New York Military Academy - Shrapnel Yearbook (Cornwall on Hudson, NY)

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Wivvln ,LX AX 'Peg-V' PARENTS' DAY AT CORNWALL Some of the sixteen hundred persons who attended in 1959. the Hearst Trophy Match, and finished second in the Na- tional lntercollegiate Championship. The year 1952 was also notable for the fact that it marked the founding of an award second in importance only to that of being Head Boy . Set up by the New York Military Academy Alumni Association, the Achieve- ment Alumni Award is presented each year to that mem- ber of the graduating class who has been in attendance for at least three full school years, nominated by his class- mates and finally selected by a board consisting of the President of the Alumni Association, the Headmaster and the Commandant of Cadets. The winner is chosen for his strength of character, record of broad scholarship, athletic interest and ability, military efficiency and discipline, and for having done most to increase and maintain the spirit and morale of the Corps during his period at the school. The Grst cadet to have his name inscribed on the large tablet hanging in the hall of the academic building was Albert Hutton, jr., '52, The award has taken its place among the coveted honors that N.Y.M.A. can bestow. QA special page in this book is devoted to the winners of the ACHIEVEMENT ALUMNI AWARD., In the following school year, all sports lagged. The football team sounded the keynote by tying two games and losing the other seven on its schedule. The varsity basket- ball team was discontinued altogether, and intramural games substituted. Among the spring sports, the baseball team dropped six out of seven contests and the lacrosse team lost five out of six. This was a most active year among the alumni. Led by its president, Sanford Treat, '15, the Alumni Association staged a New Enrollment Campaign in 1933, which ma- terially increased the membership. There were also numer- ous meetings in various parts of the country throughout the year, with the result that a record crowd of Old Boys turned out for the commencement program in June. Page Tlairiy-fire

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M. - .. - Wuxi! .... ... .. .... participate in the Mother's Day week-end program at the Academy was successfully inaugurated on May 13, 1928. About sixty fathers visited Cornwall at this time and it was decided to continue the custom. The program has since been combined with the annual Spring Dance and in 1939, sixteen hundred people attended. Alumni Day was celebrated at the Academy on June 2, and was featured by the presentation by the Alumni As- sociation of portraits of former Superintendents Jones and Davis. At the same time it was announced that a Havana chapter of the Alumni Association had been formed with George L. Childs, '17, as its president. Swimming continued to hold the athletic spotlight in the following year. The sport was received with great enthusiasm and a strong team recruited from the large squad. Led by a previously unheralded freshman, Eric Blevin, '29, the team won eight out of eleven dual meets during the 1928-29 season. Blevin accounted for 78 points, twice as many as scored by any of his teammates, and set new records for the 50- and 100-yard races. He also swam on the record-breaking relay team. Hockey was revived for the first time since 1918, but early indications of plenty of ice were not fulfilled, and the team suffered from lack of practice. The cadets did their best to form a good team, but absence of a competent coach also proved an insurmountable handicap, as they lost all four games on the hastily arranged schedule. Cadet journalists put in an extremely active year. The Ramble, with Albert Brown, '29, as editor-in-chief, set a new record with sixteen issues in the course of the year, and its board was instrumental in obtaining a charter for a chapter of Quill and Scroll, national honorary society for secondary school journalists. The Shrapnel board decided to decorate the 1929 edi- tion with a central art theme and chose as the subject Famous Military Heroes. For the first time in its history, all material in the book was protected by copyright. The Ramble continued the good work in the following year by entering an issue in a national competition for scholastic newspapers, and carrying off first prize in the military school division. More art work was used than in previous years, and other changes were made under the di- rection of Managing Editor Frank Specht, '31. Swimmers again stole the center of the stage from con- testants in older sports during 1929-30. Captain Bill Le- veen, '30, of Woodhaven, L. I., paced the natators by scor- ing 70 points single-handed in the sprints while the team was bowling over eight straight opponents in dual meets. The team also established four new pool records in the course of its highly successful season. Baccalaureate sermons are not usually considered excit- ing by graduating classes, but that delivered at the Acad- emy on june 1, 1930 was attended raptly by every person present. The speaker was Sergeant Alvin C. York, World War hero, the perfect man to get and hold the attention of any group of military school cadets. For the world at large the opening of the fourth dec- ade of the twentieth century was marked by economic tur- moil, a condition unreflected by the course of affairs at the New York Military Academy. Here, young men were be- ing trained in more fundamental values than those that govern the world of finance. Organized dramatics had disappeared from the campus for several years, but were revived in 1930 when the cadets presented an extravaganza called Yea Furlough . This first production was such an immense success that it became an annual feature for the next seven years, and Yea Furlough became a sort of generic name for all productions, with a sub-title designating the particular performance. So-called minor sports produced the best teams. The sharpshooters of the rifle team won twenty-tW0 out of twenty-seven matches and carried off the Second Corps Area championship in a four-cornered match with Man- lius, Bordentown and LaSalle Academies. The swimmers lost only one meet in eight and that one, against Evander Childs High School, was not decided until the relay, final event of the day. Bob Fleischer, '31, of Hartford, captained the rifle team while the Spechr brothers, Frank and Ralph, of West Point, divided the duties of leading the swimmers. Included in the graduating class of 1931 was a cadet who compiled what is probably the greatest individual record since the Academy opened its doors in 1889. Louis Red Grower, '31, of Paterson, N. J., won just about every honor which the school could give him. He won his let- ters in every varsity sport during his last two years in school and was awarded the gold star of the Distinguished Cadet. In his senior year he was also awarded the Laidlaw Athletic Cup, the French Gold Medal, the Neatness and Order Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. Rifle and track once more dominated the sports scene in 1932, although the baseball team won nine out of ten games under the leadership of Captain C. Gordon Whitey Wagner, '32. The trackmen, however, did not lose a single meet of the six in which they took part, and the relay quartet won its event every time out. joe Costa, track cap- taing james Dickerson, Donald Betts and Arthur Dunn, all '32, made up the relay team. Herbert Seeley, '32, captained the rifle team through the most active season in its history. The team won fifty- five dual matches while losing only four, retained the Second Corps Area title, took first and second places in Page Thirty-four

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,, Q92 'Ulllli - ...im V ...A Much of this interest carried over and through the scholastic term of 1933-34. The Spring Hop and Parents' Day program attracted the unprecedented number of 1,300 parents and alumni with a consequent overflowing of all possible accommodations in or near Cornwall. Academy officials added impetus to this alumni interest by announc- ing, at the 1934 commencement, that only N.Y.M.A. graduates would be asked to make the principal address at this ceremony from that time on. The address of that year was given by Lieutenant Colonel deRubio, of the class of 1894. Highlights in sports for 1934 were an undefeated track team, captained by Philip Brooks, '35, and the Academy's first boxing tournament. Boxing had been a compulsory ex- ercise from the early years of the school, but there never previously had been any formal competition, either inter- scholastic or intramural. Lieutenant Edwin johnson, pro- fessor of military science, originated the idea and carried it to such a successful conclusion that the tournament has now become an annual fixture. The first tournament not only drew a large entry but also attracted, as a spectator, every cadet who was not en- tered. The finals were staged with regulation ring, seconds, and all the rest of the paraphernalia of the sport. The fol- lowing champions were crowned: Junior School-Frank Erickson, Jr., '34, and Vernon Landon, Jr., '34, flyweight- John Cassidy, '39, featherweight-Courtland Young, '36, lightweight-Raymond LaRose, '35, Welterweight-joseph Kohout, '36, middleweight-Vincent Lupo, '36, heavy- weight-Donald Ward, '36. The month of November ended at midnight with the Corps divided. Some were far down the jersey coast while the remainder were holding the fortress at Corn- wall. Little wonder that there was uneasiness and ex- citement in the air that night. The Corps divided . . . never before had it been. -The Shrapnel, 1935. War again? The cadets called out to help defend the country against a grim invader? Hardly. November 30, 1934, was the day before the first football game between N.Y.M.A. and Admiral Farragut Academy at Atlantic City and the gridiron squad had left a day early in order to get in some practice at the auditorium there. Next morning marked the beginning of an orgy the like of which had never been witnessed at the Academy before. Relieved of the rigors of the usual daily schedule, the Corps sat down to breakfast at 9:30 A.M. and gorged itself on steak and potatoes, an experience in itself to be long remembered. Then came the march to the special train and the loading of the entire student body and faculty. The ride on the train was satisfactory for awhile but the amusement facilities were limited, and the boys were glad to reach the Jersey coast resort in the late afternoon. Dinner finished, the cadets marched off to the audi- torium and took part in the almost endless ceremonies which preceded the football game itself. The battle was a fitting climax to the full day, however, as the teams fought on even terms through more than three quarters, and then it was N.Y.M.A. which made the only score of the game. Mickie Lowell, '35, tossed a 40-yard forward pass to Don Ward late in the final period to set the stage for the touchdown, and crossed the goal line himself a few plays later to bring victory to Cornwall. The tired but deliriously happy cadets had another thrill on the return journey the next day. When their train pulled into jersey City they found themselves cheek-by- jowl with the West Point train and, says Shmpnel, it was they who looked up to us for having accomplished a task which they had failed to do-that of whipping Navy. February, 1935, found the Academy in the throes of another epidemic, but this one was more annoying than serious, for the majority of the Corps had contracted-of all things-German Measles. West Barracks was called into service as an emergency hospital, and student activities were at an almost total standstill for a long time. There was little lingering in bed by convalescents, however, as the epidemic threatened cancellation of the Midwinter Hop, a catastrophe beyond imagining. Fortunately, the Corps lost its spots in time so that the Hop was delayed only a week from its originally scheduled date. Spring sports were featured by the performances of two undefeated teams-track and tennis. Phil Brooks led the trackmen through six dual meets in which the Ny- manians were never pressed. Jack Devereaux, '35, and Bill Smallwood, '35, served as co-captains of the racqueteers in their all-victorious drive against seven opponents. Pough- keepsie High School presented the only team to give the cadets a close fight. An impressive and romantic ceremony-that of the Ring-became a part of traditional life at the Academy at the Spring Dance of 1936. Copied from similar ceremonies at West Point and Annapolis, the rite now marks a high point in the junior year of every cadet. The juniors choose their class rings in advance of the date of the Spring Dance and a gigantic replica of the ring is then constructed and mounted on a low platform in the gymnasium. At a given signal the senior class, each man with his feminine companion, forms an aisle through which each junior and the girl of his choice walks to the Ring. Each couple mounts the tiny platform and the girl then slips the Class ring upon her companion's finger-and seals the pledge with a kiss. Ensuing heart-throbs have made Page Thirty-six