Drumming up a Winning Season
George Morgan ’61
The class of 1960 saw varsity football lose all six of its games. Up was the only way to go. At mid-season the following year, Pomfret was 1-1-1. During the early fall, I had discovered among sundry un-used music equipment under the Hard Auditorium stage a big bass drum and, looking for a suitable place to use it without appearing too un-musical, brought it to the fourth game, played against Gunnery. I made a lot of noise with it as an impromptu one-person cheering squad, and Pomfret won 20-0.
I lugged the drum to our next game, against Moses Brown, and continued the noise, cheering Pomfret on to a 29-0 win. It was true that Pomfret had not had a bass drum in its cheering section in the past, and now that we were winning games in which the drum appeared, I was willing to believe there might be a connection.
Our final game of the season was against Westminster, probably Pomfret’s toughest opponent, and I can remember marching the drum up and down the sidelines while putting extra ‘oomph’ into pounding on it. The game seemed close for a while, but as I warmed to the task at hand, Pomfret began to pull away, winning 37-21.
I never knew for sure that my drum-playing really had anything to do with the wins, but the 4-1-1 season was quite satisfying in its own right.
