Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-03
DAWSON BUILDS UP
STUDENTS MORALE
Wins Only One Grid Battle,
but Inspiring Leader Is
on Pedestal.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

N YEW YORK, January Cam
you imagine q university of
long and proud background
acclaiming as successful foot
ball season in which but one game was
won and another tied?
Can you picture the authorities of
that university coming to the coach
who had been engaged for one season.
in which all but two games were lost
and insisting that he sign q contract
for three more years?
The institution in question is the
University of Virginia. The coach Is
Fred Dawson.
Beautifully inspiring. That is the
way Virginians speak of the play Of
the 1881 varsity eleven. And they say,
too, that the season just passed was the
greatest season in the Cavalier history.
What it all means is this: Foot ball,
win or lose, is glorious when it is in
spired. And in Dawson, Virginia had
that rare jewel, q man who can inspire
men. Under Dawson, Virginia put a
star above defeat and they know down
in Charlottesville that this star will
inevitably lead the way to lustrous &C
complishment. When sport works out
this way 1t comes upon plane with
all the high things in human life.
Found Spirit of Indifference.
When Dawson came to Virginia
spirit of indifference pervaded not only
the athletic situation but practically
all phases Of university life, including
the class room, All athletic outfits had
been weighted down by defeatist COM
pick and this spirit extending beyond
athletics included every extra-curric-
ular activity. The ideal of Thomas
Jefferson was beginning TO appear very
faint among the young men of this
university.
Then Dawson came in. Until mid
November he coached very little foot
ball. There was too much other work
to do-building, restoring the old Caya-
lisr spirit. The first thing he did was
to get the boys interested in their class
work. And he got them really inter-
ested; scholastieally they became Curl
GUS, aggressive once more. Then he
got at the campus publications, re-
viving in them their old functions as
leaders of student opinion and thought.
He. put new life into literary, debating
and dramatic organizations that were
dying on the vine.
His apartment on the campus became
the gathering place of students and
faculty men. They went there at all
hours. He addressed meeting after
meeting of students and in a very
signal way became the man of the
hour at Virginia, the schools much
needed leader.
Develops Fighting Eleven.
This work done. he turned to foot
ball, where his assistants had been car
rying on. He injected fire, life, deter
mination into the squad-just as he
had done with superior manpower at
Nebraska and made those Cornhuskers
unbeatable. The Virginia team did not
win, but it fought always and Vir-
glnians, faculty men, the public, thrilled
at the spirit which the players showed.
That spirit became the spirit of the
campus, of all phases of university life.
Virginia expects to begin to win
games next year. And don't make any
mistake, she will. This year 1882 win
see the beginning OF things at Char
lottesvllle, the return journey up long
hill of insecure footing. But chiefly
Dawson wants to continue with the
belongs at Virginia and which Is one
Of the finest and most beautiful things
that any institution can boast.
Fred Dawson, former catcher and
halfback at Princeton, handsome, mag
netic, dynamic and idealistic, Is an I'M
usual fellow. Perhaps he never will
rank at the top as an expert on the
technical side Of foot ball, although for
that matter Knute Rockne once told
the writer that Dawson's Nebraska
teams knew their blocking and tackling
better than any other team the Irish
met. And they fought always like men
inspired.
He Is now spending a short time In
Omaha where thousands of Nebraskans
are his friends, where every man who
ever played under him will testify he
gave them something which has been of
inestinahle value to them In the game
of life.