For Love of the Game An Appreciation of Tom Parr ... - Hopkins School

Message from the Head of School
Dear Friends,
As I write, Hopkins students and faculty have just
returned from the traditional Spring break, refreshed and,
given the energy level on campus, apparently ready for
the challenges that come with the last months of a
school year. Over the next eight weeks, and in addition
to their “usual” academic endeavors, students at all
levels will participate —and, as we have come to expect,
excel—in national exams in math, and in modern and
classical languages and literature. They will recite poetry,
and enter final competitions with their math and physics
teams; they will take Advanced Placement tests in twentyfour
different subjects. Hopkins is, as we have come to
say, a supremely academic place; but it is, of course,
more than that.
This issue of Views from the Hill reminds us that another
dimension of life at Hopkins “plays out” on fields and
tracks, and on courts and courses—for athletics remain
essential to a Hopkins education. Here, the principle of a
sound mind in a sound body—mens sana in corpore
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sano—persists and is more important today than ever.
The School’s athletic program includes fifty
interscholastic teams in eighteen sports, as well as a
plethora of individual and informal athletic activities. The
fundamental idea of healthy exercise for all our students
is augmented at Hopkins by exposure to the virtues of
discipline, determination and teamwork, and the
development of character which, in athletics, we call
sportsmanship.
None of this is new at our school. In fact, it was Walter
Camp, Hopkins Class of 1876, who brought intelligence,
strategy and rules to the game that came to be known as
American football. It was Walter Camp who combined
the word “scholar” with the word “athlete,” and with that
hyphenation defined one of the enduring ideals of the
secondary school world. Like today’s Hopkins students,
Walter Camp combined athleticism and imagination with
integrity; he gave us what is still a good working model of
a fully integrated life.
In addition to defining the scholar-athlete, Walter Camp
also provided the model for the teacher-coach, those
adults whose lessons are taught both in the classroom
and on the playing fields. There is, I am happy to say, an
abundance of inspired and inspiring teacher-coaches at
Hopkins. The articles that follow pay special tribute to
Tom Parr, Athletic Director and Varsity Football Coach,
who is in his 25 th year at Hopkins. Along with the entire
School community, I add my own thanks to Tom for his
dedication to our mission, his emphasis on hard work
and teamwork, and his special way of instilling the
primacy of sportsmanship in all of his coaches and
athletes.
Sincerely,
Barbara M. Riley