Jack DeGange, co-author of Dartmouth College Football: Green Fields of Autumn (and not coincidentally the college's former sports information director as well as the go-to person for BGA and anyone who has questions about the Dartmouth football program) shares this note that goes nicely with yesterday's blog photo:
Having one recipient of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award visiting the Hanover area isn't unusual but two in the same day may be a record. The annual award, established in 1970, honors a player's volunteer and charity work as well as his excellence on the field.
Reggie Williams ’76, the Dartmouth All-America and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker (1976-89) visits campus occasionally and was in town over the weekend to attend the Friends of Dartmouth Football semi-annual meeting. He has started a conversation with Coach Buddy Teevens about creating an award similar to the Payton Award that would recognize a Dartmouth player for contributions and service to the campus and surrounding communities.
Williams, who was a member of the Cincinnati city council and was involved in various community activities, was named the NFL's Man of the Year in 1986. Payton, the Chicago Bears running back, won the award in 1977. His name was added to the award shortly after his death in 1999.
And the second NFL Man of the Year? That would be Rolf Benirschke, who grew up in Hanover while his father was a professor at Dartmouth Medical School and moved to San Diego in 1972 after his sophomore year at Hanover High School. A soccer player who evolved as a football placekicker, Benirschke graduated from UC Davis in 1977 and was the San Diego Chargers' placekicker from 1977-86.
In 1978 he developed ulcerative colitis, an illness that worsened in 1979. He had two surgeries to remove his large intestine and was in intensive care for weeks. When he was released from the hospital he weighed 123 pounds. He returned to the team as an honorary captain on November 18, 1979 as the Chargers played the Pittsburgh Steelers. After an arduous training and rehabilitation regimen he rejoined the Chargers as their kicker in 1980. He played for seven more seasons and during his career he made 146 of 208 field goal attempts for the Chargers. He was an All-Pro selection in 1980, a Pro Bowl selection in 1982 and won the NFL Man of the Year Award in 1983 as he became involved in various community activities in San Diego where he continues to reside.
He is the national spokesman for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) and on Saturday he shared the story of his illness at the seventh annual Dartmouth-Hitchcock Patient & Family IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) Symposium. In 1996 he published his book, Alive and Kicking.Editor's Note: Benirschke went on to host the daytime version of the TV gameshow, Wheel of Fortune. (link)
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Yesterday's email also brought a note from Curt Bury '53, who was in town for his 60th reunion. After Coach Buddy Teevens addressed the class an impressed Bury sent him a note that included this:Your message about not only building a successful Big Green football team, but even more important helping to train our young men to grow up be responsible adults contributing to society, was extremely important and very well received by our entire class and their families.
Your words I thought went so far beyond the usual sports-related talk that I hope thereBury, incidentally, was a pioneer in computerizing football play-by-play and producing a quick postgame report. He debuted his system in the early '80s in the Dartmouth press box and then spent five years helping run it at New England Patriots home games.
is some way to "publish" them to a much wider audience.
As loyal a Dartmouth fan as you will find, Bury has been to every Dartmouth-Yale football game since 1949 and will come up from his Maryland home for his 65th consecutive contest against the Bulldogs in October.
Along with his email to Teevens, Bury shared several pages from his first Yale game program, including this one with his handwritten notes included:
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And finally, for those of you curious about how the yard sale went up here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain yesterday . . . it was worth the effort. No question, if we lived in town we would have cleared out more stuff and filled our "shoebox register" a little more, but that's a tradeoff we gladly make.
