Archives
From Playing Fields to Battlefields
by Peter Mackie '59
The following story will appear in the Winter 2009-10 edition of the Brown Bear Magazine.
WWII Sailors Marching Through Soldiers Memorial GateAt the Thayer Street entrance to Lincoln Field stands the majestic Soldiers Memorial Gate. Dedicated in 1921, it bears tribute to the 43 Brunonians who lost their lives in World War I. A more recent monument, created in memory of Brown's men and women who lost their lives in World War II, Korea and Vietnam is also located on Lincoln Field. In Wriston Quadrangle, Patriots Court honors Brown men who died in the service of their country since 1775.
Since Brown's colonial beginnings, wars have been a constant. Brown's first student, William Rogers, served as a chaplain in the Continental Army, and four of the seven members of the first graduating class in 1769 served in the Revolutionary War. Richard Stites 1769 was the first Brown alumnus to die in military service.
The Civil War saw men serve on both sides of the bloody conflict. Some were Brown's earliest athletes, students who rowed on class crews or played in the interclass football games during this formative period of athletics. An 1866 tablet in Manning Hall is dedicated to the 21 Brown men who died for the Union side.
In World War I the entire student body was inducted into the Student Army Training Corps or the Naval Unit. Florence J. "Floss" Price 1906, a popular campus leader and captain of the swimming and water polo teams was Brown's first fatality of the Great War. All told, nearly 2,000 alumni, students and faculty served. Football great Frederick “Fritz” Pollard '19 left school to become the physical director of the Army YMCA unit at Camp Meade, Md. At the Women's College, seniors gave up Ivy Day to divert funds to the war effort, made bandages, and knitted sweaters for the Red Cross.
Fritz Pollard '19 served in WWI at Fort Meade in Maryland
During World War II, the University functioned year-round, and again the campus was a military training ground, with students cycling in and out with their training units. Athletic rosters and schedules were in constant flux. Athletic Director Tom Taylor '25 left for the military, and dozens of athletes switched from brown and white uniforms to military ones. Some, like football star Tommy Nash '40, who was shot down over Germany, never returned. Others, such as track and football hero John McLaughry '40, served with distinction for the duration of the War. After the War, countless veterans (including Joe Paterno '50, who served with the Army in Korea) came from the battlefields to Brown's playing fields, providing strong veteran leadership.
In the six decades since World War II and Korea, a steady stream of Brunonians have served in the military, during peacetime and times of conflict. Dick Bence '57, football captain and Navy fighter pilot lost his life in a training accident in 1963. Linda Lou Borges-Dubois '76, a Founding Mother of women's crew served 30 years as a Navy officer and was the first woman in the submarine group in San Diego.
The list is long and unbroken, extending to the current generation of young alumni, such as Dimitri Gavriel '98, a Brown wrestler who died in Iraq in 2004. As long as the scourge of war exists, Brunonians from on and off the playing fields will continue to serve and place country above self. We are all proud and grateful that they do.
Peter Mackie '59 is the Edward North Robinson 1896 Collection of Brown Athletics Sports Archivist. Photos courtesy of Brown University Archives.