Class News

John Howells ’64 recalls his final water polo match at Yale

June 17, 2022

John Howells, who was captain of the team, reminisced about his final water polo match against Army at West Point on May 6, 1964. John wrote as follows:

When I was at Yale, water polo was a club sport played in the spring. A number of the swimmers played as a way of staying in shape while having some fun. Our unpaid coach was Fred Basett, a former NYAC water polo player. We had a league that included a number of New York city colleges plus Yale, RPI, and Army.

Front Row — Szilagyi, Sessions, Capt. Howells, Jones, Clark. Back Row — Lyons, Goettsche, Harris, Balfour, Strotz, Leveaux. Middle Row — Watters, Thorne, Brown, Townsend, Sidell, Rice, Bassett.

The team included four Olympians, Mike Austin, Steve Clark, Dave Lyons, and Ed Townsend, and two All-Americans, Dale Kiefer and Roger Goetche. Ted Jones from our class was also on the team. I was not a very good swimmer, but since Yale made no cuts, I swam all four years. I was also on the water polo team, and the only reason I got in the pool during a game was that I was the only person willing to play goalie. NONE of the other players would even consider it. This probably tells you something about me.

My senior year we were unbeaten and tied with Army for the league championship, and went up to Army to play our last game. My parents had never seen a water polo game with or without me in it, so I invited them to come up to West Point to see the game. It was a close game, we were behind in the third quarter, but scored enough goals in the last quarter to win. My memory is that Steve Clark had a particularly good game and scored the winning goal.

After the game my father told me about a conversation he had in the dining hall before the game. We ate lunch in the Army dining hall before the game and I had invited my father to join us because he had eaten there when he was in college. I was seated at one end of the table, and the rest of the team was seated along the sides of the table. My father was seated next to the Army captain who was seated at the other end of the table from me. My father decided to try to needle the Army captain a little.

“You don’t look so happy. You aren’t worried about playing these guys, are you?”

“The hell, wouldn’t you be. It’s the whole Olympic team.”

“Oh, they aren’t all that good”

“The heck they aren’t, all except that crazy goalie!”