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ALUM
THE
ROCHESTER
I-ALUMNAE REVIEW
December 1942 - January 1943
Published by-monthly, August and September excepted
To All Graduates in Uniform:
Your civilian classmates send you greetings for 1943.
Their good wishes follow you, wherever you may be;
and also their prayers that God will guard you in danger,
grant you an early victory, and bring you safely home.
--R--
Our First Casualty
This is an appropriate time, perhaps, to revise and
correct an editorial written in 1938 whenJohn Field, '35,
was killed in Spain, fighting with the Loyalist forces.
At that time we wrote:
"... Johnny Field died in a stranger's quarrel. He
died in his own personal crusade, opposing a force and
an idea that he believed menaced the welfare of the
world. We cannot condemn, but must rather envy, the
final logic of his idealism. So few of us have loyalties,
far removed from our own personal interests, that we
are willing to die for. Johnny Field did have. He must
have known ... that he was to fight for a losing if not a
lost cause."
In the light of what has happened since 1938, it is
apparent that John Field was the first lonely volunteer
in a war that now sears the whole world. His enemies
in 1938-the Axis powers that aided in the crushing of
the Spanish Loyalists-are our enemies now. His perception
was keener than ours. He recognized those enemies
sooner than we did.
It was no lost cause for which he died, no stranger's
quarrel. Johnny Field should have a place, and an honored
place, on the University's list of casualties in this
second World War.
--R--
Something to Remember
The history-making Yellowjacket eleven, coached by
Dud DeGroot and Bill Hubbard, trampled Hobart 59 to 0
on November 14th to win seven of eight games and run
its 1942 scoring to 242 points, 72 above the best previous
record.
The Varsity closed the year with one of the best defensive
records in the country, permitting only Amherst
to cross its goal line, while Union salvaged a two-point
safety from the wreckage of a 40 to 2 defeat.
Sophomore Jim Secrest, elected co-captain of the 1943
Varsity (if any) along with Casey Scholar Irv Baybutt,
won the touchdown crown as the East's high scorer by
galloping twenty-two times across enemy goal stripes.
Jim packed most of his scoring punches into the final
four games, against Hamilton, Allegheny, Union, and
Hobart; he rang up six touchdowns in the Hobart game
alone, and added a point after touchdown, to send his
total to 133 points. Until he broke away for five scoring
bursts against Hamilton at Clinton, Galloping Jim had
amassed only four touchdowns.
He carried the ball 117 times during the season, according
to the statistics demons, and showed a net gain
of 1,002 yards, an average of 8.5 yards. The backfield
had a wealth of ball-carrying talent in 1942, advancing
2,254 yards by rushing in the eight games, with Co­
Captains Dick Secrest and Dick (Moose) Kramer; Sophomores
Bob Murphy and Frank Walter sharing honors
with the younger Secrest. The Varsity had air power
too; with Moose Kramer doing most of the pitching, it
completed forty-seven passes in 121 attempts, a percentage
of 38. Opponents completed only 28 per cent of their
total passes, the brilliant Rochester defense holding the
airline assaults of its rivals well in check.
Grandstand experts had emphatic praise this fall for
Rochester's rugged line, which was outweighed in many
contests but never outplayed. The forwards showed the
form that one might expect from a group that had had
three years of DeGroot teaching; and that, of course, is
just about as emphatic a compliment as can be paid.
The season's single defeat, at the hands of Amherst,
lost some of its sting when the Lord Jeffs went on to
finish their fall campaigns undefeated, whipping the
powerful Williams team to annext the Little Three
championship. Williams itself, of course, had had a
1;>rilliant season, beating Princeton in its opening game
and bowling over all other opponents until it faced
Amherst. Lou Alexander, who saw the Rochester­
Amherst game, said on his return to Rochester that
Amherst was strong enough in 1942 to hold its own not
only against its Little Three rivals, but against the Big
Three. Comparative scores can be used to prove practically
any thing; they certainly show, however, that the
Rochester Yellowjackets, who outplayed the Amhersts
only to lose the decision, could probably have made a
creditable showing against many of the big-name teams
this past season.
The material was good, but the coaching was superlative.
It is only necessary to go back to the gloomy years
prior to 1940, to seasons in which hapless Rochester
teams were battered week after week by almost uniformly
victorious foes, to realize what the DeGroot-
DECEMBER 1942-JANUARY 1943 IS