The College Football Hall of Fame released the ballot for its next class and it includes four Ivy League players. (LINK)
Before revealing which Ivy alums are on the latest ballot, here's how many HOF players there are currently in the Hall from each Ivy League school:
Yale 25
Princeton 21
Harvard 18
Penn 17
Cornell 12
Dartmouth 8
Columbia 7
Brown 2
Here are the Dartmouth players in the Hall with the year they were inducted:
1954 – Andrew (Swede) Oberlander '26, halfback/tackle
1955 – Clarence (Fat) Spears '17, guard (Also Knox)
1970 – Myles Lane '28, halfback
1972 – Bill (Air Mail) Morton '32, quarterback
1974 – Ed Healey '18, tackle
1977 – Bob McLeod '39, halfback
2003 – Murry Bowden '71, linebacker
2007 – Reggie Williams '76, linebacker
And finally . . .
Ivy League nominees on the ballot just released:
Middle guard John Zanieski, Yale '85
Offensive tackle Martin Peterson, Penn '87
Running back Keith Elias, Princeton '94
Wide receiver Carl Morris, Harvard '03
All four Ivy League products have been on the Hall of Fame ballot previously. Perhaps you are wonder, if Keith Elias is on it, why not Dartmouth's Jay Fiedler, who had epic battles with Elias and Princeton? From the Hall of Fame ballot:
(A) player must have received First-Team All-America recognition by a selector that is recognized by the NCAA and utilized to comprise its consensus All-America teams.
Fiedler was a third-team, Associated Press All-America selection in 1992 when he led the nation in passing efficiency, but he never was chosen to the first team.
Green Alert Take: The first-team, All-America requirement tidies up the selection process but without question it keeps a good number of players who deserve to be considered on the sidelines. I don't know if Fiedler would garner enough votes if he were eligible, but he's every bit as deserving as the Ivy Leaguers and many others who are on the ballot.
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Columbia is the latest Ivy League school to announce its incoming class HERE. Per the release the class features:
15 All-State Honorees
21 State Champion/state Finals Appearances
24 State Playoff Appearances
14 Team Captains
25 Multi-Sport Athletes
26 All-Conference Honorees
16 Offensive Players
11 Defensive Players
1 Specialist
Green Alert Take: The roster lists 29 freshmen and if there are 16 offensive, 11 defensive and one specialist, there's one more somewhere in the ether ;-)
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Penn has announced its new athletic director. Returning to Philadelphia is Alanna Shanahan, who comes from Johns Hopkins, where she was Vice Provost for Student Affairs after serving as the school’s AD from 2016-19. A lacrosse player at Penn as an undergrad, Shanahan spent 20 years at her Alma Mater, most recently as Deputy Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator from 2012-2016 and Executive Director of the Penn Relays from 2011 to 2016. (LINK)
Green Alert Take: The Ivy League might be at the forefront of conferences with woman athletic directors. Penn, Brown, Harvard and Yale's departments are all led by women. Princeton will be hiring a new AD but has had a woman at the top of its chart for the past seven years. Dartmouth, which will name a new permanent AD next year, was the first school in the Ivy League to have a woman athletic director when it selected Josie Harper for the position in 2002. She served in the role until 2009.
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When I worked in sports information back I seriously considered sending a letter to every SID in the country asking for information about student traditions at their schools. The thought was to write a book either with an entry from every school, or with the best traditions in the country. I never pulled the trigger on the idea.
Now the Internet has made collecting that information almost too easy. A website called Simplemost has posted a story headlined Weird Campus Traditions At American Colleges that includes entries from six of the eight Ivy League schools. Those traditions are:
Brown – Make Donut Run
Columbia – Orgo Night
Cornell – Dragon Day
Dartmouth – The Dartmouth Seven
Harvard – Primal Scream
Penn – Throwing Toast
Curious what those traditions are? CLICK HERE.
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EXTRA POINT
Several readers commented on the recent posting here about the Journeys Through Bookland series. In the same vein, the bookshelves here in the BGA World Headquarters home office also include a selection of much-loved books from The Childhood of Famous American Series, such as Daniel Boone, Boy Hunter.
I have wonderful memories of walking home from the library with books like Buffalo Bill, Boy of the Plains and George Washington, Boy Hunter. I loved those books – and could not get enough of the silhouette drawings. Over the years I've picked up a few of the old books and when I page through them I can't help but smile.
My absolute favorite book at that age wasn't from the "Boy" series, however. It was The Swamp Fox of the Revolution, the story of Francis Marion. I can't say for sure, but maybe it had something to do with this SONG.
