There were lots of jerseys down at Dillon--red Kirkland jerseys, green Leverett jerseys, and lots of sweatpants and sneakers, too. The occasion was the House cross-country race and House managers had scraped up enough soccer players, off-season track men, and J.V. runners to form the requisite five-man squads. In all, perhaps 70 people clustered about the starting line.

"The thing about running is that it hurts," one of the "pro's" told his teammates. "It's going to hurt anyway, so you might as well run harder." There was a lot of talk about not being able to run the two miles and how little sleep each runner had had the night before.

"We have a new course this year," Adolph Samborski told the assembly. "You follow the fence until you reach Gate 12, then run along the outside until you reach Gate 18. There'll be someone there to direct you. Then you run across to the track and finish up there." Then Mr. Samborski good-naturedly got out of the way, and the race commenced.

The runners strung out in a long line along the Soldiers Field fence, and far in front bobbed the red and green and blue jerseys. So far in front were the jerseys that it took a less speedy, but more enterprising runner to discover that Gate 12 was closed and that a third of the race had passed it by. With a motion both swift and efficient, this hero swung open Gate 12, giving those behind him a "second wind," to coin a phrase.

The red, green, and blue jerseys wheeled in their tracks and started out after the new leaders. From there on, it was a handicap race between the fortunate slow and the unfortunate fast with a lot of teeth-gnashing along the way.

Kirkland's Al Percy, the man who discovered the closed gate, won the race. Those originally ahead of him did as well as they could; one stalwart reportedly finished fifth, despite his quarter-mile handicap. But Kirkland House won the team competition, with 30 points. Dunster followed with 58.