Established in 2007 and presented to an underclassman on the football team whose character, leadership on campus, high academic standing and performance on the playing field most resembles that of Charles (Stubby (sic)) Pearson '42, captain of the 1941 football team who died while serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He was also captain of basketball and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian of his class. Gift of David Little '44 and Peter Little '81.The reason for bringing up the Stubbie Pearson Award again is a note earlier this week out of the News-Press down in Fort Myers, Fla., that Stubbie's brother, Curt Pearson, 80, got a hole in one on the 144-yard, par-3 at Miromar Lakes. What makes it more interesting is that Curt Pearson's ace came on what would have been on Stubbie's 88th birthday, and the short capsule about the hole-in-one reprises the story of the former Dartmouth great.
That sent me off looking for a little more info on the older Pearson, whose name is spelled Stubbie. (It's wrong in a lot of places, including earlier BGA posts.) I found a page about him on the Minnesota Historical Society Minnesota's Greatest Generation site. Dartmouth's Rauner Special Collections Library also has a page that includes a picture and reference to his scrapbook, which the library has.
Previous winners of the Stubbie Pearson Award, by the way, were Andrew Dete and Timmy McManus.
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The Daily Dartmouth has a follow story on the college naming a search committee to help identify candidates for the athletic director position. Acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears told the school paper:“It is consistent with Dartmouth practice to have a search committee in place, as they understand the specific needs and interest of the community. Once the firm has given us a pool, the committee will do selection processes and interviews and see whether the candidates are a match for us.”
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Former Dartmouth men's basketball player DeVon Mosley has been awarded a $10,000 Kathryn Wasserman Davis Project for Peace grant for a project. From a story in the Daily Dartmouth:Through sports clinics, music lessons, and time and stress management workshops, Mosley's Desoto Peace Project aims to motivate at-risk youth to stay in school and resist gang membership.
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The intercollegiate weight room at Penn's new George A. Weiss Pavilion under the eaves of Franklin Field is already in use. From the school web page:More than 18,000 square feet has been dedicated to Penn's varsity intercollegiate athletes, with state-of-the art equipment, running areas, and setups that are unique to the University.
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The Boston Globe takes a look at what it terms "risky" investments by money managers at Harvard and Dartmouth among others. The story is spun out of a study, "partially financed by the Service Employees International Union." From the story:Large endowments like those at Harvard University and Dartmouth College took on too much risk and helped fuel Wall Street’s meltdown, according to a new report, which charges that such schools threatened their financial stability by abandoning their historic mission to preserve assets.The Globe story then takes aim at Dartmouth. From the story:
The Dartmouth board, (Joshua Humphreys, a Harvard history lecturer) argues, is laden with conflicts of interest because a half dozen trustees work at firms that have managed more than $100 million of the endowment’s money.
Dartmouth defended its practices, saying it applies high ethical standards to the board of its $2.8 billion endowment.
“We see no reason to disadvantage Dartmouth financially by refraining from any investments’’ with ties to trustees that are legal and proper, the school said in a statement. “To do so when we are following appropriate ethical standards would do nothing more than negatively impact the returns on our endowment and the good work that we do with those returns.’’
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And finally, after yesterday's softball game the coach of the other team made it a point to pull that Certain Hanover High Senior aside and said of course she is going to play in college, right? No, she told him, she is going to run. He had some kind words for her and then told her that she really should play softball in college. (She very well might have if she'd decided to go to a Division III college, but Division I running coaches aren't very keen on their athletes switching sports for the spring.)Anyway, today is Senior Day for the Hanover High team and it will be difficult for at least one onlooker. I missed Senior Day for cross country because of Dartmouth football and there really wasn't much of a Senior Day for indoor track because she had qualified for New Englands and we already knew she would run in college. But this is different.
This will bring back memories of all those sweet days out in the yard playing catch. About helping a little girl learn not just to "throw like a boy," (sorry about that) but better than an awful lot of them. About her turning her nose up at softball and playing baseball with the boys right up until ninth grade. About her returning to baseball to play Babe Ruth in the summer after ninth grade softball and this doubtful dad thinking there was no way she was going to catch up to a fastball in her first game back against a hard-throwing 6-foot-2 pitcher only to see her line a shot to center field in her first at-bat.
It will bring back memories of her explaining the "double switch," learning how to keep a detailed scorebook and soaking up the rules to such an extent that last week she was able to get the umpires to change a decision, a development that was chronicled in the newspaper story about the game. Life goes on and and it will be fun to see her run in college, but you'll have to excuse me late this afternoon ( 6 p.m. actually) if I shed a tear or two.
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