Athletic Managers Help Organize Teams By Performing Administrative Duties, Gain Valuable Experience for Future

"Hey, manager--get me a chin strap--quick!"

Many students at the College are known as "hey manger," and little else. These athletic managers are usually quiet, unnoticed guys in a Crimson jacket who spend a great deal of time responding to commands. They are usually stereotyped as the flunkey water boys who delight in pending countless hours in the locker room and on the field becoming masters at various menial tasks.

Far from this typical high school image, the Harvard athletic manager is in reality an indispensible man who is equivalent to the business manager of a professional team. The manager's job is "to conduct the team's business to such a degree that the players and coaches are entirely free to concentrate on the competition."

Relieving the coach of administrative duties, the manager alone is responsible for business and travel arrangements, hotel reservations, transportation, meal plans, and other miscellaneous tasks necessary to keep the organization of the teams functioning smoothly.

When Crimson football coach John Yovicsin first came to Harvard he commented, "The work I did in the past is done by the managers here."

Managerial duties vary with each individual sport, of course but they do produce the same basic results in every instance: organization and coordination for the team.

But that is only half the story. In addition to the team, the individual managers benefit from their own work. They receive major and minor Varsity letters, according to their sports, in their junior and senior years. They also receive complimentary tickets to the games. But, most important of all, the managers receive valuable training in executive-type duties in handling details, people, and organization in general. In their freshman year, too, they learn the laws of competition first hand.

It is no wonder that Harvard athletic managers through the years have turned out to be extremely successful after graduation. Thomas B. Quigley '29, Crimson football physician for the last 20 years recently stated unequivocally, "I have never known one (a Harvard football manager) to do badly after graduation. They have all been successful on whatever field they have pursued."

Fascinated by the seeming truth that all Crimson athletic managers end up in Who's Who, on Wall St., or in a super air-conditioned office, Henry W. "Eskie" Clark '23 began a survey of Harvard managers, many of whom have already replied with autobiographical notes. (The completed report of the survey will be published in an Alumni Bulletin article next year.)

The findings thus far show some interesting facts. Of the former football managers, for example, one is the Under Secretary of State, another the president of a leading aircraft corporation, another the president of one of the largest chemical companies, and still another the legal counsel to Chiang Kai-shek. It is much the same story for managers in other sports.

Probably the most famous former manager is C. Douglas Dillon '31, presently Under Secretary of State and previously U.S. Ambassador to France. His long and distinguished record includes work in finance and banking in addition to politics.

Jack Fadden, Crimson football team trainer off-and-on since 1923 and trainer for the Boston Red Sox the past 11 years, recalls Dillon as a manager: "He was competent, easy to get along with, and an efficient organizer."

Dillon's name, which rings familiar to Crimson football fans who crowd around Dillon Field House after each game, is the son of Clarence D. Dillon '05, who in January, 1930, donated money for a field house to replace the old Soldiers Field Locker House. The situation is curious. As the CRIMSON reported:

"Before the ruins of the Soldiers Field Locker House had ceased smouldering yesterday morning after the disastrous fire late Tuesday night (Jan. 14). Clarence D. Dillon '05 telephoned from his home in New York to W. J. Bingham '16, director of athletics, his definite intention to donate a new field building to the University and suggested that construction begin at once."

(The CRIMSON article observed later. "Mr. Dillon's offer comes at most felicitous time, for the blaze threw the University's athletic facilities into a critical situation.")

Many people have often wondered if the blaze that demolished the inadequate and much inferior locker house really was a complete accident. Still more have wondered if the Harvard football manager at the time of the fire happened to do some vital quick dialing to save the "critical situation."

The CRIMSON article tells us what two managers were doing: "Uniforms of all sorts, medical equipment, and trophies preserved for generations, were consumed by the flames. But the most valuable articles in the building--a large part of the medical records and the Evert Jansen Wendell trophies--were rescued, and this through the heroism of two undergraduates, H.T. Wagstaff '32 and P.M. Whitman '32, track manager candidate and assistant football manager, respectively."

Mystery or not, the end of the old wooden Soldiers Field Locker House meant a better field house for Harvard. Dillon Field House, which appropriately has a special! Managers' Room in its northwest corner, was opened for use the following September.

The other football managers whose present titles were listed above are Robert E. Gross '19, President and Director of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Stanley de Jongh Osborne '26, President, Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, and William S. Youngman, Jr. '29, President, C. V. Starr & Company and legal counsel to Chiang Kai-shek. Osborne also managed track.

One former manager has distinguished himself militarily. He is Clifton F. Von Kann '37, former baseball manager, who is a Brigadier General, the Director of Army Aviation, and a former Assistant Chief of Staff. He has won many decorations, including: Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Commendation Ribbon with Metal Pendant, the Senior Parachutist Badge, the Army Aviation Badge, the War Department General Staff Identification Device, the Cross of Military Victor (Italian), and the Presidential Citation (Republic of Korea).

The vocations range from lawyer to plastic surgeon to gynecologist to liquor importer, to magazine editor; the long lists of accomplishments for each former manager are impressive.

Many who were queried voluntarily turned in comments showing how important their managing experience in college has been to them later.

Oliver P. Bolton '39, President of Newspaper Publishing Companies, Willoughby, Ohio, wrote, "It is of interest to me because I have always felt that, though football managing led me to spend too little time on class work, it nonetheless was perhaps the most rewarding experience I had in college. I have always felt that it gave me what I most needed at the point in my development, and that without it I would have been pretty lost in the great maelstrom that is Harvard." His son Charles is presently a freshman football manager.

The managership experience certainly should not be considered a formula for reaching the top, but it certainly can be considered a valuable venture--similar to many extra-curricular activities.

Though the reasons become somewhat redundant and cliched, each person who has managed has his own special reasons for endorsing managerships.

Former crew manager Francis T. Baldwin '24, presently with Batten, Barton, Durstine, & Osborn, wrote "Managerial training has been invaluable to me in my work of handling advertising accounts and all the diverse extra activities involved. . . Being a varsity manager was one of the most valuable experiences I had in college. It has contributed a great deal to many of my activities since. . . In the four years with the Crew, I learned: first, to get along with all kinds of guys; second, to plan in a reasonably orderly fashion; and third, to react with some sense, I trust, as emergencies upset my plans or the unexpected occurred."

One person wrote, "And I certainly am very sure that I would not have made the broad acquaintances which I did during the four year I was in college without having managed."

Sheridan A. Logan '23, another former crew manager, commented candidly, "When I was very small, I concluded that I was no athlete. The academic work was interesting and easy for me but somehow or other I seemed to lack the proficiency that many others had in different Perhaps it started with shyness; perhaps it was a developed system of coordination. In any event that . . .The work of Crew Manager was infinitely time assuming. Most of my afternoons in college were one of the boat houses, either Newell or Weld. The spring season, being out of doors, was delightful although manager had to be nimble to avoid being pushed into water by one of the shells as it was carried to and the boat house. One time I was not fast enough and I down in the Charles River, with all my clothes on in the space between the float and the runways of Newell. I remember how brown and yellow the water looked.

"In retrospect, it was terribly time-consuming, realize how much of value I missed in the academic opportunities available to me which I could not think touching because of my being busy with the Crew. gains of this experience, however, are surely considerations to a degree. I can't say that I was an introvert before the experience nor really an after it. It surely did do much, however, in getting out of my own individual world into the wide, wide of many delightful people. This has been an asset incalculable value and pleasure to me. Since I felt I never achieve this because of my lack of athletic confidence the opportunity of the Managership was invaluable."

Percival S. Howe, Jr. '17, Chairman of the Board the American Thread Company noted: "More than thing else it taught me the importance of getting this done by the use of persuasion, rather than by the of authority. Next to two years at Harvard Business School I consider a Crew Managership the best training for a business career."

Stephen N. Subrin '58, baseball, also wrote "I trust that the lateness of my reply does not reflect upon the habits efficiency that managing Harvard baseball usually genders."

Basketball manager Arthur B. McGuire '30: "I do believe that the experience in scrubbing for managership and in reaching that goal is of great help to a young man in future life. They certainly have to shoulder responsibility early and it is quite an experience to travel and meet the various athletic personalities. I will never forget the kindness and fatherly advice given to me by Getchell and Bill Bingham as well as the help of all the HAA office. Naturally, young men would rather play the sport than manage it but there are certainly many rewards for being a manager."R-1

"In retrospect, it was terribly time-consuming, realize how much of value I missed in the academic opportunities available to me which I could not think touching because of my being busy with the Crew. gains of this experience, however, are surely considerations to a degree. I can't say that I was an introvert before the experience nor really an after it. It surely did do much, however, in getting out of my own individual world into the wide, wide of many delightful people. This has been an asset incalculable value and pleasure to me. Since I felt I never achieve this because of my lack of athletic confidence the opportunity of the Managership was invaluable."

Percival S. Howe, Jr. '17, Chairman of the Board the American Thread Company noted: "More than thing else it taught me the importance of getting this done by the use of persuasion, rather than by the of authority. Next to two years at Harvard Business School I consider a Crew Managership the best training for a business career."

Stephen N. Subrin '58, baseball, also wrote "I trust that the lateness of my reply does not reflect upon the habits efficiency that managing Harvard baseball usually genders."

Basketball manager Arthur B. McGuire '30: "I do believe that the experience in scrubbing for managership and in reaching that goal is of great help to a young man in future life. They certainly have to shoulder responsibility early and it is quite an experience to travel and meet the various athletic personalities. I will never forget the kindness and fatherly advice given to me by Getchell and Bill Bingham as well as the help of all the HAA office. Naturally, young men would rather play the sport than manage it but there are certainly many rewards for being a manager."R-1

Percival S. Howe, Jr. '17, Chairman of the Board the American Thread Company noted: "More than thing else it taught me the importance of getting this done by the use of persuasion, rather than by the of authority. Next to two years at Harvard Business School I consider a Crew Managership the best training for a business career."

Stephen N. Subrin '58, baseball, also wrote "I trust that the lateness of my reply does not reflect upon the habits efficiency that managing Harvard baseball usually genders."

Basketball manager Arthur B. McGuire '30: "I do believe that the experience in scrubbing for managership and in reaching that goal is of great help to a young man in future life. They certainly have to shoulder responsibility early and it is quite an experience to travel and meet the various athletic personalities. I will never forget the kindness and fatherly advice given to me by Getchell and Bill Bingham as well as the help of all the HAA office. Naturally, young men would rather play the sport than manage it but there are certainly many rewards for being a manager."R-1

Stephen N. Subrin '58, baseball, also wrote "I trust that the lateness of my reply does not reflect upon the habits efficiency that managing Harvard baseball usually genders."

Basketball manager Arthur B. McGuire '30: "I do believe that the experience in scrubbing for managership and in reaching that goal is of great help to a young man in future life. They certainly have to shoulder responsibility early and it is quite an experience to travel and meet the various athletic personalities. I will never forget the kindness and fatherly advice given to me by Getchell and Bill Bingham as well as the help of all the HAA office. Naturally, young men would rather play the sport than manage it but there are certainly many rewards for being a manager."R-1

Basketball manager Arthur B. McGuire '30: "I do believe that the experience in scrubbing for managership and in reaching that goal is of great help to a young man in future life. They certainly have to shoulder responsibility early and it is quite an experience to travel and meet the various athletic personalities. I will never forget the kindness and fatherly advice given to me by Getchell and Bill Bingham as well as the help of all the HAA office. Naturally, young men would rather play the sport than manage it but there are certainly many rewards for being a manager."R-1