"Hey, manager--get me a chin strap--quick!"

Many students at the College are known as "hey manger," and little else. These athletic managers are usually quiet, unnoticed guys in a Crimson jacket who spend a great deal of time responding to commands. They are usually stereotyped as the flunkey water boys who delight in pending countless hours in the locker room and on the field becoming masters at various menial tasks.

Far from this typical high school image, the Harvard athletic manager is in reality an indispensible man who is equivalent to the business manager of a professional team. The manager's job is "to conduct the team's business to such a degree that the players and coaches are entirely free to concentrate on the competition."

Relieving the coach of administrative duties, the manager alone is responsible for business and travel arrangements, hotel reservations, transportation, meal plans, and other miscellaneous tasks necessary to keep the organization of the teams functioning smoothly.

When Crimson football coach John Yovicsin first came to Harvard he commented, "The work I did in the past is done by the managers here."

Managerial duties vary with each individual sport, of course but they do produce the same basic results in every instance: organization and coordination for the team.

But that is only half the story. In addition to the team, the individual managers benefit from their own work. They receive major and minor Varsity letters, according to their sports, in their junior and senior years. They also receive complimentary tickets to the games. But, most important of all, the managers receive valuable training in executive-type duties in handling details, people, and organization in general. In their freshman year, too, they learn the laws of competition first hand.

It is no wonder that Harvard athletic managers through the years have turned out to be extremely successful after graduation. Thomas B. Quigley '29, Crimson football physician for the last 20 years recently stated unequivocally, "I have never known one (a Harvard football manager) to do badly after graduation. They have all been successful on whatever field they have pursued."

Fascinated by the seeming truth that all Crimson athletic managers end up in Who's Who, on Wall St., or in a super air-conditioned office, Henry W. "Eskie" Clark '23 began a survey of Harvard managers, many of whom have already replied with autobiographical notes. (The completed report of the survey will be published in an Alumni Bulletin article next year.)

The findings thus far show some interesting facts. Of the former football managers, for example, one is the Under Secretary of State, another the president of a leading aircraft corporation, another the president of one of the largest chemical companies, and still another the legal counsel to Chiang Kai-shek. It is much the same story for managers in other sports.

Probably the most famous former manager is C. Douglas Dillon '31, presently Under Secretary of State and previously U.S. Ambassador to France. His long and distinguished record includes work in finance and banking in addition to politics.

Jack Fadden, Crimson football team trainer off-and-on since 1923 and trainer for the Boston Red Sox the past 11 years, recalls Dillon as a manager: "He was competent, easy to get along with, and an efficient organizer."

Dillon's name, which rings familiar to Crimson football fans who crowd around Dillon Field House after each game, is the son of Clarence D. Dillon '05, who in January, 1930, donated money for a field house to replace the old Soldiers Field Locker House. The situation is curious. As the CRIMSON reported:

"Before the ruins of the Soldiers Field Locker House had ceased smouldering yesterday morning after the disastrous fire late Tuesday night (Jan. 14). Clarence D. Dillon '05 telephoned from his home in New York to W. J. Bingham '16, director of athletics, his definite intention to donate a new field building to the University and suggested that construction begin at once."

(The CRIMSON article observed later. "Mr. Dillon's offer comes at most felicitous time, for the blaze threw the University's athletic facilities into a critical situation.")