Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy

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Assembly lineup boasts groundbreakers, changemakers

Starting with a poet and Yale Law School graduate whose work is shaped by eight years spent behind bars and including appearances from Exeter alumni working in varied fields, all-school assemblies will highlight Friday mornings throughout winter term.

Most of the assemblies are streamed at Exeter Live. Here are some of the coming headliners:

Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet and lawyer

Dec. 10

Betts is a poet and lawyer promoting the rights and humanity of incarcerated people. The work is personal to him: He was tried as an adult for a carjacking at the age of 16 and sentenced to eight years in prison. Today, he fights for clemency and parole for individuals facing lengthy sentences, and he is a member of local and national taskforces dedicated to ending cash bail, limiting sentence lengths and prohibiting the practice of sending juveniles to adult prisons. This year, Betts was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for launching Freedom Reads, a program that donates books and shelving for libraries, organizes author visits, and sets up book circles in prisons and juvenile detention facilities.

Devi Lockwood ’10, journalist

Dec. 17

If you think the research needed to complete the notorious History 333 paper is exhaustive, consider Lockwood’s mission over the past five years: Traveling — mainly by bicycle — in 20 countries on six continents to document 1,001 stories on water and climate change. Lockwood, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 2014, has worked as a journalist and writer ever since and currently is ideas editor at “Rest of the World.”  Her research to collect stories on the effects of climate change has resulted in her first book, published in August.

Sarah Milkovich ’96, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab

Jan. 7

During the summer between her upper and senior year at Exeter, Milkovich interned at Cornell University, working on a project that designed a spacecraft that could orbit an asteroid and record its findings. Her career in space exploration was launched. It has continued through undergrad years at Cal Tech and doctoral studies at Brown. She’s been working as a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab ever since, currently serving as the lead of science operations of the Mars 2020 rover mission.

Willie O’Ree, NHL pioneer

Jan. 14

On Jan. 18, 1958, Willie O’Ree stepped onto the ice at the Montreal Forum in a Boston Bruins uniform, becoming the first black hockey player in NHL history. While O’Ree’s NHL career was short, his professional hockey career stretched over three decades, and his impact on the sport endures. A native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, he is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Canada Sports Hall of Fame. His jersey number, 22, will be retired by the Bruins in a ceremony on Jan. 18, four days after his assembly address.

Chester Finn ’62, education expert

Jan. 21

Only eight years removed from his graduation from PEA, Finn was advising the Nixon White House on matters related to education. Finn has dedicated his life to the topic as a professor of education, an education policy and a for four years in the 1980s as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. A longtime advocate of school choice, he founded and is president emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to educational excellence in American schools.

Stephanie Clifford ’96, writer

Jan. 28

Clifford is a dual threat — a best-selling novelist and an award-winning journalist — who fell in love with writing as a reporter for The Exonian. “It was the best education of my life — it was so hard — I learned how to work, I learned how to hit deadlines in a way that I think a lot of people never have to,” she told a virtual assembly last year. Her second novel, “The Farewell Tour,” will be published in 2023 by HarperCollins.

27th annual Exeter Invitational spectator information

Exeter boys hockey is proud to be hosting the 27th annual Exeter Invitational this Saturday, December 4th and Sunday, December 5th. The invitational will feature some of the top NEPSAC boys hockey programs in what will undoubtedly provide a weekend of fun, competitive hockey.

We ask all visitors to campus to follow our Health and Safety protocols in order to keep our community safe.

  • Coaches, personnel, fans and all visitors and spectators must wear masks at all times inside of PEA buildings, regardless of vaccination status. This includes spectator areas, playing areas for indoor sports, restrooms, and locker rooms. 
  • Players participating in an official contest do not need to wear a mask while playing.
  • Masks are not required for visitors outdoors on campus. Spectators should allow comfortable distancing and avoid large, tightly packed groups. 

The schedule for games both Saturday and Sunday is below. If you cannot catch the action live, please tune in to Exeter Live to watch games on both Rink A and Rink B.

Saturday, December 4th
3:30 PM – Rink A – Kimball Union vs. Vermont Academy
4:00 PM – Rink B – New Hampton vs. Brunswick
6:00 PM – Rink A – Exeter vs. Gunnery
6:30 PM- Rink B – Hebron vs. Kent

Sunday, December 5th
12:00 PM – Rink B – Hebron vs. Vermont Academy
12:30 PM – Rink A – Gunnery vs. New Hampton
2:30 PM – Rink B – Kent vs. Kimball Union
3:00 PM – Rink A – Exeter vs. Brunswick

Harkness solo: Independent projects stir passions

Wyatt McLaughlin ’22 wanted to prove he could make a meaningful individual contribution to the fight against climate change even amid a busy senior year at the Academy. He just needed to learn how to weld first.

McLaughlin worked late nights throughout his senior fall in his parents’ basement workshop converting a worn-out moped from gasoline to electric-battery power. He presented his near-final product to classmates and his adviser, Modern Languages Instructor Mark Trafton, to close fall term.

McLaughlin’s two-wheeler transformation was one of seven senior independent study projects completed throughout the fall. The program allows Exeter students to explore areas of interest that fall outside traditional course descriptions. Interested seniors, with approval from the faculty, design individual or joint projects of comparable value and scope to those of an academic course.

“I wanted to do something at this school that was purely for me,” said McLaughlin, a four-year day student from Exeter. “I think that stems from years of doing work in classes for other people. Even though it’s for your own brain, you’re doing the work for your teacher. In this environment, I could completely guide myself and, with the help of Mr. Trafton along the way, this was entirely for me and no one else.”

The time and resources poured into senior projects often exceed those dedicated to many senior-level classes, and McLaughlin’s was no exception. He spent an average of three hours a night throughout fall term rebuilding the bike, interrupted only when he waited for parts to be delivered.

He eventually gutted the entire engine casing of the bike to house the new electric motor and the 72-volt battery. Trial and error led to replacing the original rear cog on the chain to increase speed — a painstaking process that required McLaughlin to grind down the bike’s drive shaft to make the cog fit — and then replacing the front cog to allow for more torque.

“I’ve always been a tinkerer. My dad and I always do the maintenance on the family cars and things like that — he’s the one who showed me how to weld — ever since I’ve been little,” McLaughlin said. “That’s just something we do in my family and something my dad and I bond over.”

Here are the other independent study projects completed this fall, as described by the seniors:

Moksha Akil
The Purpose of a Prayer

My project this term was a way for me merge my love of history and English by writing historical fiction short stories on Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the Bosnian War (1992-1995). I created multiple characters within these stories and wrote a world around them. In this, I hope to have captured their emotions — their pain, frustration, hopelessness. Hurricane Katrina and the Bosnian War were two incredibly painful moments in history and my goal was to write the characters’ emotions with as much accuracy as possible through historical research.

 

Anne Chen and Siona Jain
Laboring Women: Imperial Exploitations of Chinese and Indian Bodies

This project was completed in two parts. In the first, we created and followed a syllabus exploring the way our lives have been touched by colonial trauma, specifically as first-generation women of color. We began with broad themes and then narrowed into the tea trade, care drain, Oriental fetishization, colonial law, and interracial suffragette movements. In the second part, we choreographed an eight-piece show with duets, solos, and ensembles speaking to this research.

 

Vincent Xiao
Investigating the Effects of Active Aerodynamics on High-Performance Rear Wheel Drive Road Vehicles
I have worked on the design and development of custom active aerodynamics for a one-fifth scale Formula 1 race car. I used computer-aided design and computational fluid dynamics softwares to create and optimize aerodynamic profiles, before testing the physical elements in a wind tunnel and on the car.
 
Zander Galli
Pandemics & Conservation High School Curriculum

My goal is to build a curriculum for high school students that emphasizes the connection between wildlife conservation and future pandemic emergence. COVID-19 will serve as the impetus since its effects are so immediate. From HIV to SARS to malaria, the curriculum will explain that the destruction of nature and the removal of wild species from their ecosystems allows for an abundance of diseases to spread into human populations and that without sweeping biodiversity protections, the pattern is destined to be repeated.

 

Michelle Park
Both Sides of the Prison Cell: Oral Histories with Individuals Who Have Worked in Prison Facilities
After conducting oral histories with formerly incarcerated individuals in Washington state this past summer, I wanted to pursue interviews with correctional officers and higher officials. I began by asking the individuals who worked in prison facilities questions about how working with incarcerated individuals affected their lives, how they began working at a prison, and how they changed due to their job. I also inquired about the more personal aspects of their work that aren’t often shared in scholarship: the fears or anxieties that came with their job, their interactions with incarcerated individuals, the obstacles they faced, the rewarding parts of their job, and most of all, how it felt to go home at the end of the day while others couldn’t. With this project, I’m hoping to begin investigating how all players — incarcerated individuals, wardens, correctional officers — are psychologically affected by the larger prison industrial complex by showcasing how both sides of the prison cell intertwine.
 
Adrian Sun
Virtual Gifting: The Emergence of Digital Conspicuous Consumption 

I chose to write a research paper that investigated the transition of physical conspicuous consumption to digital conspicuous consumption in China — specifically, the feature of virtual gifting in livestreaming platforms. Citing various extant literatures that have studied the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption, my literature review firstly contextualizes conspicuous consumption in China, highlighting the motivations and factors that exacerbate such practices in the nation. My paper further argues that the motivations of social reward and recognition that drive the expenditure of luxury goods hold true for the practice of virtual gifting as well. Finally, my paper maintains that due to the sentiments of envy, narcissism, and social comparison that prompt conspicuous consumption in the virtual world indicates that virtual gifting may be negatively correlated with user mental health. By analyzing the unique phenomenon of digital consumption in China, we come to understand the influences of rapid socioeconomic transformations on consumer behavior and mental health.

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Exeter Today

Senior project: history, passion, podcast

Adedolapo Adedokun's senior project spotlights students of color.

Exeter Today

Capturing color

Jed Breen '19 stands beside his senior project — a tiny house he built by hand.

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Home, sweet (tiny) home

Global Initiatives program on the road again

After the final bell tolled on fall term, 25 international students ventured to two historic American cities. Fourteen students traveled to Boston and 11 to New York City over the Thanksgiving break as part of the first Academy-sponsored travel programs to urban areas since the start of the pandemic.

“The main purpose of these Thanksgiving trips is for us to provide a safe, interesting, connected, subsidized experience for students so that they have a chance to have some downtime, build some connections with one another … and come back to campus feeling a sense of rejuvenation,” says Director of Global Initiatives Eimer Page.

The programs offered international students an alternative to traveling to their home countries, which in some instances require hotel quarantines lasting longer than the school break.

Page and members of the Exeter administration worked diligently to ensure students and chaperones adhered to COVID safety guidelines during the trips.

“There’s so much to be thought about whenever we’re sending students out into more crowded venues, both the safety of our students and also us going into those communities,” she says. “There’s a lot of work being done just to figure out the protocols, to make these trips happen safely.”

In a typical academic year, more than 400 Exonians engage in experiential learning opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. From trips during Thanksgiving and spring breaks to entire terms spent immersed in places like France, Russia and Spain, the Global Initiatives program features a wealth of offerings. The pandemic has curtailed most of those opportunities since the start of 2020, but over the summer, a group of 12 students, led by Instructor in English Jason BreMiller, participated in an experiential education program in Vermont.

“We put our toe back in the water in a very controlled way last June,” says Page. “[Students] were kayaking, hiking and doing trail maintenance … in a camp that was not yet open to the outside world.” 

Each of the Thanksgiving trips was built around a focus of inquiry. Students traveling to Boston studied urbanization and how city’s design has favored wealthier areas. Students also learned about the city’s standing STEM-industry hub. The New York group focused on the city’s history of immigration and how various populations have contributed to New York’s culture.

“The students were able to pick a destination based on interests of theirs,” Page says. “That gives them some common purpose. It’s not just, ‘We’re going to a city together.’ It’s we’re going to a city and this is how we’re going to be looking at it and this is what we’re going to be talking about. Which is very much in keeping with our pre-COVID travel, as well.”

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Exeter students pose for a photo while exploring Havana, Cuba.

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Exonians in Rome.

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A group of Exeter students standing in front of the ocean in Maui

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Blitzshaw tapped to lead girls water polo

The Exeter Athletics Department has announced Meg Blitzshaw as the newest head coach of the girls water polo program.

“We could not be happier to welcome someone of Meg’s stature to our department,” said Big Red Athletics Director Jason Baseden. “Her combination of experience coaching in the pool and working with students is truly remarkable. She will undoubtedly make a lasting impact on our students and their experience at Exeter.”

Blitzshaw, who is currently an assistant coach with the Big Red boys water polo and boys swimming program, is no stranger to the water polo world, as she has excelled as both a player and a coach. A native of Durham, New Hampshire, Blitzshaw was a student at Phillips Academy Andover before moving on to Bucknell University, where she served as captain of the Bisons water polo team during her junior and senior seasons. While at Bucknell, Blitzshaw re-wrote the record books, setting all-time program records for goals in a season, career goals and career points.

After her illustrious playing career, Blitzshaw immediately joined the coaching ranks, spending four years at Lake Forest Academy. She was a biology and environmental science teacher in addition to coach of the boys and girls swimming program while also starting a club water polo program. After her time at LFA, Blitzshaw traveled to Australia, where she earned her master’s degree in Conservation Biology while playing and coaching with the Sydney Uni Lions team.

After returning stateside, Blitzshaw joined the faculty at Choate Rosemary Hall, where she served as coach for both the boys and girls water polo program for six years. Following her time at Choate, she moved to Georgetown Country Day as an instructor in biology, environmental science and developed a health and wellness curriculum on campus. While in D.C., she played water polo with the Washington Seahorses, a team founded as a gay men’s team that has become an open, welcoming, and inclusive program and was also able to represent the team at the 2018 Paris Gay Games.

Blitzshaw returns home to the Seacoast area with her husband, D.J, and black lab, Rigel.

Happiness is just a deep breath away, author says

How can you lessen your susceptibility to diabetes and heart disease, lower your stress, sharpen your focus, fight tooth decay and make yourself more physically attractive?

Just breathe. Or rather, just breathe correctly.

This is the conclusion James Nestor has come to after 10 years spent studying the science of breathing — and the utter failure of humankind to do it the right way.

“Me, you, and everyone you know, are part of a species that are the worst breathers of any animal in the whole animal kingdom,” Nestor claims.

His book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, has been translated into 30 languages and has drawn near-universal praise since its release in 2020. One reviewer called the book an “invigorating user’s manual for the respiratory system.” Another said it is “an eye-opening, epic journey of human devolution that explains why so many of us are sick and tired.”

Nestor brought his research to Exeter on Nov. 19, speaking at assembly and conducting a follow-up Q+A with students over lunch.

Me, you, and everyone you know, are part of a species that are the worst breathers of any animal in the whole animal kingdom."

“Our breath is this extremely powerful tool that allows us to access full functions in our bodies that nothing else can,” Nestor said. “About 30 pounds of air enters in and out of our lungs every day. And how we take that air in and how we exhale it determines so much of our mental wellbeing, our physical health, and even our life span. But here’s the bad news. The vast majority of us are breathing all wrong.”

The author is quick to disclaim good breathing habits as a cure-all. He also acknowledges much of what is in his book has been known to science for decades — and was understood by ancient cultures long before. Nestor’s book punctuates the science with storytelling, from primitive burial grounds to polluted Brazilian streets to deep-sea dives off the coast of Greece. His assembly talk deftly interwove anecdotes like those with data and was structured around four basic recommendations: Breathe through the nose, not the mouth; breathe slow and steady; exercise your breathing “muscles” by chewing; and become aware of your breathing patterns.

“When you breathe through the mouth, it’s almost like your lungs are an external organ,” Nestor said. “They’re exposed to everything in the environment: dust, pathogens, viruses, bacteria, and more. And mouth breathing leads to a number of severe health problems.”

Nestor said between 25% and 50% of the population habitually breathes through the mouth, and that is an extremely inefficient way to supply oxygen to the brain. “When we breathe air through our nose, we push it through a bunch of different structures, and those structures heat the air up; they humidify it; they pressurize it; and they condition it, so that by the time it enters our lungs, we get about 25% more oxygen breathing through our nose than we do equivalent breaths through our mouth.”

Nestor said science shows that a respiration rate of about five to six breaths per minute — about five to six seconds to inhale, five to six seconds to exhale — is ideal. That pattern lowers heart rates and blood pressure and feeds more oxygen to our brains. That allows our brains to operate at peak efficiency.

“I’m not saying that nasal breathing is going to cure you of all issues you’ve ever had, but it can only have benefits, and for some people it can be transformative,” Nestor said.

“The more we understand our breathing, the more we acknowledge it, and the more we use it, we can either reduce the symptoms of several chronic problems, or in some extraordinary cases, eliminate them all together.”

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A big day for Big Red as E/A returns

The oldest rivals in high school sports proved that not even a global pandemic can dull the shine of Exeter/Andover.

Fall athletes from the two schools clashed Saturday for the first time in 736 days in the resumption of a competition that began in 1878, treating raucous student sections and proud alumni to a day worthy of the tradition.

Big Red took the spoils, ending a football drought in dominating fashion and sweeping to a quartet of New England cross-country team championships — fittingly on Andover’s home course. Overall, Exeter took eight of 10 varsity meetings this fall from their age-old rival, including a sweep of two boys water polo matches.

Exeter girls volleyball kicked off Saturday with an exciting 3-1 victory inside Love Gym. Andover control early and took a 1-0 lead on a first-set victory before Peyton Hollis ’22, KG Buckham-White ’22, and Sofia Morais ‘23 carried Big Red to three straight set wins and the first victory of the day.

Big Red carried the momentum outside to Phelps Stadium as boys varsity soccer rolled to a 3-1 victory. Diego Buyu ’22 scored two goals, Atticus Ross ’23 scored once and Charlie Coughlin ’22 was rock solid in goal for Big Red. It was the seniors’ first win in the feud after settling for draws in 2019 and 2018.

Andover evened matters with victories in girls varsity soccer and varsity field hockey. On the soccer pitch, Andover held a 1-0 lead before Esme Shields ’24 tucked a beautiful shot past the Andover keeper and into the side of the goal to level the score. The Blue nosed ahead with a goal with just nine minutes to go to earn a 2-1 win.

In field hockey, Andover jumped out to 1-0 lead just two minutes into the first quarter. Big Red punched right back with a goal of their own just one minute later when Eden Welch ’23 buried a shot from eight yards out. Welch would add another tally and Kate Nixon ’23 also scored, but it was not enough to stop the Blue from a 7-3 win.

The final game of the day tipped the final tally in Exeter’s favor as Big Red football trounced the Blue, 37-6 — Exeter’s first in the series since 2012. The Big Red offense got going in the first quarter as Sean Greene ’23 found Caleb Phillips ’23 for a 35-yard touchdown pass. Greene put Big Red up two scores with a 10-yard run up the middle for a 16-0 edge at halftime. Big Red continued to build their lead in the third when Tyler Pezza ’22 broke a pair of tackles and took a screen pass 22 yards to the endzone before Greene connected with Ethan Aguilar ’22 for a 25-yard touchdown pass over the top of the Andover defense. Ca’lub Holloway ’22 capped the scoring for Exeter when he plunged into the end zone from three yards out to seal the romp. 

Cross country crowned

In addition to the rivalry matchups, the boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Andover for the Interschol Championships and returned home with some hardware. Boys varsity and JV and girls varsity and JV cross country swept all four Interschol races. This marks the third Big Red title in the past five seasons for both the boys and girls varsity, who entered as defending champs after each won in 2019. The boys JV program secured its fifth straight championship; the girls JV team earned its fourth in the last five years.

Byron Grevious ’24 was crowned New England champion with a first-place finish with a time of 15:27 to pace the Big Red boys varsity. Kamran Murray ’22 placed third overall and Bradley St. Laurent ’22 took fifth as Big Red dominated the competition. Exeter finished with 28 points — second-place Northfield Mount Hermon scored 84.

Kaitlyn Flowers ’22 (fifth place), Daria Ivanova ’24 (seventh), and Tenley Nelson ’24 (ninth) each finished in the top ten to power the girls varsity, as they topped second-place Loomis Chaffee by 16 points.

The boys JV cross country team finished one, two, three as Alex Kermath ‘22, Thomas Seidel ‘22, and Pearce Covert ’25 were the first three to cross the line. Exeter finished 10 points ahead of second-place Andover. It was more Big Red domination on the girls JV side as Exeter placed all seven scoring runners in the top 17, including Lassiter Foregger ’23, who earned a first-place finish with a time of 21:42.

Vet talks service, leadership with Exeter community

As a combat commander during two tours in Iraq, Zach Iscol ’97 fought with and led American Marines in battle. As a private citizen since his return, Iscol has continued to fight for former American servicemen and women at home.

Iscol launched the Headstrong Project, a nonprofit that provides free health care to a thousand veterans monthly in 35 cities across the United States. He also founded Hirepurpose, a hiring platform for veterans and their spouses that provides career guidance and matches them with potential employers.

“I think no matter what leadership role you’re in, if you take care of your people, you give them the resources that they need, you know that you’re looking out for their welfare, they will go and accomplish that mission,” Iscol said.

Iscol, awarded the John and Elizabeth Phillips Award in 2017, was back on campus this week to headline “Exeter Salutes,” the Academy’s annual Veterans Day celebration of Exonians who exemplify non sibi through military service. In a conversation Tuesday evening with Jack Herney ’46, ’69, ’71, ’74, ’92, ’95 (Hon.), emeritus chair of the History Department, he recounted how he found his way from Exeter to the Marines and eventually to the streets of Fallujah, where he commanded a platoon throughout the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War. Iscol also shared how his military experiences have shaped his life since those harrowing times and he lamented how the nation’s political and military leadership have failed to adapt their approach to warfare in the 21st century with tragic results.

“If you look at the military today … it’s not that different than it was 20 years ago,” he said. “And I think that begs the question as to how have we not evolved? How have we not met the challenges of today by adapting the military to the requirements that we have?”

Watch the full conversation between Capt. Iscol and Mr. Herney here:

E/A: The anatomy of a rivalry

Days before America’s oldest high school sporting rivalry took root, the editors of The Exonian newspaper expressed high hopes for the occasion:

“We are looking forward with interest to the game of football with Andover,” they wrote in the Oct. 26, 1878, edition. “We trust that the game will be a friendly one, and that the beaten party will accept their defeat as a fair and an honorable one.”

If the ensuing 22-0 Exeter defeat altered those warm thoughts, it didn’t stop the schools from continuing their “friendly” competition. On Nov. 13, Big Red and Big Blue will resume a thrice-annual athletic clash for the 143rd time.

Ahead of that renewal, we offer a quick snapshot of E/A history:

Exeter starts on top

The 1878 football game wasn’t the first athletic contest between the schools. That came the previous spring, when the two met on an Exeter baseball diamond. The result: A 12-1 Exeter victory on May 22, 1878. PEA second baseman E.H. Brown rapped out three hits and Big Red took advantage of 13 Andover errors.

Big Red is born

So, how did Exeter come to be Big Red? That first baseball game against Andover set the style. From The Exonian: “The uniform of the school nine consists of the following: knee-breeches, sweat-shirt, square cut blouse, of white flannel trimmed with cardinal red, cardinal red stockings and a white flannel cap.” The PEA football team also wore red that fall, with The Exonian noting, “This bright color and the color of the Andover suits will make a very pretty contrast.” The rest is history.

Reversal of fortunes

Exeter lost the initial football game, but the wait for revenge was brief. The following November, Andover stepped off the train amid a tempest and was figuratively if not literally blown away by Big Red. The 18-0 victory was the first of 54 for Exeter in the long-running series.

Bittersweet victory

Andover rode an eight-year winning streak into the 1913 football game. PEA Principal Harlan Paige Amen beseeched the entire student body to pray for victory, claiming that Exonians needed a win to regain their faith and hope. Exeter responded with a stunning 59-0 victory at home before a reported crowd of 8,000 people — only to learn the next morning that Amen had suffered a stroke and passed away. “Rarely have the joy and sorrow of life more strangely confronted each other than in the events of the past two days at Phillips Exeter Academy,” the Boston Transcript reported. “Few of the thousands who witnessed the phenomenal football victory of its students over the sister institution of Andover knew that the head of this famous school was dying at his home.”

One for the ages

“The place was Brother’s Field; the clay was fair; the teams were in perfect condition; and the score was 78 to 7. Such a victory with such a score may never take place again in the rivalry of the two schools.” So goes the opening paragraph of The Exonian’s report on Nov. 18, 1914 from the biggest rout in E-A football lore. The writer was prescient: Andover holds the overall edge in the series, but Exeter forever boasts the most one-sided win.

A kick in the grass

Exeter’s first interscholastic soccer match fittingly came against Andover. On Nov. 7, 1928, a veteran Andover side, which had lost just once in four years, arrived for an exhibition match. Beyond all expectations, Exeter reportedly dominated play but lost, 1-0. It would be 11 years before PEA finally tasted victory in the series, with a goal from Bud Palmer ’40 leading to a breakthrough 1-0 victory in 1939.

The comeback

In what may be one of the greatest Exeter victories in the long-running football series, quarterback Mike Lynch ’72 rallied Big Red from a 20-3 deficit to stun Andover 30-20 in the 1971 meeting in front of a crowd of 5,300. The win gave Exeter a share of its first New England title in 15 years.

You lose some …

The Exeter-Andover rivalry began a new era on Nov. 7, 1973, when girls teams first represented their respective schools in the feud. It was a less-than-grand opening for Big Red; Andover swept matchups in field hockey and girls soccer. The losses in the debut of girls sports were part of an Andover sweep of all the varsity competitions that fall.

… and you win some

A year later, Exeter turned the tables entirely. Highlighted by a first-place finish in boys cross-country in Interschols (Andover was second) and a 4-2 boys soccer win to complete an unbeaten season, Exeter enjoyed a clean sweep of its own, with victories in football, girls soccer and field hockey.

Not this time

The superb field hockey team of 1983 had its shot at an unbeaten season spoiled on the last day; a 1-0 loss to Andover. Big Red gained some revenge the following fall, with Peggy Proctor’s goal sealing a 1-0 win over Big Blue and capping a 10-1 season.

Better late …

Exeter’s 12-0 girls soccer season of 1989 was consummated with a resounding 3-1 win over Andover, a match that started more than an hour late because the guests were a late arrival.

“Exeter Beats Andover 20-20”

In the 1994 football clash, Exeter erased fourth-quarter deficits of 14-0 and 20-6 to rally for a 20-20 tie. The result knocked Andover out of the New England Class A title game and prompted The Exonian to declare victory by emulating an infamous Harvard Crimson headline.

Fit to be tied

The 2002 football game ended tied 14-14, the 10th and most recent tie in the long rivalry. Tradition dictates that the teams do not play overtime. In that 2002 game, Big Blue was driving for the winning score, but Exeter’s Austin Blackmon ’03 intercepted a pass in the end zone on the game’s final play.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the fall 2019 issue of The Exeter Bulletin.

How do I love the library? Archivist counts the ways.

Few know Louis Kahn and his genius as well as Bill Whitaker. As curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, Whitaker lives Kahn’s work daily. He speaks frequently about Kahn and is the keeper of more than 36,000 of the architect’s drawings.

And still, as Whitaker addressed assembly Friday to talk about Kahn and his creation, the Class of 1945 Library, he couldn’t hide his envy of Exonians and their proximity to a masterpiece.

“I come here as a guest, as a visitor, as an architect, and I come and go,” he said. “You have four years with this building.

“It is a great privilege to live amongst a building of this quality,” Whitaker said. “To see it, to experience it, to look at the light, to look at the world through it. You will learn in this building, you may make some long-term friendships that will come out of the building, but you all have the opportunity to learn from this building and to receive its simple gifts.”

Whitaker’s visit was part of the Academy’s celebration of the library and the 50th anniversary of its opening. He is one of a legion of Kahn admirers in general and enthusiasts about Exeter’s library in particular. The building is a magnet for architects and design lovers worldwide.

Simply put, the library is a great work of art. It is timeless in its conception and it is epic in its execution.”
Bill Whitaker, curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design

Whitaker promised his listeners his short address would not consist of statistics about the library or biographical trivia about Kahn, but instead “try to get us in his head,” but he opened his remarks underlining what he loves about the building: “Simply put, the library is a great work of art. It is timeless in its conception and it is epic in its execution.”

He said the library reminds him of the Aaron Copland symphony, “Appalachian Spring,” which he called “a moving and complex thing that is based on something very simple. … Your library is based on a similarly simple theme and it, too, is a moving and complex thing that can be returned to time and again. Every time I come here, I’m taking something new from the experience.”

He likened the library to a journal, in that “it captures time. If you don’t write it down in the moment, it’s gone. … The Exeter Library captures time in the way that it shapes natural light and brings into focus the world around and our place in it. It’s particularly sensitive to the changing mood of the day and the seasons.”

Whitaker took the students through Kahn’s process of designing and redesigning the building, showing through some of the 2,000 drawings of the library his museum owns how the plans evolved from the time of Kahn’s hiring in 1966 until the day the building opened in November 1971. Windows grew and shrunk; arches came and went. He showed how the study carrels were central to the design of the structure and not simply furniture added to a finished shell. And he underscored how a great building’s creation is the result of a collaborative process, giving credit to late Exeter Librarian Rodney Armstrong and the faculty members who helped Kahn and his team.

Whitaker told his audience that celebrating the anniversary of a building, this building, is an appropriate and fitting gesture.

“As an architect, every time I come here, there’s an indelible impression that that building leaves with me,” he said. “The fact that we’re at this assembly today and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the completion of the building tells us that this is no ordinary building. And I promise you, 25 years from now, 50 years from now, there’s going to be some guy just like me or some person just like me, who’s going to be saying something very similar attesting to the greatness of this building.”

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