Well, loyal readers, the day has finally come — our last article and the end of the saga of the 2013-14 Rec League Legends. This season, we tried our best and experienced a few victories (we are not going to quantify exactly how many because the details are irrelevant). Most importantly, we had a lot of great times and some unforgettable experiences with some of Dartmouth’s best athletes.
Like all great athletes, many people operated behind the scenes to make what some have called “the most condescending show on turf” operate. First and foremost, we want to thank our editors. Sam, Blaze and Brett, thank you for your patience and willingness to put up with all the curveballs we threw at you this year. Also, to the 2013 directorate, thank you for giving us a chance. When we came to Felicia with this idea in summer, I honestly never thought it had a prayer. Thank you Fels and all of the others for believing that we were just athletic and ridiculous enough to pull something like this off.
Next, we would like to thank the athletes who took time out of their busy schedules to humor us on the field, ice and courts. We know that you lead extremely busy lives and have obligations that are probably more significant than our column. Thank you for taking the time not only to play us, but to make each experience unique.
Finally, to you, the fans. Thank you for reading our columns week in and week out, or maybe just once or twice when you were bored in your Monday 9L. We’re not above that. We really hope that you have had a few laughs with or at us. Trust us, it’s cool. We have had a great time this year and every year we have been fortunate enough to spend here at Dartmouth. To paraphrase some of the illustrious impromptu FoCo speeches from the last few weeks, we feel blessed to have been accepted to one of the world’s best academic institutions and to have been able to spend time with and learn from each of you.
Over the past year, many have debated how to keep our community inclusive and its members safe. We would like to offer our two cents through a sports metaphor. This one comes from perhaps one of the most underrated basketball players of all time, Jackie Moon of the Flint Michigan Tropics. We hope the Dartmouth community can abide by one simple rule: “Everybody Love Everybody” or if love is too strong, at least “Everybody Respect Everybody” (ERE for short). This applies to the classroom, the dining halls, the basements of Greek houses, to people that you agree with and more importantly to people that you do not.
This motto alone will not resolve the issues that our community faces. But it will certainly be a start, which is all that we can ask for.
So with that, we conclude the Rec League Legends saga. To our successors on the field, we hope that you win a few more competitions than we did, but we hope that you will have at least half as much fun. To our successors off the field, we hope that you have the Dartmouth experience that we were fortunate enough to have and continue to improve and shape this place that Freddie and I will soon be blessed enough to call our alma mater.
