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Westport News

Westport, Conn.
December 9, 2005


Yale’s Ironmen Get Their Due By Dan Woog

   For generations, fathers have taken sons to college football games. It's a fall ritual, as immutable as raking leaves and carving pumpkins. For most boys it's a transitory thrill — fun while it lasts, but quickly forgotten in the grand scheme of life.

   For one man, it was a life-changing event. In November of 1934, Yale played Princeton at Palmer Stadium. The Bulldogs were an average team; they'd lost half of their six games. But in those days this was big-time football, and 53,000 fans jammed the stands. The only score came in the fast quarter, when Larry Kelley reached high in the sky to haul in a pass, then eluded three Tiger tacklers to complete a 48-yard touchdown play. Yale used only 11 players that day — the same 11 athletes played every down, on offense and defense. They were tabbed the Ironmen, and the next day the New York newspapers were filled with reports of their achievement.

   Bill Wallace was there. Just 10 years old, he thrilled to both the game and the subsequent media coverage. He weighed 49 pounds, and he knew he would never be a football player. Instead, he vowed to write up games like that one.

   He did. Following in the footsteps of his father and other male relatives, he was accepted at Yale. World War II interrupted, but after three years in the service Wallace returned to New Haven. After graduation, he says, he "got lucky." A copy-editing job opened up at the New York World-Telegram. He did that for a year, then became an actual sportswriter, covering yachting, skiing — and college football. Wallace says, "I was in heaven."

   After eight years he got lucky again. The Herald Tribune needed a yachting editor. Wallace honed his craft there. He married, had children, and moved to Southport.

   In the early 1960s, the New York newspaper industry was in crisis. Declining readership and a crippling strike knocked several papers out of business. But once more Wallace was in the right place at the right time. He moved over to the New York Times, and for the next 35 years William N. Wallace's byline appeared in what is arguably the most prestigious newspaper in the world. He loved the Times, and spent a fulfilling 35 years there before retiring in 1999.

   But that 1934 Yale-Princeton football game was never far from his mind. In 2000 his wife Linda — an independent publicist— got him an assignment for a men's fashion quarterly. He could write 2,000 words about any sports-related topic he wanted. He chose the Ironmen. As often happens, the piece had to be cut — to just 500 words. The sections that were edited out  "were pretty good," Wallace says modestly. He did not want them to disappear. At that point, he realized he had to write a book.

   So, at the age of 80, Wallace decided to publish the book himself — with a twist. He opted for print-on-demand, the 21st- century version of Johan Gutenberg's printing press. "You do all the work yourself," Wallace explains. "You really put yourself into the whole project. But the book gets published."

   He is buoyed by the initial reaction. "A number of people have told me how much they liked the book," he reports. "That makes me think it's a good product. With print-on-demand, it's almost like peddling socks one pair at a time. But I control my own destiny. I'm in command."