The people who knew him appreciated this concern more than anything else, and almost everybody who spent any amount of time down at Dillon invited Jimmy to his wedding. Every June there were usually a couple of days when he had two or three invitations.

One recent example of his loyalty stands out. When the hockey team went out to St. Louis over Christmas, Jimmy heard that Bill Grant, a former football captain, was over in Vietnam as a doctor. Without telling anyone, he rented a car, and visited Grant's wife and children. "I wouldn't have felt right without letting them know that I was thinking about Bill and what they were going through," he said.

One of Jimmy's greatest admirers was Jack Fadden, a former trainer for the Boston Red Sox who has been working with Harvard for many years. "Jimmy is one of the last of a dying breed of men who truly loved Harvard," Fadden said. "Back in the days when the Athletic Association ran the entire sports program, the administrators and the workmen all knew each other, and they were working towards a common goal, President Lowell would come down almost every day to watch the team practice. He knew all the workmen, and would often talk with them about the players."

"When something came up, everyone worked overtime to get the job done. Working for Harvard athletics was more like belonging to a family. I guess things have just gotten too big around here for that type of relationship, but Jimmy kept the tradition alive," Fadden said.

Jimmy Cunniff's greatness was illsuited for this age. He did nothing that made front page news, and he wouldn't have done well on a TV talk show. As a result, thousands of people in the Harvard community never heard of him. And yet, more than anyone else, he personified the Christian tradition on which this university was founded.

"You had to identify with what this man was trying to do." McGugan said, "and he left behind an ideal." That ideal was simplicity and innocence, and all the traits that come from it like honesty, integrity and generosity.

"He was humble, and he put everyone else before himself." McGugan said. "And though he didn't know it, he embodied everything that he wanted the Harvard man to be."