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Ducky Pond

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Ducky Pond
Biographical details
Born(1902-02-17)February 17, 1902
Torrington, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedAugust 23, 1982(1982-08-23) (aged 80)
Torrington, Connecticut, U.S.
Playing career
Football
1922–1924Yale
Baseball
1923–1925Yale
Position(s)Halfback (football)
Pitcher (baseball)
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
Football
1934–1940Yale
1941Bates
1943Willow Grove NAS
1944Georgia Pre-Flight
1946–1951Bates
Head coaching record
Overall57–60–3
Bowls0–1
Accomplishments and honors
Awards
First-team All-American (1924)

Raymond W. "Ducky" Pond (February 17, 1902 – August 23, 1982) was an American college football player and coach. He was the head football coach at Yale University from 1934 to 1940, and at Bates College in 1941 and from 1946 to 1951. Pond's record at Yale was 30–25–2 record, including a 4–3 mark in Harvard–Yale football rivalry. He mentored two of the first three winners of the Heisman Trophy, Larry Kelley and Clint Frank. At Bates, Pond led the undefeated and untied 1946 Bobcats squad to the inaugural Glass Bowl.[1][2]

Pond was a public relations executive after his career in athletics.[3]

Early life and playing career

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Pond, after attending high school in Torrington, Connecticut, his birthplace, and the Hotchkiss School, was a member of the Yale Class of 1925, and a 1924 first-team All-American at halfback. Pond starred in the 1923 edition of The Game. He was nicknamed "Ducky" by Grantland Rice for returning a fumble 63 yards that afternoon against Harvard on a field that resembled "seventeen lakes, five quagmires and a water hazard".[4] Yale had not scored a touchdown versus Harvard since the end of World War I.[1]

Coaching career

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An uproar engulfed Pond's hiring as head football coach at Yale in 1934. Though he had been head scout and an assistant for his predecessor, Mal Stevens, who coached from 1928 to 1932, and an alumnus like every head coach before him, Time magazine reported that the "New York City alumni, who had waged a furious fight to end Yale's policy of graduate coaches and demanded a proven winner from outside" were enraged that Michigan's Harry Kipke had not been invited to coach the team.[5] Kipke had coached Michigan to consecutive national championships in 1932 and 1933. The alumni probably desired a reversal of the program's decline versus Harvard. Yale led the Harvard–Yale football rivalry 22–6–5 from 1875 to 1912; however, from 1913 to 1933, Harvard led the series 11–7–1.[1] Pond, whose head coaching experience had been two seasons at Hotchkiss, was the last alumnus head coach of football at Yale. Reginald D. Root, head coach for the 1933 season and an alumnus, had a .500 record and lost to Harvard.[1]

Pond coached an historically significant game in 1934 versus Princeton. The 1934 contest was the last time a group of 11 starters played the entire 60 minutes of a game. At Palmer Stadium, Yale ended Princeton's 15-game winning streak with a 7–0 upset on November 17. The New York Times (November 17, 1934) reported that an expected capacity crowd of 52,000 would attend the contest, the 58th in the series. Princeton won another 12 consecutive games after the loss. The Yale starters, Larry Kelley among them, were nicknamed Iron Men by the press. Kelley scored the contest's sole touchdown. Fritz Crisler, considered the father of two-platoon football, was Pond's counterpart at Princeton.[6] The contest has been subject of two books, Yale's Ironmen: A Story of Football & Lives in The Decade of the Depression & Beyond and Football's Last Iron Men: 1934, Yale vs. Princeton, And One Stunning Upset.[citation needed]

Pond coached two Heisman Trophy winners while at Yale. End Larry Kelley in 1936 and halfback Clint Frank in 1937 were the second and third winners of the most prestigious individual award in football. Among the total of 21 assistants employed by Pond at Yale, future President Gerald Ford served for four seasons, from 1937 to 1940, while attending Yale Law School, and Greasy Neale was hired as the backfield coach right after Pond's announced elevation on February 1, 1934. Neale had coached West Virginia to a 3–5–3 record in 1933, his third year there. Neale was clearly the chief strategist among the coaches.[1][7]

Honors

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Yale's athletic department awards annually the Raymond W. Pond Pitching Award.[8]

Head coaching record

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Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs AP#
Yale Bulldogs (Independent) (1934–1940)
1934 Yale 5–3
1935 Yale 6–3
1936 Yale 7–1 12
1937 Yale 6–1–1 12
1938 Yale 2–6
1939 Yale 3–4–1
1940 Yale 1–7
Yale: 30–25–2
Bates Bobcats () (1941)
1941 Bates 3–4
Willow Grove Naval Air Station Hellcats (Independent) (1943)
1943 Willow Grove NAS 1–0[n 1]
Willow Grove NAS: 1–0
Georgia Pre-Flight Skycrackers (Independent) (1944)
1944 Georgia Pre-Flight 4–5
Georgia Pre-Flight: 4–5
Bates Bobcats (Maine Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) (1946–1951)
1946 Bates 7–1 3–0 1st L Glass
1947 Bates 4–4
1948 Bates 4–3
1949 Bates 3–4
1950 Bates 1–7
1951 Bates 0–7–1
Bates: 22–30–1
Total: 57–60–3
      National championship         Conference title         Conference division title or championship game berth

Notes

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  1. ^ Pond began the 1943 season as head coach of the Willow Grove Naval Air Station team. In October, after the Hellcats' first game, the entire team, aside from Pond, was transferred from Willow Grove Naval Air Station to Atlantic City Naval Air Station. Lew Elverson was elevated to head coach after the transfer. The team finished the season with an overall record of 2–3.[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Bergin, Thomas. The Game: The Harvard – Yale Football Rivalry, 1875–1983, Yale University Press, New Haven/London, 1984.
  2. ^ Profile, http://abacus.bates.edu/pubs/mag/96-Fall/sports-notes.html; accessed April 6, 2015.
  3. ^ "Raymond Pond, 80; Coached At Yale". The New York Times. Associated Press. August 25, 1982. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  4. ^ New York Herald Tribune, November 25, 1923.
  5. ^ Time Magazine, "Ins & Outs", February 12, 1934.
  6. ^ Football's Last Iron Men: 1934, Yale vs. Princeton, And One Stunning Upset, p. 130.
  7. ^ Football's Last Iron Men: 1934, Yale vs. Princeton, And One Stunning Upset, p. 52.
  8. ^ Office of the Secretary, Yale University.
  9. ^ "Willow Grove Team Shifted To Resort". The Morning Post. Camden, New Jersey. October 16, 1943. p. 20. Retrieved April 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com Open access icon.
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