with the exception of the above-mentioned
cross-country course, and this is used extensively by the
co-eds for daily horseback riding. The new Swarthmore
Fieldhouse just completed, with indoor space ioo yards
long and 40 yards wide, and ten rooms each 25x25 feet,
is among the best indoor athletic plants possessed by any
college of this size.
I f we divide a student’s entire school life into three
periods, i. e., elementary (ages 6-12), secondary (1317), and college (18-22), his physiological needs will
gradually change during these periods, both in number
of hours per day devoted to play activities, and in the
intensity and vigor of activities. For instance, during
the elementary period a normal boy should have an aver­
age of seven hours per day of vigorous physical activity.
During the secondary period he should have about four
hours each day of more vigorous play than during the
preceding period. When he gets to college he should
have activities similar to high school games, but played
with even more vigor and intensity. A fte r college, a
man’s games will gradually change from the vigorous to
the milder types.
Our aim at Swarthmore is to afford regular, interest­
ing, and vigorous activity under competent supervision
and with skilled instruction. There are a few more than
700 students enrolled this year, practically half of
whom are men. W e haven’t attained the ideal yet of having 350 men participate daily in enough vigorous ac­
tivity, but that is our aim nevertheless.
Most other colleges are prevented from having an ex­
tensive physical education program by lack of adequate
playing space, or staff, or both. A casual scanning of our
catalog would not indicate that a student here has less
time for physical activities than one at any other col­
lege. But for the evident reason of Swarthmore’s very
high academic standards, students are busy in science
and engineering laboratories, seminars, conferences, li­
brary projects, and otherwise occupied in the search for
knowledge. But it is clear that this high-class type of
student, one who may contribute something useful to
the world’s work, especially needs an activity program to

preserve his health, without which all his mental effi­
ciency will be useless. We have a positive minimum re­
quirement which freshmen and sophomores have to meet,
of at least two hours per week on two separate days, and
participation in at least one individual and one team
sport each week. While junior and senior men’s partici­
pation in the Sports Education program is entirely elec­
tive, they are especially urged to take advantage of the
“ carry-over” sports, because they will soon finish col­
lege and will have no further opportunity to play the
major sports.
Mr. Ed. Faulkner, one of the outstanding tennis in­
structors in the east, who formerly coached the men’s
varsity tennis team, has become a full time member of
the athletic department this year. He divides his time
among the men students, women students, and the fac­
ulty members, giving every individual in college the op­
portunity to learn this splendid “ carry-over” sport. This
addition to our facilities and guidance is expected to
prove a most valuable contribution to the Sports Educa­
tion Program of the College, and it is already meeting
with an enthusiastic response.
Another feature of our program is the practice of
bringing to our campus, for exhibition and instruction,
outstanding performers and teachers in sports such as
golf, tennis, badminton, swimming, boxing, track, hand­
ball, fencing, etc. This gives our students a chance to
“ rub elbows” with the champions in the different branches
of sport, and get expert instruction and fine inspiration
from them.
Physical exertion and perspiration are not, in the
main, what we are concerned with at Swarthmore. More
important than these, we emphasize the idea of instruc­
tion and practice in the various sports, so that the stu­
dent can progress beyond the “ novice” stage and have
some success, hence some enjoyment, in playing the
sports. A fte r he has acquired a little skill he will carry
on in a sport without any other enticement than the joy
of accomplishment. That, finally, is the Swarthmore
plan.
R E M A IN IN G G A M E S 1937 B A S K E T B A L L
Jan.
Jan.
Jan.
Jan.
Feb.
Feb.
Feb.
Feb.
Feb.
Feb.
Mar.

SCH EDU LE
9 — Hamilton ..
..................... at Swarthmore
14 — Johns Hopkins.....................at Swarthmore
16 — Lehigh .................................... at Bethlehem
30 — N a v y ........................................at Annapolis
3 — U r s in u s ........................................... at Easton
12 — L a f a y e t t e .............................. at Swarthmore
17 — W illia m s ............................at Williamstown
20 — Stevens . . . . ................... ..
.at Hoboken
24 — P. M. C. . . ........... ............... at Swarthmore
27 — Haverford ...........................at Swarthmore
4 — St. J o h n s ..................... ............ at Annapolis

T he Garnet Letter

3

T he Reorganization o f the Alumni Association
By F rank W. F etter , ’20
President of The Alumni Association

H E Alumni Association of Swarthmore College is
almost as old as the College itself. It was organ­
ized in 1875, and was incorporated seven years
later. Since the revision of the By-Laws in 1894, no im­
portant changes have been made in the organization of
the Association. Its structure has been a relatively
simple one: a President and three Vice-Presidents,
elected annually; a Secretary and Treasurer, elected/anually ; and a Board of Directors of six members, of
whom three were elected annually for a two-year term.
For many years the offices of Secretary and Treasurer
have been combined, and Mrs. Abby Mary Hall Roberts
has loyally and efficiently filled this dual office for
nearly thirty years. O f the other ten officers of the A s ­
sociation, seven are new each year, and the three Di­
rectors who carry over serve only one year with the
new officers and Directors.
The Alumni Association as it now exists has a long
and honored history. The Annual Alumni Day activities
have every year brought back large numbers of former
Swarthmoreans, who have renewed old friendships, and
viewed with pride the material progress that the college
has made since the “ good old days.” It has played a real
part in cementing the relations between Swarthmore
College and her sons and daughters. But while Swarth­
more has expanded, the Alumni Association has re­
tained the organization of forty years ago, with the ac­
tivities consisting very largely of the arrangements
for Alumni Day. The almost complete turnover in the
governing body of the Association from year to year
hampered the development of an organization with a
continuity of policy and a wider field of activity. For
sevefal years past, a number of Alumni have felt that
the Alumni Association might well play a more active
role than it has in the past. There was a feeling among
some that one of the difficulties in the way of develop­
ing a more active organization was this rapid turnover
in the governing body of the Association.
William Tomlinson, of the Class of 1917, who served
as President of the Association for two years (from
1934 to 1936), and who started the Garnet Letter, made
a step in the direction of changing the structure of the
Association. In December, 1935, he proposed in the
Garnet Letter the organization of Men’s and Women’s
Alumni Councils, consisting of 15 members each, chosen
for three-year terms on a geographical basis. These Coun­
cils were not to be officially a part of the Alumni Asso­
ciation. The exact relation between the Councils and
the Association was not defined, but the expectation was
that they would serve as advisory bodies, and at a later

T

date be incorporated into the Association. This plan,
together with ballots for the choice of members of the
Council, was submitted by President Tomlinson to the
entire body of Alumni and ex-students — a body nearly
twice as large as the voting membership of the Alumni
Association. The plan was approved by a large majority,
and the Councils chosen.
A few months later, at the Annual Meeting of the
Alumni Association in June, 1936, a plan was presented
for a Complete reorganization of the Association by
abandoning the existing structure of the Association and
substituting the Councils as the governing bodies. Those
present at this meeting voted that a Constitutional Con­
vention should be called for June, 1937, at the time of
the annual Alumni Day meeting of the Association, to
consider the proposed reorganization plan or a similar
plan. It also voted that the reorganization plan be re­
ferred to the Board of Directors of the Alumni Asso­
ciation.
The reorganization plan was taken up at a meeting of
the Board of Directors in the latter part of October.
There was a general agreement with the objectives of
the proposed reorganization, but some details of the plan
were questioned. A fte r discussion, it was voted to ap­
point a Sub-Committee of three to confer with repre­
sentatives of the Men’s and Women’s Councils.
Many articles of the proposed new Charter deal with
such matters of detail as the name of the organization,
place of business, and time of meetings ; and it does not
seem necessary to print the proposed Charter and ByLaws in full at this time.
The principal ways in which the Association would
be changed by the proposed Charter and By-Laws are
as follows :
1. The governing bodies of the Association will be
the Men’s and Women’s Councils, consisting of 15
members each, chosen on a geographical basis.
These Councils are to elect Executive Committees
of five members. The term of office of Council
Members is to be fixed by the Councils.
2. Each Council is to function separately in all mat­
ters pertaining particularly to its own membership
and to its own constitutents, but the two Councils
are to meet jointly in matters pertaining to the
College as a whole.
3. The officers of the Alumni Association are to be
chosen by the Men’s and Women’s Councils, in­
stead of by popular vote of the whole Association
as at present.
(Continued on fage four)

T h e Garnet Letter

4

The Garnet Letter
PUBLISHED PERIODICALLY BY
THE SWARTHMORE COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
SWARTHMORE, PENNSYLVANIA
F r a n k W . F e t t e r ....................................................Editor

The Reorganization of the|Alumni Association
(Continued from 'page, three)

The idea of having the members of the governing
bodies of the Association chosen for a term of several
years, so that a majority of the members would be ex­
perienced in the work of the Association, is found today
in a large number of college alumni organizations. The
practice of having the officers of the Association chosen
by the governing bodies, rather than by the entire
Alumni body, is also followed at many American colleges. Among the members of the Alumni body with
whom the Directors of the Association have talked, the
prevailing opinion appears to be that the adoption of
these principles by the Swarthmore Association would be
desirable. The principal doubts which have been ex­
pressed about the proposed reorganization relate rather
to the separation of the men’s and women’s organiza­
tions, yrhich some believe runs counter to a long-stand­
ing Swarthmore tradition, and to the fear that the pro­
posed reorganization is unnecessarily complex. The
Board of Directors of the Alumni Association expect to
have a report in the next issue of the Garnet Letter, pre­
senting the proposed reorganization plan, with such
changes as will meet these objections and at the same
time provide for an Alumni Association with greater
continuity of policy and equipped to play a. more active
role in keeping the College in contact with its Alumni
body.
SW ARTH M O RE COLLEGE ALUM NI
A S S O C IA T IO N
President
Frank W . Fetter, ’20
Vice-Presidents
William H. Seaman, ’88
Daniel Underhill, ’94
V irginia B. Greer, ’26
Board of Directors
TERM TO EXPIRE IN 1 9 3 7

Lilah K . W illets, ’93
Halliday R. Jackson, ’04
A . Prescott W illis, ’23
TERM TO EXPIRE IN I93&

J. Haines Lippincott, ’27
Augustus Cadwallader, ’ 12
Edith S. Coale, ’02

th e

class of

D ata S upplied

by the

1940
D eans

It is interesting to note that the geographical distri­
bution of students during the past five years shows a
shift from 46 °/o to 33% in the Pennsylvania representa­
tion which has been made up by increased numbers of
students from other sections, notably New York, New
England, and the Middle Western states.
In the present Freshman class almost exactly equal
numbers of men and women students are sons and
daughters of parents who are former Swarthmoreans.
Fourteen of the ninety-two men and 13 of the one hundred and seventeen women are so related. In the case of
the men ten others are brothers of present or former students, making 30%. of the new men Swarthmoreans by
fam ily connection.
The religious affiliations show thatPresbyterians,
Episcopalians and Friends have by a considerable margin the largest representation in the College. During
the last five years Friends have varied between 21% and
1 4 °/o, the latter being the figure for the present year.
W hat sort of individuals make up the Freshman
class? So far as the men are concerned, fourteen stood
at the head of their class. Ten were presidents of their
class and eight others held lesser offices. Six were athletic captains. One was scholastic all-state football
player and also head of his class as well as open golf
champion of his state. Many more had been active in a
variety of school organizations and in winning various
prizes outside of school.
Four men had worked for a year between school and
college. O f those who had a clear choice of majors when
they entered, slightly more than one-third will study the
Social Sciences, eight are pre-medical students, twentyseven will study in other scientific fields, and seventeen
entered Engineering. Four wish to work in literature
and languages. Fourteen plan to enter business and nine
to be lawyers; five wish to teach, four to enter the foreign service, and three to be journalists.
Thirteen of the men came from six Friends schools.
Approximately one-half of the class came from private
and one-half from public schools.
In the case of the Freshman women we find that 60%
prepared in private schools. Fourteen of these came from
six Friends schools.
The majors chosen by the women are distributed
fairly evenly among English, Natural Sciences, foreign
languages and Social Sciences, with English slightly in
the lead. Eighteen women plan to teach, eleven to write,
and the fields of medicine and social work each claimed
eight choices.
Changes in the plan and scoring of the Scholastic
Aptitude Test preclude significant comparisons with
results of other years, the test being now entirely verbal.

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5

T h e Garnet Letter

Physical Education and Sports Program for W omen
By V irginia R ath
Assistant Professor of Physical Education for Women

T is with pleasure that this opportunity to speak to
the Alumnae about the girls’ physical education and
Athletic Association activities comes to me.
The aims of this Department in coordination with the
Health Service are to give students the opportunity,
under healthful conditions, to learn the technique of,
and to participate in at least one team sport and several
individual activities ; to give them opportunities for im­
proving their technique by instruction in small groups
with those of equal ability (there are three classifica­
tions in practically all activities) ; to give every student
an opportunity to enter into competition either intra­
mural or intercollegiate; to help them form habits of
regular exercise which will benefit them now and carry
over after graduation. W e believe that a program of this
kind is so important to the life of college students that
time should be set aside in their schedules. Since there
is no academic credit for Physical Education, and in­
creasingly numerous demands are being made on the
extra curricular time of the average student, the tend­
ency would be to neglect that field first. Therefore the
college requires three hours each week for the four col­
lege years. W ithin this requirement there is a very
flexible program offering a wide variety of choices after
the freshman year. The senior swimming test still holds
good and as far as I know, there has never been any oc­
casion for a “ show down” on this ruling, so all Swarthmore women graduates leave college with average swim­
ming ability as well as an A .B . degree !
In this fast moving machine age full of labor saving
and human substituting devices, we hear constant cries
for more leisure time education. In this connection the
department feels a definite responsibility and a real op­
portunity for teaching wholesome and satisfying ac­
tivities that may be carried over into adult living condi­
tions. The time spent on these activities in college, be­
sides their present advantages, will pay high dividends
later on.
A ll of the following activities are offered with in­
struction :
P H Y S IC A L E D U C A T IO N C L A S S E S

I

Badminton
Hockey
Tumbling
Archery
Body Mechanics
Tennis
( Posture T raining)
Golf
Riding
Basket Ball
Modern Dancing
Swimming
Folk Dancing
Diving
Tap Dancing
L ife Saving
Danish Gymnastics

V A R S I T Y A N D IN T R A M U R A L S P O R T S
Hockey
Tennis
Archery
Golf
Basket Ball
Swimming
O f these, twelve are either individual or dual activi­
ties, and eight have a definite carry over into adult rec­
reational sports. It is not our intention to minimize the
value and stimulation of team sports, but to stress
equally, those individual sports which have more prac­
tical carry over qualities.
' A n y college program is limited by its equipment and
facilities. Though claiming one of the country’s first
gymnasia devoted exclusively to women was a decided
advantage forty years ago, that same building remains
as a handicap in 1936! W ith the men’s new field house
now in use, however, we have inherited a much needed
share in their old gym, so that the indoor program is
relieved somewhat of the crowding. Our dreams of a
new field house of our own are bright and very ma­
terial, and we hope to some avail. It is our ambition to
be able to furnish the students with more adequate facil­
ities for dancing, corrective orthopedic work, basketball,
diving, and to provide squash courts, an indoor tennis
court and space for fencing.
The program of this department is closely associated
with the activities gf the Women’s Athletic Associa­
tion. The Association manages all intercollegiate sports,
arranges all interclass competitions, and purchases the
equipment for those sports. Members of the Athletic
Council are in charge of all sports, including winter
sports and riding. Last year for the first time the A s ­
sociation purchased six sleds and supervised their use.
The response to this move was so enthusiastic that the
plan will be enlarged. Two years ago a riding cup was
given by Mr. Isaac Clothier, Jr., to the best rider in
college, to be determined by a contest which takes place
in the riding field, located in Crum Woods. Last year a
few riders were invited to take part in several gymhanas at Pennsylvania Military College and a group of
cadets performed remarkable feats of horsemanship at
our contest. The girls are still riding under Mr. Bowen’s
dramatic leadership.
W e are fortunate to be sharing in Mr. Faulkner’s full
time connection with the college as tennis instructor.
His excellent teaching technique has been enthusias­
tically experienced by forty students, and these lessons
will continue throughout the winter months. Golf now is
a flourishing game, with beginners fanning away on the
hockey fields and the more advanced players using the
nearby Mary Lyon golf course.
(Continued on fage six)

T he Garnet Letter

6

T h e Football Season
By L aird L ichtenwalner, ’36

O ST pleasing event for Alumni in the past
football season was the reduction in the admis­
sion charge to 5 oc* Alumni enticed to Garnet
games by this price-slashing procedure, and Alumni
who would have attended anyway at the old charge of
$1.00, were rewarded with two victories, five defeats.
Defeated were Union, 6 to o; and Johns Hopkins,
40 to 19. Victorious were Hampden-Sydney, 14 to 6;
Dickinson, 55 to o ; Hamilton, 6 to o ; St. John’s, 12 t o o ;
and Drexel, 32 to o.
Swarthmore’s new Director of Athletics, Mark Mac­
intosh, was installed as football coach. The new D i­
rector, who came here from Arizona State Teachers
College, fills a position vacant since Dr. E. Leroy Mer­
cer resigned five years ago. A s football coach, he suc­
ceeds George Pfann, who departed to give full time to
his duties as Assistant Federal District Attorney in
New York City.
The Cornell-Warner-single wing back off-tackle type
of offense was replaced this year by Mr. Macintosh’s
version of the Michigan system. Our new style of at­
tack, featuring a punt formation, consisted finally in
choosing plays to suit the players instead of selecting
players who can execute the plays. The team lacked a
good line plunger so the Michigan-Maclntosh-Swarthmore system was built about plays designed to shake
clear our light but clever running backs by the use of
deceptive reverses and hidden ball plays, supplemented
by a strong passing attack.
This gridiron campaign introduced practices in the
field house on rainy days, moving pictures, new uni­
forms with garnet stripes up the back of the pants legs,
substitutes on the bench rising up to applaud a player
coming out of the game, and an increased use of mod­
ern mechanical devices in practice sessions.
Coach Macintosh succeeded in making his players
play well because they were enjoying football. Scrim­
mages were rare, the prima-donna type of player was
eliminated, and the football men and professors coop­
erated with the coaches in having all players present to
start practice promptly. Continued were popular Mr.
Pfann’s taboo on locker room oratory and the enforce­
ment of training on an honor system.
On Monday nights, the squad saw a movie of its most
recent game. Faults and mistakes were noted and com­
mented upon at this time, and the attempt was made to
correct these errors in the ensuing week.
A n important aspect of the season was concrete evi­
dence of the Director’s sports-for-all policy and his
avowed intent to give each Swarthmore man a chance to
make the most of his physical heritage. In at least three

M

games, more than twenty-five men saw action against a
college opponent. Players who at larger schools probably
would have been used as'practice fodder for the varsity,
here were given individual attention and developed to
the point where they could be depended upon to acquit
themselves well against intercollegiate opposition.
Credit should be given to assistant coach Bill Lutz for
the valuable service he performed in this connection.
Not content with using so many men in games, men­
tor Macintosh formed a junior varsity group which was
coached by Avery Blake and Sam Eckerd. The jayvees,
instead of warming a varsity bench, gained valuable ex­
perience by playing a schedule of their own against
prep schools in this vicinity.
The Fall gave evidence of a better spirit and an in­
creased interest on the part of the student body. Pep
rallies were held on Friday nights, the rejuvenated band
was present in uniform and volume at each home game,
and the cheerleaders received readier and lustier response.
Next season, the Little Quakers must replace Seniors
Captain Cooper, Spruance, Perkins, Heavenrich, Fowler,
Clement, Morrissett, Anfinsen, Prentice, Clarke, H afkenschiel, Burt, and Hutson. However, the Freshman
class provided quite a few well-rounded men who se­
cured places for themselves on the varsity team this
year. Add to this several very good Sophomores, the jayvee material, and a year’s experience with a new system
and the outlook for next year becomes brighter than the
graduation of so many Seniors would indicate.
Physical Education and Sports Program for W om en
(Continued from fage jive)

Bowling is another activity available (outside of the
regular program) through the acquisition of the prep
school gymnasium. This year fencing is being taught to
the men, and the girls are clamoring “ me too,” which
means that they will probably receive it too before long.
We feel that the best part of the athletics and phy­
sical education at Swarthmore is the opportunity made
possible through liberal cooperation with the Dean’s
office, gf arranging small classes where individual at­
tention is possible, thus avoiding the mass instruction
and crowding frequently necessary in larger colleges;
each student is placed in a group according to her abil­
ity, and as she improves she is advanced in rank. D ef­
inite progress is a great stimulus to activity. The real
test of any required program is the amount of voluntary
participation it stimulates outside of scheduled hours.
It is gratifyin g to see swimming, tennis, golf and rid­
ing leading the list, with hiking, bowling, skiing, skat­
ing and sledding following closely. I f students begin
spending their recreational and leisure time on sports
while still in college, there is a strong indication that
the program is bearing fruit, and at least some of the
ambitions for our students after college will be realized.

7

T he Garnet Tetter

A Championship Soccer Team
By G ordon Straka, ’ 37

H IS past season the Swarthmore soccer team cap­
tured the Middle Atlantic States Conference title
for the second straight year. In addition to this
championship, the team was forced to take second place
in the Middle Atlantic States League after losing a
thrilling game with Princeton University. A brief
resume of the season is interesting because it proves
that Swarthmore can compete with large universities
and colleges twice its size and still compile an enviable
record. A fte r playing such teams as Pennsylvania,
Princeton, Cornell, Haverford, Lafayette, Lehigh and
others, we find that a record was made of seven victories,
two defeats and one tie. One of the highlights of this
successful season was the thrilling victory over the Uni­
versity of Pennsylvania, which was the first one in the
eight contests played by these two teams. The entire stu­
dent body and faculty were much gratified by the sec­
ond victory in two years over our traditional rival, Hav­
erford. This fine Swarthmore team scored twenty goals
to their opponents’ seven and this fact alone shows the
power and skill of the players. Certainly anyone con­
nected with the college can be proud of such a season,
since it shows that our team was one of the finest in the
country.
Not only has the team record been good in the past
few years, but the merit of individual members has been
nationally recognized. Last year five members of the
team were recognized as being worthy of All-American
mention. The work of the four men of this group who
played again this year will doubtless earn them this
reward for the second straight year. In addition to such
men as Hallowell, Pearson, Schroeder and Beck, it will
not be surprising if there are more Swarthmore men
on the All-American team this year. It is interesting to
note that this is a mere carrying out of a Swarthmore
tradition because since 1921 seventeen men have been
rated as All-Americans and the number per year is
steadily increasing.
The reader may feel, after perusing this account, that
soccer must have been adopted by the college with the
laying of the cornerstone. However, this belief would
be far from the truth, since the sport was not really offi­
cially recognized until 1919 when the team won the first
of its five championships of the now defunct Pennsyl­
vania Intercollegiate Association Football League. Thus
through these intervening years there has been a steady
growth and development until the sport has reached its
present status. Soccer was started at this college in the
winter of 1914 when a group of students formed the
Garnet Soccer Club and played two games, both of
which it lost. The growth of the sport was very slow

T

and it was not until 1917 that there was a coach, M. A .
Addison, an event which the team celebrated by winning
two out of four games. Then in 1919 the championship
was won and in 1920 due to the untiring efforts of such
students as James Bogardus a full-time coach was ob­
tained. The coach was Mr. Robert Dunn who has just
completed his sixteenth year as soccer mentor at the
college. In 1920 and 1921 the championship was again
won by Swarthmore and soccer was on its way to becom­
ing the popular sport it is today.
The new coach instituted the idea of “ beginners”
groups in his program and it has proved to be of great
value. O f the seventeen men who have made A ll-A m er­
ican teams, there have been eight who never played
soccer before, and up to this year the yearly average of
men who had won a letter in the sport before entering
Swarthmore has been one, surely a tribute to the fine
coaching of Mr. Dunn and his assistants. In 1925 the
team again captured the championship and with this
success the Swarthmore College teams were recognized
as being worthy of competition with big universities and
colleges. This naturally necessitated the introduction
and establishment of the three year eligibility rule and
soccer is the only sport which is governed by this rule
at Swarthmore.
In 1928 the team won eight games and lost none and
tied none, and was the only undefeated team in the
country. In this year and every year afterward accurate
rolls were kept of the number of men participating in
soccer. The first year fifty-two men were out for the
sport and this number has been steadily increasing until
in 1936 ninety-seven men were participating in the sport
during the entire season. Thus soccer draws more can­
didates than any other sport in college. This is due to
the fact that the number of teams representing the col­
lege in this sport has steadily increased. This past year
there were a Varsity, Junior Varsity, Freshman and Be­
ginners teams, all playing schedules of six games or
more. There has been a winter season for the past five
or six years which extends through January and Febru­
ary. About twenty to thirty men are on this winter squad
and they play the various industrial teams in and around
the Philadelphia area.
The period from 1928 to the past season has been
marked with success and has been particular noteworthy
for the championships won in 1935 and 1936. This in
brief is the story of the growth of soccer at Swarthmore.
A development which began with a team in 1914 which
played two games and lost them both to a team in 1936
which won seven, lost two and tied one. During the
(Continued on fage eight')

8

T h e Garnet Letter
A Championship Soccer Team
('Continued from page seven)

years from 1920 to 1936 one hundred and fifteen games
have been played, with sixty-three being won, fifty-two
lost and twenty-two tied, for an average of about sixty
per cent. There have been only five seasons in which the
average was below fifty per cent, a record which is de­
serving of much commendation.
There is one more feature of this sport which should
be mentioned because it is so unusual. It is admitted that
there are always students who want to play soccer, but
here at Swarthmore there are always many students and
outsiders who want to see the games. The crowds have
been so large at many of the games that they have con­
stituted quite a problem. Stands were erected this year,
but the space they provided was not adequate to accom­
modate the crowds. This is a phenomenon which is rare
in colleges, in which football and soccer compete for
spectators. A t other colleges the former usually draws
all the crowd, but here the two sports are practically
equal in their attraction.

T H E R E V IV A L OF CROSS C O U N T R Y
By C harles W. L oeb, ’37

The Garnet cross country team, put back on the
Swarthmore map only two years ago, has just finished
its second season with one of the best records of any
team in the Middle Atlantic A A A . For many years no
meets had been scheduled in this sport until in the fall
of 1934 Professor Townsend Scudder, of the English
Department, a former trackman and cross country cap­
tain at Yale, became interested in the revival of cross
country, and began coaching a group of students who
had done long-distance running. In that season two in­
formal meets were held with Pennsylvania and Franklin
and Marshall. Needless to say, the Garnet was defeated
in these meets.
However, the 1935 season, which saw cross country
recognized as a regular fall sport, was a great surprise
to the College, the Swarthmore harriers winning three
out of their four meets. In the very first meet, Franklin
and Marshall, undefeated since 1931, was upset by a
23-30 score. This victory was followed by wins over
Johns Hopkins (27-28) and Drexel (30-33). Lafayette
defeated the Garnet by a score of 24-31.
The cross country team repeated its record during the
past season, its only defeat being at the hands of Frank­
lin and Marshall by a close margin. The other three
meets were all won, with better scores than those of the
preceding season, the teams defeated being Drexel
(23-36), Johns Hopkins (23-32), and Lafayette
(27-28).
Cross country promises to be an increasingly popular
fall sport, and should contribute materially to the de­

velopment of trackmen. Much of the credit for the suc­
cess of the first two geasons of the sport goes to Coach
Scudder, whose harriers successfully met experienced
teams from colleges much larger than Swarthmore.

AN UNDEFEATED H OCKEY TEAM
By M ay E. Parry, ’25
Hockey Coach

The girls’ hockey team has just completed a most
successful season — six victories and one tie. The rec­
ord is as follow s:
Swarthmore Opponents
Oct. 2 — Swarthmore Cl ub. . .
9
o
Oct. 10 — Merion Cricket Club
3
o
Oct. 17 — Ursinus ...................
2
o
Oct. 24 — Rosemont ...............
16
o
Oct. 31 — Beaver College.........
2
1
Nov. 7 — Bryn Mawr College
2
2
Nov. 13 — University of Penna.
4
3
The outstanding things about the season were the
spirit and the teamwork that prevailed. Individually
perhaps, the team was no better than many teams that
have had far less successful seasons, but collectively
they were unbeatable.
W e believe that by concentrating on a fast passing
game we can get better results than if we depend on in­
dividual eiforts alone to carry us through. Individual
efforts can be checked by good opponents. This was
borne out strikingly in the “ Greek Gods” game. (The
Senior letter men each year form a team which they
call Greek Gods, which plays a game against the V ar­
sity at the end of the season.) The boys, of course, were
faster than the girls, but they lacked the teamwork and
skill which come through practice. So, as usually hap­
pens, the annual game resulted in defeat for the “ Gods.”
A s usual, they feel that the umpires must have taken a
hand, but in reality, it was the girls who beat them. It
isn’t natural to suppose that the boys can go out and
learn in one lesson what it has taken the girls a whole
season to perfect.
For many years Swarthmore played about half her
schedule against nearby club teams, because so few col­
leges played good hockey. O f recent years, however, the
hockey in all colleges has improved a great deal, and
at the present time we are endeavoring to schedule as
many college games as possible.
W e wish there were more opportunities for scheduling
junior varsity games, but due to academic classes, and
the length of a hockey game, it has been impossible. The
only one played this fall was on November 13 at Penn.
This resulted in a 5-0 victory for Swarthmore, and
showed the material behind the team. W ith nine letter
girls returning next year, things look very promising
for another successful season.