Only two men, Joe Murphy and John Bronk (the "Bronk"), a former trainer, claim to have worked the speedometer on the up-hill stationary bicycle up to fifty miles an hour, but many a bored athlete of renown has spent hours toiling along at 10 m.p.h. to limber up a stiff muscle.
When Jim Cox, the head trainer, first came to the Dillon Field House he found that the training room was more of a recreation center than a medical station and that his charges, led by Kevorkian, much preferred a water-fight to a massage. After a struggle, order and a workman-like atmosphere were restored and horseplay put in its place, to break forth only occasionally, as when Torby MacDonald put a missile through one of the windows during a recent tape-ball fight.
The training room is only one part of a very elaborate organization at the Dillon Field House. The facilities for cleaning, repairing, and dispensing equipment are an industry in themselves and find no counterpart in any other American college.
Equipment Secured
Every day bale upon bale of towels, sweatshirts, football togs, underwear, and other equipment is dumped into three huge machines in a University laundry whose equal only the Army can boast. Two barrels of soap even larger than the one John Hawkins hid in are consumed every week in washing the equipment; plenty of "sour" is added to spike any and all odors; and the bleach removes stains and discoloring.
Frank Consentino, who has been in the shoe business for 20 years, though he is only 28 years old, and who boasts that he is a member of the third generation of living shoemakers, runs the repair shop. Frankie prides himself not only on a complete array of modern repairing machines, but also on his own many inventions fitted to the specific needs of athletic equipment.
Frankie Turns Cleats
Before the repair shop invented a special machine for turning cleats University used to provide two pairs of football shoes for every man, one equipped with mud cleats, and the other with standard shot ones. Now Frankie can switch cleats on the shoes of the entire squad within an hour if the weather man predicts rain.
The equipment room, which is under the genial direction of Jim Farrell, makes a policy of never being short on anything. At the start of the season this year 120 pigskins were waiting to be inflated whenever any of the numerous teams needed one. Javelins are stocked row on row, and there are enough shots to weary the muscles of every putter in Harvard. Besides this Jim sees to it that enough clothes are on hand to provide every athletic with a complete change of shirt, underwear, and shorts every two days.