Winning Matters

A few of Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim's remarks under the tent Saturday at the Dartmouth Friends of Football Golf Classic:

On what he learned as a high school quarterback in Iowa ...

I played football, pretty poorly actually. My senior year we lost all our football games. But during our sophomore year we had a good season. And I remember that winning a football game was the greatest feeling I have ever had in my entire life. All the players felt that they contributed. We rang the victory bell. There was nothing like it and it's never been repeated. I played basketball also and we almost went to the state finals. But there was nothing in basketball and there was nothing in volleyball – which I played in college – that ever came close to the feeling you have with your fellow players when you win a football game.

And so I didn't win any football games when I was a senior, so I waited about 30-plus years to be on the field when we beat Columbia this past year. Giving Buddy a hug and singing the alma mater was one of the great moments of my life.

On why winning football games is important ...

That doesn't just lift the spirits of the football team. It lifts the spirits of the entire college. Of all the alumni. ... We know this is part of showing the world what we are made of. And that if you lose in football, for reasons that are not rational, people sort of think that's how the college is doing. That it can lose in football means you are not paying enough attention to details to do something that Dartmouth has done so well for so long.

On doing his part ...

We know that we are producing great citizens and great leaders. But we also know that we need to win more. And so when I talked to Buddy after the season the only thing was, what do we need to do to create a great program? ...

I've told Buddy he has access to me at any time. And if there's any obstacle for him to get his players prepared he should call me and I will remove those obstacles. ...

We are going to find everything we know about preparing young people to do fantastically well. From sports psychology to nutrition to weightlifting to stretching. We are going to give everything that they need to be successful.

On the help of the Friends of Football ...

Remember, every little gift we get, every little thing that allows us to up our game is not just good for the football team. The things that you have done for us are going to be good for the entire Dartmouth community. When football wins everyone feels great about Dartmouth College. That's where we need to get to again and I'm going to push, push, push so that we can get there immediately and never retreat.

It shouldn't be a surprise that the applause at the end of his remarks was deafening.

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In addition to the TV package that will see the Nov. 13 Brown at Dartmouth game broadcast nationally on Versus, Yale will once again have its own package with the YES network. The Yale TV schedule on YES:

Oct. 16 Fordham at Yale
Oct. 23 Penn at Yale
Oct. 30 Columbia at Yale

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Former UNH quarterback Ricky Santos has been re-signed by the Montreal Alouettes. Find a blurb here.