Great Candidates
Fred Bradley is FREDERICK BRADLEE from the early part of the 20th
century. All-America football player in college.
time: a runner when Cross Country was NOT an SM sport (but won all the
school races, intramural long distance "runs", interschool track
competitions, etc.). Earned Varsity letters as a fast, base-stealing,
run-scoring outfielder for SM. Played one year of Freshman Baseball at
Harvard BUT the Spanish-American War intervened. Volunteered. Served
with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and saw action at San Juan Hill.
Returned to school after the Cuban campaign. Became a lawyer. In 1917, at the age of 41, under no obligation to serve, he
re-enlisted, and as second-in-command of the legendary "Lost
Battallion" in WWI he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. A successful finance lawyer after the war, he continued to support the
soldiers who had served with him during the difficult days of the
Great Depression. He died in 1958. And he always ran (long before
recreational running was fashionable). I've always been a big fan of both Fish Benjamin (19th century) and
Tracy Giles (late 20th) for what the accomplished as athletes at SM.
The question would be: what did they do after? Potter Palmer and Cas DeRham are GREAT CANDIDATES (especially as they
are still with us, I hope) J.R. Lowell '47 (was he the poet?) Devvy Hamlen another interesting choice. John Pickering was also a Cross Country star at SM, and was very much
involved with Brantwood Camp for a time after he graduated. I think Chris Allen would be a terrific choice-- hockey star and
goalie for an undefeated varsity soccer team. Terrific person (and my
classmate). Please-- the list has mixed up two Bill Barbers. The record-setting
Trinity baseball player (and shortstop at St. Mark's when masters
could play) was W. W. Barber, sr., teacher at SM from the 1880s into
the 20th century. The 20-year hockey coach was Bill Barber, Jr.,
headmaster from 1948-1966 or so. As a former teacher of both Allie Pendleton and Tori Fazen (when they
were at Fay) I support their candidacies. Special thoughts: some events (inventing of the catcher's mask;
undefeated or championship seasons; first-ever situations); some
individuals (record-setters, league MVPs, etc.); and some families
(Barbers, Halls, Bradlees-- multi-generational SM athletes); along,
perhaps, w/some coaches, could go in "automatically", w/pictures and
descriptions, one-step removed from those who meet all the during SM
and after criteria. Just an idea. I did something like this informally
in '06, I think it was. The framed pictures/displays should still be
around somewhere. we should be inducting at least one old (pre-1920) athlete candidate,
one living male athlete candidate (older), and one living female
candidate each year, in a class of five or six. Coaches-- Both Barbers, Jake McCandless, Porky Clark, and Henry Large
are all great candidates. Although he has been a head coach from time
to time (football and basketball for a few years each, baseball for
longer) Henry actually holds the SM record for most seasons ever
coached, if you count his time as an assistant coach. Some of the very
early women's coaches should also be recognized (I think I did this in
my '06 displays). Finally-- I think the idea of Ben Dillingham is a good one, but maybe
he and I should go in together (if today's rules had been in place
from 1974-1976, I would have earned more varsity letters than any
other SM manager before or since-- today you get a letter for each
season you manage: back then you had to manage for two years before
you lettered... I earned one football, two wrestling, and one baseball
letter-- today that would have been 2 FB, 3 WL, and 2 BB, for 7 total,
which would have made me the first and only non-player to receive the
whatever it's called multi-letter outstanding service SM sports
award). Ah, well.
