Thought you might be interested in the article below (I hope it’s legible) on our brother Rab that appeared in Princeton’s Tiger Blog last month (what, you’re not a viewer?).

 

A great tribute to someone we’re all proud to call a teammate.

 

RK

 

 

 

Sticking A Fork In Peter Farrell

GoPrincetonTigers.com release on Peter Farrell’s Retirement 

TigerBlog already knew what Peter Farrell was going to say when it was his time to speak at the Department of Athletics staff meeting yesterday.

It didn’t make it any less stunning to actually hear.

Maybe it’s because here was Princeton’s only women’s track and field coach in the 39-year history of the program, a man who is 69 years old, a thoughtful man, a serious man, a graduate of Notre Dame. Here he was, pretending to stab himself with a fork.

You know, he said. As in “stick a fork in me.” And why? “Because I’m done.”

That’s how Peter Farrell broke the news that he is retiring, bringing down the curtain on a career that saw him coach five decades of women here. The number of athletes has to reach into the thousands.

Farrell spoke for about 15 minutes yesterday at the staff meeting, and in typical fashion most of it was funny. When he was done, he was given a long, long standing ovation from the assembled members of the Department of Athletics. This was a genuine outpouring of emotion.

And speaking of emotions, there were more than a few tears. It’s possible Peter himself teared up. Whether he did or not, he sat down in a chair while everyone else stood applauding. He was clearly overwhelmed by the moment.

That’s what saying goodbye does, especially after 39 years.

Peter knew months ago that this would be it for him. He just didn’t want a big production to be made about it.

The Princeton coach whom TigerBlog can most compare Peter Farrell to is Pete Carril.

They were both ultra-successful coaches, of course. Carril as you know is in the Hall of Fame.

Peter? He’s won 27 Ivy League championships between cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. He coached 55 All-Americas and 182 Ivy League individual champs. He is the only Ivy women’s track and field coach to win the “triple crown” by sweeping the three league titles in the same year.

Beyond that, they are both a coach-as-philosopher. A conversation with either one that starts with sports will almost surely take you in a completely different direction, one that ultimately is about people and what makes them tick, positively or negatively.

They both have a dry, understated sense of humor. Neither laughs uproariously, just breaking enough of a grin, giving off a sense that they are mildly amused. In reality, TigerBlog has always thought, their minds are just working so fast that they’ve already moved past the punchline to whatever’s coming next. 

They’re both outstanding public speakers, largely because they both speak directly from the heart. They don’t BS anyone, and they have little tolerance for BS when it comes back.

They are among the absolute most genuine people TB has ever met. They are both incredible story-tellers, with incredible stories to tell, of their lives from long before Princeton to the present.

TigerBlog has written often about Carril and how he was no child of privilege. And yet here he was, for 29 years, at a place of privilege. His upbringing shaped everything about him at Princeton. He learned a work ethic early on from his father, who spent 40 years working in the steel mills in Bethlehem, Pa., and he had no tolerance for anyone who tried to cut corners.

Like Carril, Farrell has never forgotten where he came from.  

Farrell is from New York City, in Queens. His father went to Manual Trade High School and won a bronze star in Italy in World War II.

Peter’s older brother Tom ran at Archbishop Molloy High School and eventually would win a bronze medal in the 800 at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Peter also went to Molloy and then to Notre Dame, where he was a five-time All-America. He might have been headed to the Olympics too had not injuries and pneumonia slowed him at the wrong time.

Instead, he went into coaching. He started the girls’ track and field program at Christ the King High School in New York.

And then, in 1977, Sam Howell hired two new track and field coaches at Princeton, one to coach the men’s team and the other to start the women’s program. The men’s coach was Fred Samara. The women’s coach was Peter Farrell.

They started on the same day – September 1, 1977. Fred was in the audience yesterday, still the men’s coach, not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Books can be written about the dynamic of their relationship since that first day. 

But Peter? Now is his time to step away.

TigerBlog and Peter Farrell got off to a rocky start when they first met, largely because Farrell used to steal the newspapers out of TB’s office. It didn’t take long for TB to get past that and realize that Peter Farrell is unique, special, honest and in his way brilliant.

Through the years, TigerBlog and Farrell have spent hours talking about anything and everything. Princeton sports, yes. But way more than that.

Politics. Religion. Pop culture. Movies. Actors. Music, especially Bruce Springsteen. Really anything.

Peter Farrell is one of TigerBlog’s all-time favorite people. Not just from Princeton Athletics. From anywhere.

And now he’ll be leaving. He deserves it. He’s spent 39 years as a coach, educator, mentor, friend, advocate, confidante, sounding board, advisor to his athletes and his co-workers.

He’s come to work each of those days with the same unwavering drive, competitive spirit and integrity.

People like him don’t walk through the door every day – even if two of them did on the same day nearly 40 years ago.

Now he’s going to walk out the door. Stick a fork in him, as he actually pretended to do yesterday.

At one point of his talk yesterday, Peter paused and put his head down. TigerBlog couldn’t tell if he was struggling to hold it together; if he was, he was able to keep going a few seconds later.

Hey, this is what goodbyes are like. TigerBlog knew it was coming, and yet he was stung by the finality of it all.

He’s happy for Peter. He’s earned the next chapter in his life.

During his talk yesterday, Peter spoke about how the Sam Howell Invitational would be starting this weekend. Then he told the audience a little about who Sam Howell was. And he mentioned a word that is on the plaque for Sam in the Jadwin Gym lobby.

And when he said it, TigerBlog knew immediately that this was a word that perfectly described Peter. One word.

Beloved.

Yeah. That’s Peter.

Beloved. For 39 years. 

Isn’t this how our conversations go?

Dave Zell sent Joe Hale an email that began with an article he noticed about Air Force cuts, and then, following a reply from Mike Moore, Joe went on to reminisce about Thanksgiving at the Moores’ the first semester of freshman year.

Message group 1:

From: David Zell [mailto:davidzell46@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 7:42 PM
To: joehale46@att.net
Subject: ‘Wiped Out’: Air Force losing pilots and planes to cuts, scrounging for spare parts

I thought you might be interested in this article ‘Wiped Out’: Air Force losing pilots and planes to cuts, scrounging for spare parts.

On 2016-05-14 07:22, Joe Hale wrote:

Fyi

Martin (“Marty”) Steele (retired from the Marine Corps as a lieutenant general) is my high school classmate from Fayetteville, Arkansas who is now involved with a veterans research program at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  He and I started Catholic grade school together in 1952.  Mike Woods, Pat Long and Mike Moore were Notre Dame classmates of mine who were in the Air Force ROTC program at ND and served several years on active duty after graduation.   The two Mikes and Pat all have pilot licenses and still do some flying.   Pat’s (an aeronautical engineer major at ND who retired from FAA) main interest in retirement seems to be building a plane or two that he can fly.  And I knew Tom Curtin from freshman year on;  he was in Army ROTC with me and is now retired in Northern Virginia from Hartford Insurance.  Tom sees Mike Moore for ND football game watches, etc.;  Mike retired from Cessna and the FBI (after years of hospital administration prior to that) and is also in Northern Virginia.   (While visiting Mike for the ND-Maryland football game several years ago Mike and my ND roommate Tom Culcasi had me stand for photos by Stonewall Jackson’s equestrian statue at the Bull Run (Manassas) battlefield – since I was the only Rebel in our threesome.)

Dave Zell (a semi-retired CPA/lawyer here in Houston) graduated from ND with me and was in Army ROTC with me;  he went to Little Rock Catholic High.   An extremely hard (and serious) worker, he was a football student manager for ND.   Our senior year he was Ara Parseghian’s head student manager (and got one semester of free tuition for his diligence.)   Dave was rather accomplished at painting those gold helmets.

Message 2:

(From Joe Hale)

Tom,  Mike Moore was across the hall from me during our freshman year in Keenan.   You might add that Mike Woods (also on my floor at Keenan) – after his ND B.B.A. in accounting – picked up an MBA from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.  My last ND Directory shows that he owns/manages Custom Components International, Inc. in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.  Woods was a graduate of St. Joseph’s H.S. near the ND campus;  he grew up in Niles, MI.

Mike Moore had thirteen of us from Keenan Hall as guests during our initial semester break at his home in Lima, Ohio.   (Mike played football at Lima Central Catholic with Jim Lynch and also knew Jim’s older brother Tom.  Tom was captain of the Navy team;  later he as a three-star admiral headed the Naval Academy.  You see Tom on tv ads for New Day –  mortgage lending that focuses on V.A. loans;  Tom is an Executive Chairman for New Day.)

Back to that semester break visit in Lima:   the local newspaper took a group photo, and the descriptive newspaper article was entitled “Notre Dame Invasion.”   None of us will ever forget that good time in Lima and the Moore family’s great hospitality.

I myself retired from banking/financial services several years ago and also am retired (rank of lieutenant colonel) from the U.S. Army Reserve.   I do some volunteer work and spend time periodically at a lake house co-owned by myself and my brother John (ND Class of ’66) on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas (near our hometown of Fayetteville in the Arkansas Ozarks.)   Mike Moore and his wonderful wife Anne once spent a weekend with us on the lake; they much enjoyed the boating and sightseeing – plus the morning walks we took with the nice views of Beaver Lake

Sincerely,

1. Joseph (Joe) Hale

B.B.A. in Finance and Business Economics

Message 3 (from Joe Hale):

Tom,   I would like to include info regarding Tom Culcasi in addition to what I submitted to you earlier today.   Tom was on my wing of Keenan, and he was my roommate for three years (sophomore through senior years.)  Like myself he got a B.B.A., but his concentration was in Marketing.   As mentioned before, Tom, Mike Moore, Tom Curtin and I attended the ND-Maryland game several years ago at the stadium of the Washington Redskins (Fed Ex Field at Landover, Maryland.)   Tom not long prior to that game had retired from the medical equipment sales business;  in that line of work he traveled quite a bit.

Tom and his wife Judy (Judy Donofrio, SMC Class of ’68) got married right after our graduation, and I had the honor of being in that wedding in early June of ’68; the wedding was in Judy’s home town of Skokie, IL.  They have lived for years in Lemont, IL – near Joliet.   Tom has been active in his parish and in the Joliet ND Club.   His and Judy’s three children (two sons and a daughter) all got undergrad degrees from ND.   Judy and Tom have done a lot of traveling and sometimes do so with Phil Mika (retired M.D. – ND grad in ‘68) and Phil’s wife Mimi (SMC Class of ’68.)  Tom and Judy have stayed in touch with Phil and Mimi for many years.    (Phil is from Tom’s hometown of Youngstown, Ohio although Tom graduated from suburban Hubbard High School.)

Tom,

I have of course been remiss in getting you items from the Left Coast, relying instead upon Forrest “Primeval” Hainline and Richard “Consul General” Pivnicka to do the bragging for our small contingent out  here.

But I thought this item should not be overlooked. I am a nominal co-producer with Ridley Scott and Tom Hanks and companies on the “Felt” movie, title yet undetermined, soon to start shooting, starring Liam Neeson and Diane Lane. That is not the item.

In various projects I have undertaken, the latest being further research for the script, I have reviewed many of the newspaper articles written back in the day. Of the thousands of  Watergate articles written (over three thousand by the Post alone) there were no more than ten that I would consider of seminal  importance.

Two of the most important articles were written by….Class of 1968 members, Pat Collins of the Washington Star and Tom Condon of the Hartford Courant. That is the item. I think a shout out to these guys would be in order. This is so even though they are neither from here or Chicago!

Hope you are well.

John

John D. O’Connor

JOHN ROCHE REMEMBERED

(From Ray Munchmeyer, May, 2016)

I was thrilled to see that Joe and Tom caught the oversight about John Roche’s death at the hockey game. John has been noted at all our Reunion Masses since our first in 1973, but he somehow was missed on this list . Thank you, Joe and Tom.

John was one of my best friends at Notre Dame , and it is somehow hard to believe that he has been gone for 47 years. John and I only knew each other for 5 years, as he was killed in Viet Nam one year after graduation. In those 5 years, we had many memorable times together , but one day remains etched in my mind more than others.

Our last St. Patrick’s Day was in March of 1968. Along with some other Sorinites , we managed to do what would later be called a “Pub Crawl ” through the streets of South Bend. We started in the late morning, and finished late that night at the Senior Bar.

It was a bittersweet day, as we remembered all the other good times we had together, but all knew that this wonderful time of our life was drawing to a close. We also knew that unpleasant times were not far ahead for the class of 68. Those of us in ROTC were acutely aware of this.

Sadly, some of us experienced the ultimate unpleasant time in the next few years.

Every St. Patrick’s Day since, my wife pours me a green beer, we toast John , and remember. I must confess that long before I finish that green beer, my eyes are moist, and I am choking back a few sobs. I get through it by thinking of Sorin Hall, the Senior Bar, and the good times.

John was a remarkable man, a great friend, and a blessed addition to my life, if only for five years.

His sister and brothers and I have stayed together over the last 47 years. Nancy lives in the same town as we do in Massachusetts, while Chris lives in New York City, where we have our other house. When we get together , we always remember John, and I thank you all for doing the same.