Posted on Jan 1, 1997

A football star at Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, Shuron Morton was so frustrated after his first year at Union that he considered transferring.

And then he remembered why he came to Union in the first place.

“The whole reason
I came here was for the academics,” Morton said. “To leave because I wasn't getting my way in football was kind of defeating the purpose of me being here.”

The purpose was to prepare to be a doctor.

“I think I might have been born wanting to be a doctor. I've seen my dad (an anesthesiologist) and his friends, who are doctors. I've seen that it can be done and what the end result is, so I think that all the hard work is worth it.”

So Morton waited as other Union running backs piled up the yardage. This year, he became the primary ball carrier, and he responded with a Union
single season rushing record.

“I thought that coming in as a freshmen or sophomore I should be able to get on the field just as much as everybody else, but you know I didn't realize that everybody has to wait his turn,” he said “I probably wouldn't be too happy now if there was a freshman or a sophomore trying to take my spot away from me.”

During the regular season Morton ran for 1,287 yards as the Dutchmen went 8-1. Playing in the ECAC Northwest Championship game on Frank Bailey Field, Morton added another 131 rushing yards as Union
defeated Salve Regina, 26-13, for its third ECAC championship. For his efforts, which included a two-yard touchdown plunge, he was named the game's most valuable player.

Long after his football achievements are only type in the record book, Morton plans to be helping people. He remembers the first time he helped resuscitate a patient in intensive care, during his time as a nurse's aide at Albany Medical Center.

“The patient was a really big guy, and the nurse was getting tired. So I stepped in. It was something I was really scared about, but when it was over I was happy to be part of it. We got him back.”

Posted on Jan 1, 1997

By the end of the College's first term, the Union hockey team was 4-4 and in the middle of the ECAC pack.

The defense was strong, allowing 1.88 goals a game-best in the country at the time. Offensively, however, Union scored only twenty goals in eight games, including seven against Dartmouth.

Undoubtedly the biggest early season success was the 2-1 victory over Clarkson-the Dutchmen's first win over Clarkson since 1925.

The men's and women's swimming teams, which have made a habit
of winning, began the dual meet season with wins over the University of Rochester.

Posted on Jan 1, 1997

The men's hockey team got off to its best Division I start as the fall sports schedule ended with seven of eight teams appearing in postseason events.

The football team completed another excellent season by defeating Salve Regina, of Newport, R.I., 26-13 to win the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) northwest championship. Union finished 9-1.

The victory was the third in as many tries for Union in the ECAC event. The Dutchmen beat Plymouth State, 33-19, in 1990 and the University of
Massachusetts Dartmouth, 34-14, in 1994.

Union appeared on its way to another NCAA tournament until the Coast Guard game in week seven. The 31-6 loss, in effect, eliminated the Dutchmen from their ninth NCAA appearance.

Head coach John Audino, who is 41-9 in five seasons, said, “We had a great year. We were 9-1 against a formidable schedule. With only twelve players graduating, I'd have to say the program is in great shape.”

After the season, three players were named to the New England and New York Academic
All-American team. They were Roger Egbert, the placekicker, from Bedford, N.Y.; Mario Maltese, a linebacker from Massapequa, N.Y.; and Bill Mahleisen, a defensive back from Albany, N.Y. All are senior economics majors.

The volleyball team completed one of the best seasons in the twenty-two year history at Union by finishing fifth in the state
tournament. The Dutchwomen, who were seeded ninth, beat number eight Elmira, lost to number one Rochester, and then beat number four Binghamton.

The team's record of 19-14 gives head coach Leslie Bogucki a four-year record of 76-48. The Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (UCAA) recognized Gretchen Voegler, a senior from Ballston Lake, N.Y., and Katie Barnett, a senior from Northport, N.Y., naming them to the
all conference team.

A total of thirty-five runners (eighteen women and seventeen men) combined to make 1996 one of the better
cross country seasons. Among the men's highlights was a second place finish in the Capital District meet, a sixth place in the state meet, and a tenth place in the NCAA regional qualifier. Senior Nick Conway, of Albany, N.Y., finished fourteenth and twenty-third in the state and NCAA meets, respectively.

The field hockey team showed unusual endurance by winning four of five overtime games as it qualified for its tenth postseason invitation in the past twelve years. The outstanding individual performance during the season came from goalie Rachel Rothschild, who stopped
forty-five shots in a 2-1 triple overtime loss to national power Springfield.

The women's soccer team qualified for the postseason for just the third time since 1980, thanks to solid performances against a tough schedule. Only one senior will graduate, as sixteen first-year players will return. Six of the team's seven losses
came by one goal, and the team allowed only seventeen goals all year.

The sixth-place showing in the state tournament tied the best effort ever by the women's tennis team. Junior Dawn Tessier, of Southbury, Conn., was 10-5 for the season and finished third of sixteen in the state tournament. Happily, the entire team will return next year.

A season-ending 2-1 loss to Springfield cost the men's soccer team a .500 record. The good news is that the roster included eleven freshmen and seven sophomores.

Posted on Jan 1, 1997

Please accept my congratulations of adding “The Union Bookshelf” to the magazine. Not only will it interest all of us in the breadth of interests of the Union authors, but it also may help broaden the library's holdings if some of the authors see fit to make a gift. I hope a wealth of authors respond. I wish the “Bookshelf' every success.

George Bain '73
Jamesville, N.Y.

The picture on page thirty-one of the September magazine (Memorial Chapel as seen through an arch of Washburn Hall) is a copy of an etching done by George T. Plowmann. His monogram appears in the lower left corner. Plowmann visited Union when I was an undergraduate, gave a few lectures, and did at least two etchings. One was the view of the
then-new Memorial Chapel and the other was of North College.

J. Dawson Van Eps '28
Schenectady

Re Thomas Hitchcock's letter regretting the loss of Union's majestic elms: my 1988 gift to the College was twenty American Liberty elms. These were five-foot saplings of a variety resistant to Dutch elm disease and developed by the Elm Research Institute of Harrisville, N.H. They were planted along one of the College lanes, and if they survived should by quite tall now and displaying the characteristic “vase shape” of the American elm. How are they doing?

Richard Triumpho '74
St. Johnsvile, N.Y.

About three-quarters of the trees have survived, and they are doing nicely along the lane into the College from the north side of campus near Nott and Van Vranken Streets.-Editor

I have been reading about all the problems to be faced when the year changes to end in 00, even what to call the Class of 2000. Back in my $375-tuition-peryear days, the Class of 1900 was much in evidence; they hadn't even had their fortieth reunion. We called them the class of “aughty-aught.” Perhaps that
should be revived, or maybe a newcomer should be called a “triple-aught.”

Bernard S. Krause '39
Oxnard, Caliif.

In the current issue of the magazine I spotted an error in the otherwise charming reminiscence about Dutchman's Village by Thor Trolsen '51. If the homemade booze was really ethyl alcohol, it was drinkable; ethyl is grain alcohol. It's methyl alcohol, or wood alcohol, which is lethal.

Also, I am both proud of and impressed by the new F.W. Olin Center, described in the magazine. But its location puzzles me because the names of new buildings nearby ring no mental bells in my memory of the campus of forty years ago. Do you have a map so I can see just where all the newer buildings are sited?

David C. Balderston '55
New York City

Posted on Jan 1, 1997

Horace E. “Bud” Dodge III '46, L.H.D. '86, died Sept. 27 in Carmel Valley, Calif. He was seventy-three.

An engineer with the General Electric Co. in New York and California, he retired in 1963 to devote more time to his family and philanthropic interests, which included Union and music organizations such as the San Jose Symphony, where he served on the board.

He is survived by three sons, Horace IV, Nicholas, and Anthony, and two daughters, Delphine Cornelius and Anna Gaiser.

In 1980 he established a charitable remainder unitrust. When realized, the portion given to Union will be used to establish the Horace E. Dodge III Professorship in Electrical Engineering.