TRADITION

 

 

 

. . . the newsletter of the Fordham College at Rose Hill Alumni Association

 

March 2003

 

Old (but significant) news.  Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, has become the first American theologian to be elevated to the College of Cardinals. Raised as a Presbyterian and at one time a self‑professed agnostic, Dulles is the son of former United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. “I consider this appointment important not only for me personally but, more importantly, for the Church,” says Dulles. “The Holy Father, always sensitive to the symbolic value of his actions, presumably wishes to convey a message. I take the message to be threefold: to emphasize the centrality of theology in the life of the Church; to encourage the Society of Jesus to pursue its theological mission; and to acknowledge the growing contribution of the North American scholarship.” Despite his elevation to cardinal, Dulles remains unassuming and committed to the University. “I have been abundantly blessed in my career as a teacher,” he said. “If Fordham owes me any kind of debt, that is outbalanced by my debt to Fordham. The University has given me a home, a library, an office, a position and a platform. Whatever honors I have received in the Church are, I think, directly the result of the opportunities afforded to me by Fordham.” After graduating from Harvard in 1940, Dulles attended Harvard Law School for a year and a half before being called to duty as an intelligence officer by the United States Naval Reserve. In 1945 the French Government awarded him the Croix de Guerre for his liaison work with the French Navy during World War II. Later in 1945, he contracted polio in Naples, Italy. When Dulles returned to the United States in 1946, he entered the Society of Jesus. His teaching career started as a Philosophy professor at Fordham in 1951. Dulles went on to serve on the faculty of Woodstock College and The Catholic University of America before returning to Fordham in 1988. He has held fifteen visiting professorships and numerous positions in theological organizations including the presidency of The Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society, which was founded by a group of Protestant theologians including his grandfather, Allen Macy Dulles, a distinguished Presbyterian theologian. Avery Dulles is presently a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. “In selecting Father Avery Dulles, S.J., to be the first U.S. Catholic theologian to become a Cardinal, Pope John Paul II has recognized the extraordinary contribution that Father Dulles has made to the life of the Church as the preeminent Catholic theologian in this country for nearly four decades,” said Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J., President of the University. The Holy Father also reminds us of the important service that the Catholic theologian, in communion with the Church, provides to the people of God by expanding our understanding of the content of our faith. Faith seeking understanding defines the mission of the theologian, even as it has consistently defined the life of Avery Dulles, whose intellectual integrity, fairness of judgment and lucidity of style set a high standard for all theologians. His many colleagues and friends at Fordham University and, most especially his Jesuit brothers in the Fordham community and around the world, rejoice with him and for him at this recognition of his life and work.”  The Holy Father also elevated Theodore McCarrick, a member of the Fordham College Class of 1954 and the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., to the rank of Cardinal.

 

A Quintet of Cardinals.  With the elevation of Avery Dulles and Ted McCarrick ’54 to the rank of Cardinal, Fordham is the only American university that can boast of five cardinals among its faculty and alumni.  Interestingly, when McCarrick served as prefect of the sophomore sodality while a student at The College, Dulles, then a Philosophy professor, was the moderator of the sodality.  Ted entered the seminary after his sophomore year at The College and was later ordained by Francis Cardinal Spellman ‘11, who had played second base for the Rams during his undergraduate days.  Terence Cardinal Cooke, who succeeded Cardinal Spellman as Cardinal Archbishop of New York, earned a graduate degree from the University in 1957. Of course, the fifth Fordham cardinal was “The Fordham Flash”, Frankie Frisch ‘20, who played second base for both the Rams and the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League and who was recently named to The Sporting News’ Team of the 100 Best Major League Baseball Players of All-Time.

 

The Mullarkey Chair.  Kim F. Hall, Ph.D., award‑winning author and Renaissance scholar, will be the first occupant of The Mullarkey Chair in English Literature, the University's first chair in the humanities, which was made possible by a generous gift from the late Thomas F. X. Mullarkey ‘54. “The addition of Kim Hall as the English department's first endowed chair bridges the historical divide between the early and late modern periods, enhancing the department’s strengths,” said Christopher GoGwilt, Ph.D., associate professor of English and department chairperson. Hall comes to Fordham from Georgetown University, where she was an associate professor of English specializing in Renaissance cultural, feminist and race studies. Her book, Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England (Cornell University Press: 1995), was named an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine. The book uses black feminist thought to examine early modern literary, visual and historical materials. Hall received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and her bachelor's degree in political science and English from Hood College in 1983. She is currently working on two books. The first is an edition of William Shakespeare's “Othello” and the other is titled A Taste of Empire: Women and Material Culture in Early Modern England, which examines the cultural effects of the sugar trade in 17th‑century England and its Caribbean colonies.


 

 

The 157th Commencement.  Retired AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald M. Levin delivered the keynote address to more than 3,600 graduates and their families and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters at the University’s 157th Commencement on May 18, 2002. Mr. Levin told the graduates and their families that, while technology is important, love and compassion create a better world. Despite rain that sent many graduates and their families scurrying, the commencement was a day of celebration, memory and hope. Levin told graduates to strive to love not only their families but also those who struggle daily to overcome hunger and poverty. “Each of us has not only a mind that can conceive of a world better than we have and haven’t,” said Levin. “We also have a heart that can show us how to seek that world.  And we have a will, a will that can enable us to try.” Levin explained to the graduates that technology is not enough to make us see the common humanity that binds together all the people of the world. “This sometimes cruel, often callous, always imperfect world of ours needs you very badly,” he said. “It needs the knowledge, the expertise that you have been getting here at Fordham. It needs your faith, your hope and hard work. Even more, it needs your love, your compassion and commitment to shine forth for all of us and show us how to live as well as survive.” University President Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J., told the graduates, “The years ahead will continue to be years of uncertainty. More than ever, we realize that we can neither predict nor control the future. But they will also be years of great opportunity and compelling moral challenges.” 

 

The University also awarded honorary degrees to Theodore Cardinal McCarrick ‘54, Archbishop of Washington, D.C. Cardinal McCarrick is well known as a champion for international human rights, religious freedom, and the rights of immigrants and the poor.  Prior to his move to Washington, McCarrick served as the Archbishop of Newark.  He is a member of the U.S. Commission on Human Rights and was on the U.S. Commission for the Study of International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development; John D. Feerick ‘58, the retired dean of Fordham Law School. Under Dean Feerick’s leadership, Fordham Law School enjoyed significant advances in the areas of diversification of the student body, curriculum development and national reputation and created the Stein Center for Law and Ethics and the Crowley Program in International Human Rights, and Sister Francesca Thompson, O.S.F., associate professor of African and African American studies, assistant dean/director for multicultural programs at Fordham and an accomplished scholar, lecturer, actor and director. Thompson, who has been a member of Fordham’s faculty and administration for 20 years, is the daughter of two founding members of the Lafayette Players -- the first black dramatic stock company in the United States. Sr. Francesca is a fourth term member of the nominating committee for Broadway’s Tony Awards.  She recently celebrated her 50th anniversary as a Religious Sister of St. Francis.

 

The Faculty. Donna Glitter, assistant professor of legal and ethical studies, presented the article “International Conflicts Over Patenting Human DNA Sequences in the United States and the European Union: An Argument for Compulsory Licensing and a Fair-Use Exemption” in India at the International Conference on Legal and Managerial Strategies for Dealing with Technological Explosion in the New Millennium, which was held at Pondicherry University. . . . Janusz Golec, associate professor of mathematics, recently published “Strong Approximation of Stochastic Integro-Differential Equations” in Dynamics of Continuous, Discrete and Impulsive Systems, Series B, 8 (2001). . . . Babette E. Babitch, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, gave a plenary address on “Nietzsche and Chaos” to the British Nietzsche Society of Cambridge University at a meeting organized around the theme of Nietzsche and science. . . . Lance Strate, associate professor of communication and media studies, reprinted his book chapter, “Beer Commercials: A Manual on Masculinity,” in Men’s Lives. . . . Deborah Burton, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor of music, wrote an article entitled “A Journey of Discovery: Puccini's ‘Motivo di Prima Intenzione’ and Its Applications in ‘Manon Lescaut, La Fancinlla del West’ and ‘Suor Angelica’,” which was published in Studi Musicali. . . . John R. Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of classics, published the article “Early Latin Handwriting and Plautus' Pseudolus” in The Classical Journal. . . . Susan C. Greenfield, Ph.D., associate professor of English, presented her paper, “The Absence of Mind; Or, Elizabeth Bennett Makes a Man.” The presentation explored the relationship between material uncertainty and the representation of the mind in the early English novel, suggesting that the genre often portrays knowledge and truth as objects of imagination.

 

The Last Acceptable Prejudice?  Hostilities toward Catholics in the United States date back to this country's founding and, some say, still persist today with anti‑Catholic commentary appearing on web sites, in art exhibits and on television. Catholics point to messages that compare Catholicism to Satanism on various web sites and works of art, such as that which recently appeared at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, as examples of anti‑Catholic expression. Fordham's Center for American Catholic Studies and Commonweal magazine set out to discuss charges of anti-Catholic bias and to distinguish bias from legitimate criticism during a conference titled “Anti‑Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice?” Many presenters drew on the historical roots of current prejudice against Catholics, while others questioned the prevalence of anti‑Catholic sentiment. Critics of the Church often cite hierarchical structure as a hindrance to human autonomy. According to research by Andrew Greeley, a priest, journalist and sociologist at the University of Arizona, 73 percent of Americans recently surveyed said they believe Catholics do what Church leaders tell them to do and 52 percent said Catholics are not permitted to think for themselves, opinions Catholics say are false. “Anti‑Catholicism is as American as Thanksgiving,” said Greeley. “It's bigotry to think that all Catholics take orders from [bishops].” Speakers cautioned the audience to make a distinction between prejudice and criticism because the Church is not without its faults. William A. Donohue, president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said that anti‑Catholicism today derives from “conflicting visions of liberty. In today's culture,” he said, “liberty is based on the unencumbered self and the notion that freedom is doing what one wants to do.” Donohue described the Catholic sense of liberty as counter-cultural because it urges people to do what they ought to do, giving them the freedom to act within a moral framework. Rounding out the diversity of definitions and opinions was Man Wolfe, the director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. Wolfe, the conference's last speaker, challenged the whole premise of anti‑Catholicism by putting it into perspective with other examples of religious bigotry. He cited the Mormons, who were ostracized for their religious convictions. He acknowledged that, since the United States was founded, there has been a strong strain of Catholic prejudice that has woven its way into public policies. However, the tremendous amount of religious conversions in this country and the growth of inter-religious marriages have tempered this prejudice. “Anti‑Catholicism,” Wolfe said, has a “history that is long gone in part because American religion has changed and America has changed.”

 

Congratulations to John Keane ‘66, an ROTC graduate, on his promotion to Lieutenant General and appointment as Chief of Staff of the United States Army. . . . Denzel Washington ’77 on winning the Academy Award in 2002 for Best Actor for his role in the movie Training Day. . . . Jack Potter ‘77 on his appointment as Postmaster General of the United States.

 

The University’s internet address is www.fordham.edu

 

 

 

 

100 Years of Fordham Basketball!  In January 1898, two years after Dr. James Naismith invented the game, Fordham added basketball as a student activity. According to The Centurion (the 1941 yearbook) from 1898 to 1902 informal games between teams representing the boarders and the day students were played in a small room in Hughes Hall “facetiously called the gymnasium.” In December 1902, the University appointed Arthur Hurley the first manager of basketball and scheduled intercollegiate games. While Rev. Raymond Schroth, S.J., ‘55 contends in Fordham: A History and Memoir that the Rams lost their first intercollegiate game to Brooklyn Poly, according to some, the Rams achieved immediate success -- both The Centurion and The Basketball Media Guide report that, on January 11, 1902, they won their first game against Westerleigh Collegiate 14-7. According to The Basketball Media Guide, the University appointed Jack McLaughlin the first full-time coach in 1903.

 

The University did not have a team in 1905 or 1909 or from 1915 through 1918. According to The Centurion, the reason The University did not field a team was that it had no adequate facility in which to play its games. Before 1925, the team played “home” games in a variety of venues – Dr. Savage’s Gymnasium, the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, the Eighth Coast Artillery Armory, the Hunt’s Point Palace and the Highridge Lyceum. Still, under a variety of coaches, the team posted winning records in each of its first fifteen seasons and did not suffer a losing record until its twenty-eighth intercollegiate season in 1934-35.

 

With the opening of The Rose Hill Gymnasium on January 16, 1925, the Rams found a home. In their first game in the Gym, under Coach Ed Kelleher, the Rams brought down Boston College by a score of 46-16 in a game officiated by Frankie Frisch ’20 and, in their first seventy-six seasons in the Gym, the Rams posted a home record of 527-253. In the 1926-27 season, Frank “Bo” Adams, an All-East guard, and Ed Dougherty ‘29, an All-Americas guard, led the Fordham “Wonder Five” to the Eastern Collegiate Championship. From February 1, 1928 to February 23, 1929, the Rams won twenty-four consecutive games, their longest winning streak. According to The Centurion, Jim Delaney, Nick Landers, Dan Reardon, Morgan Sweetman, Ralph Landry ‘24, Jim Manning ‘25, Tip O’Neill ‘25, Tommy Rohan ‘25, Jim Zakszewski ‘25, Johnny White ‘26, Vinnie Cavanaugh ‘27, Tom Leary ‘27 and Maurice Woods ‘28 starred for the Rams during this time. The Ram teams of the ‘30s and ‘40s, under Coaches Vinnie Cavanaugh ‘27, Ed Kelleher and Bo Adams, competed against tough competition and featured exceptional talent. Bobby Hassmiller ‘39 was a standout at center and Jerry Rizzo ‘40 starred at guard and forward. In 1940, Fordham played the University of Pittsburgh in the first-ever televised basketball game. In 1943, the Rams made their first appearance in the NIT in Coach Kelleher’s final season and a crowd of over 18,000 watched the Rams, led by George Babich ‘43, a center and three-sport athlete who turned down professional careers in baseball, basketball and football to become a professional wrestler, Bob Mullens ‘44, an All-Americas shooting guard, and Tony Karpowich ‘46, a forward, down Western Kentucky in the opening game. Dick Fitzgerald ‘42, a forward; Bob Mulvihill ‘47, a guard (and perhaps the best defensive player in Fordham basketball history); Johnny Bach, who was a first-round draft choice of the Boston Celtics, and Gerry Smith ‘49, a shooting guard, also starred for the Rams in the forties. Still, through the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s and into the fifties, while the program was very successful, the team was always the other sport at a football school and was often used to keep football players in shape during the off-season. City College, NYU, LIU and St. John’s were the predominant basketball programs in the metropolitan area during this time.

 

While Madison Square Garden became the preferred venue for college basketball games in the 1930s and 1940s, the Jesuits of Fordham were sensitive to allegations that gamblers were waging on college basketball games at that famous arena and the Rams rarely played there. Interestingly, when the basketball scandals of the fifties and sixties were revealed, the Rams were the only New York City area team that was not involved.  Jerry Moye ‘51, Bill Carlson ‘52 and Fred Christ ‘52 (who played professionally with the New York Knickerbockers for one year before pursuing a career as a physicist), continued the basketball tradition in the 1950s.

 

The Conlin Era  In 1953, Coach Johnny Bach ‘48 led the Rams to their first ever NCAA Tournament game. A year later, the Rams, featuring Ed Conlin ‘55, an All-Americas and Haggerty Award winning center, who was the best player ever to wear the maroon, and Dan Lyons ‘55, a forward, made it two consecutive NCAA Tournament seasons. But, when Lyons and Ed Parchinski ‘53 fouled out of the game, the Rams lost by two points in the first round to eventual national champion LaSalle. (LaSalle, which won every other game in the tournament by at least eight points, later praised the Rams as their toughest opponent.) (Conlin won the Team MVP award that year 11-1 and, when one admiring fan praised him for voting for another player for the award, Ed jokingly shot back, “Are you kidding? I’m still trying to find out who the dummy was that didn’t vote for me.”) The Rams returned to the NIT under Coach Bach in 1958, 1959, 1963, 1968 and 1969. Jim Cunningham ‘58, an All-Americas and Haggerty Award winning small forward, John Brady ‘59, a lefty shooting forward, John Andariese ‘60, a forward, the M&M Boys (Bob Melvin ‘63, a shooting guard, and Jim Manhardt ‘64, a shooting guard), John Stevens ‘65, a center, and Billy Langheld ‘68, a shooting guard, starred for the Rams during these seasons. Coach Ed Conlin ‘55 took over the team in 1968 and took the Rams back to the NIT. (During a practice before the NIT, Coach Conlin became upset with one of the players he had recruited, Charlie Yelverton ‘71, because Yelverton had shown up at 5:55 p.m. for a 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. practice, but Charlie defended himself, “But Coach, you said practice would be five to six!”).

 

The Cindrella Season.  Perhaps the Rams’ most successful season came unexpectedly in 1970-71 when Richard “Digger” Phelps coached a team of athletes (recruited by Coaches Bach and Conlin) to a 26-3 record and the Eastern Regional Championship of the NCAA. Charlie Yelverton (an All-Americas and Haggerty Award winning shooting guard and the most athletic player ever to take the court for the Rams), Billy Mainor ‘71, Jack Burik ‘71, Tom Sullivan ‘72 (a Haggerty Award winning center), George Zambetti ‘72 (an Academic All-Americas forward) and Kenny Charles ‘73 (an All-Americas scoring guard) starred that season. The team, which packed capacity crowds into Madison Square Garden and every other arena in which they played, was ranked seventh in the nation in the end of season Associated Press poll. But, after the season, to the outrage of alumni (and all right thinking individuals), Phelps departed Rose Hill for a position at a university in the Midwest administered by the Fathers of the Holy Cross.

 

The mid to late 1970s.  A year later, the Rams under Coach Hal Wissel, the only person with a doctoral degree ever to coach the team, were back in the NIT.  In 1974-75, the Rams with Darryl Brown ‘75, an Academic All-Americas center, broke to a 7-1 start and won the Holiday Festival Championship at Madison Square Garden but, although the Rams won their 1,000th game, injuries disrupted the remainder of the season. The Rams struggled badly under Coach Dick Stewart in the late 1970s,

 

The MAAC.  The Rams regained their winning ways in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the 1980s under Coach Tom Penders.  Penders’ teams appeared in five consecutive NITs from 1980-81 to 1984-85. Dud Tongal ‘82, a center, David Maxwell ‘83, an All-Americas guard, and Tony McIntosh ‘85, a guard, led the Rams during these seasons.

 

The Patriot League.  In 1987, the University brought in Coach Nick Macarchuk to re-establish a top-40 basketball program, but then, in a move endorsed by TRADITION, committed to the non-scholarship Patriot League. Stars of this era included Joe Paterno ‘89 (a shooting guard, who led the Rams to the NIT); Danny O’Sullivan ’90 (a center); Damon Lopez ‘91 (a center who led the Rams to the Patriot League Championship and the Second Round of the NIT); Freddy Herzog ‘92 (a forward), and Jean Prioleau ‘92 (a shooting guard with a knack for making three point shots to win games at the buzzer) who combined with Herzog to lead the Rams to the Patriot League Championship and brought them back the NCAAs.

 

The Atlantic 10.  In 1995, as the University struggled to find its sports identity, it shifted the basketball program (and all sports except football) to the high profile Atlantic-10 Conference. But, while the University has attempted to position the program for success, despite the best efforts of Bevon Robin ‘01 (a shooting guard), the team has not yet excelled in the Atlantic-10.

 

In the first decade of the last century, the Rams won 70% of their games, 64% in the teens, 76% in the twenties, 61% in the thirties, 57% in the forties, 62% in the fifties, 52% in the sixties, 42% in the seventies, 56% in the eighties and 44% in the nineties and in this century 17.8%. In their hundred years of intercollegiate competition, the Rams have recorded 1426 victories (sixteenth best in the nation) and 1073 defeats.

 

The All-Time Team. In celebration of 100 years of quality Men’s basketball, TRADITION announces its All-Time All-Fordham Men’s team: Ed Dougherty ‘29, Bob Mullens ‘44, Ed Conlin ‘55, Jim Cunningham ‘58, Charlie Yelverton ‘71, Kenny Charles ‘73 and Darryl Brown ‘75. Johnny Bach ‘48, the winningest coach in Fordham history and now a coach with Michael Jordan’s Washington Wizards, coaches the team.

 

The football tradition continues! In 1999, Coach Dave Clawson’s first year on Rose Hill, the football Rams were 0-11. This year, Coach Clawson’s fourth, the Rams, captured their first Patriot League championship, competed in the Division I-AA playoffs, earned a number 12 national Division I-AA ranking and finished the season 10 and 3! The League selected Coach Clawson as Patriot League Coach of the Year (for the second consecutive year) and selected running back Kirwin Watson ’04, who won his second consecutive league rushing title, as Offensive Player of the Year. Watson joined fourteen Rams on the first and second all-league teams, including quarterback Kevin Eakin ’04, wide receiver Javarus Dudley ’04, who led the league in receptions, and place kicker and punter Matt Fordyce ’03, who was the only player in the league to be named to the first team at two positions. Watson and Fordyce also earned ECAC I-AA All-Star honors, Watson was a finalist for The Walter Payton Award as the outstanding player in Division I-AA football, the Associated Press named Watson a Division I-AA All-Americas and “The American Football Monthly” magazine named Coach Clawson the national 2002 Schutt Sports Coach of the Year in Division I-AA. Said Clawson, “We have to feel good about our program. . . . The expectations are now high for Fordham football.” The Fordham football Rams, who began intercollegiate competition in 1886, have won 706 games in their 104 years of varsity competition (fourteenth best in the nation)! TRADITION congratulates the team, Coach Clawson, the Department of Athletics and the entire University on their hard-earned accomplishments and the re-establishment of a football program on Rose Hill.

 

The Sports Page.   The University has remodeled the historic Rose Hill Gymnasium.  The Gym, which opened on January 16, 1925, was once renowned for its spaciousness. Now it is the oldest facility in the country being used by an NCAA Division I school. As part of the remodeling, the University has installed new lighting, new heating, new scoreboards, a new sound system, new bleachers, a new roof and translucent windows.  In addition, through the generosity of Bill Burke ‘65 and his wife, Terry, the University has opened a Vietnam Veteran’s Room in the gym.  The room serves as the meeting and film room for both the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. The Burkes felt it was important for the University and Fordham’s teams to remember those alumni who served in the Vietnam War, many of whom did not return. . . . Former Ram basketballer William “Smush” Parker ’04, who left Fordham for the NBA draft after only his second year, is now a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.

 

The Book Review.  Readers may enjoy Fordham: The Early Years (Fordham University Press: 1998), a collection of essays edited by the Rev. Thomas Hennessy, S.J., and Fordham: A History and Memoir (Loyola Press: 2002) by the Rev. Raymond Schroth, S.J., ‘55.

 

The Restaurant Review. The Princeton Review rates the food served on the Rose Hill campus as the sixth worst in the nation based on students’ assessment of campus food.

 

RAMembrance. Col. John F. Manning ‘41 vividly remembers his first week at Fordham back in 1937.  “The first day they rounded us all up and gave us all a stupid thing called a beanie,” said Manning. “You couldn't get into class unless you wore that thing. God, I hated it, but the Jesuits were trying to instill a sense of discipline in us through those beanies.”  While most of the freshmen hated wearing the Fordham‑logoed skullcaps, they grew to love the sense of camaraderie that developed that day and the friendships that were cemented throughout the years.  “Fordham taught me a lot of things and I am who I am because of Fordham,” said Manning. “All of the fellows I associated with, all four years at Fordham, were top tier ‑ some of the finest men in the United States. And my professors taught me the fundamentals of subjects like biology ‑ which I haven't forgotten today ‑ but also taught me life lessons. For that I will always be grateful.” . . . Leo B. Connelly ‘ 51 says he was a nervous 16‑year‑old when he walked past the wooden barracks on campus that were used by the army during World War II, and into his first class at Rose Hill.  “I was nervous because of the anticipation that a lot of guys in our class would be veterans who were much older than I was,” he said. “Sure enough, seating was done alphabetically, as it always was back then, and I was seated between a 25‑year‑old and 26‑year‑old. It was quite a change from high school.  But the Jesuits didn't waste any time on getting us going and we got assignments right off the bat.”  To Connelly's surprise, after the last class that day, the veterans went out with the other students.  “We got along right away,” he said. “I've wondered if the vets figured that if they wanted help they'd better get to know the kids.”

 

TRADITION: Minister of Propaganda: George P. McKeegan ‘69; Conspirators: James Conway ‘33, Edward B. Leahey, Sr., M.D. ‘41, Nick O’Neill ‘55, Jack Walton ‘72, Elizabeth B. Kane ‘90, Catherine E. McKeegan ‘99 and Matthew M. Viveiros ‘01.