Celebrating Coach Pete Farwell

Note: Williams College alumni gathered at Williams on April 21-23, 2023 to pay tribute to retiring cross-country and track coach Pete Farwell. I had the honor of MCing the formal Saturday evening program, and, in that role, I offered the following remarks.

…To conclude this portion of the program, I ask for your indulgence as I offer a quick personal tribute to Pete. 

I brought a prop. Some of you have something like this [trophy]. Mine is a little different, though. Mine says, “WILLIAMS CROSS COUNTRY/ 1991/ POET LAUREATE/ GREG CROWTHER.”

This trophy — created by Pete, of course — owes its existence to a team culture, cultivated by Pete, that valued tradition and scholarship and camaraderie and fun, as well as winning  — a culture that welcomed athletes who could contribute in any of these areas.

One pillar of the team culture was the freshman talent show each fall. “Talent” was defined broadly, of course, and for my so-called talent, I wrote and delivered a Night-Before-Christmas parody poem in which I depicted Pete as an “athletic elf.”

This got some laughs, but Pete did more than laugh; he encouraged me to write more poems for other team functions, which led to parodies of works by Frost and Tennyson and Whitman and Madonna, among others. Pete recognized that even if these verses were not the work of an English major, they contributed to the team culture. And at the end of the season, he gave me this unorthodox trophy, which he presented with humor but without irony.

Of all the awards I’ve ever received, this one is my favorite. I especially love the fact that Pete created a whole new category in order to say, essentially, “That thing you do is really cool! Keep doing it!”

To be recognized and celebrated for one’s odd little talents is a rare and precious gift. It’s a gift that kids need to get from somebody, and that we usually get from our parents. But then when we grow up, and leave home, and start to make our way in the world, and try to figure out who we really are and where we might belong, it’s a gift that we get from people like Peter K. Farwell, Williams Class of 1973.

Thank you again, Pete, for this rare and precious gift.