I may well have told this story before, but we old folk are noted for repeating stories over and over – so get used to it.
I'd heard good things from my older brother about playing intramural football at Dartmouth – in spite of his blowing out his right knee. I'd made some friends playing touch on the quads and in front of Holy Cross Hall in my earliest days at ND, so when there was a meeting to try out for The Hawgs I signed up and attended. All 5'7", 125 pounds of me.
When I was told to get fitted for pads, a helmet and cleats at the Field House I realized that this was not the (Ivy League) intramural flag football my brother enjoyed. My dorm team (and my body) benefited from me scratching my name off the list at the end of the meeting. I opted for intramural softball where a scrappy, speedy center fielder stood little chance of being crushed by a 280 pound behemoth hoping to make the varsity as a walk on.
