Lafayette College to retire first football number today in honor of Fred Kirby '42

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Lafayette College has been playing football for 129 years -- since 1882, to be precise -- and has never retired a single jersey number.

That will change today, when the school retires the number 53 worn by Fred Morgan Kirby ’42 at its home opener with Harvard at Fisher Stadium (1 p.m.)

"This is a really significant event," Lafayette head coach Frank Tavani said. "It is the ultimate honor to have a jersey retired, the first to be retired here."

The retired number is not the only tribute the Leopards are offering to Kirby this season. Locker No. 53 in the Bourger Varsity Football House will remain unoccupied with a simple tribute Kirby inside. Lafayette has also remembered Fred Kirby by having his initials stitched on game jerseys and team gear.

"His initials are on our helmets and they will stay there as long as I am the coach here," Tavani said.

Over 25 members of the Kirby family, which has been deeply involved in the affairs of Lafayette for over a century, will attend today's ceremony.

Kirby, who died in February at the age of 91, played in Lafayette's last unbeaten team in 1940, a squad that beat Army, Lehigh and Rutgers and allowed just 33 points en route to an 9-0 record.

"He did take pleasure and pride in the fact that he had played on the most recent undefeated team in Lafayette history in his junior year and also played in the last game Lafayette won over Army," said Kirby's son, Jeff (Lafayette '84), in an article on Kirby published in today's game program.

Kirby, a 6-foot-2, 160-pound collegiate athlete who also lettered in swimming and wrestling at Lafayette, was known as the "Ram" for the battering style he played on both sides of the ball in the age of the two-way standouts.

Kirby went on to a successful career in business but never strayed far from football or from Lafayette.

“In the long history of our College, no one has contributed to our community more fully or with greater spirit than did Fred Kirby," wrote Lafayette President Daniel H. Weiss in today's program. "From the time of his youth, until the end of his life more than 90 years later, Fred devoted a significant portion of his time, his energy, his wisdom, and his philanthropy to Lafayette."

At this week's football media luncheon, Tavani credited Kirby with the sport's survival on College Hill during the dark period in the late 1990's when football's future at Lafayette was very much in doubt.

"Fred was directly responsible for saving this program," Tavani said. "He was very, very significant for us."

Weiss wrote: "As all who knew him can attest, one of Fred’s greatest interests was the success and vitality of Lafayette athletics. Fred was a steadfast supporter of our athletics program and an especially avid football fan. Indeed, it is likely that Fred Kirby attended more Lafayette football games than anyone in the history of the College."

Kirby's love of football benefited many beyond Easton. He spent a lifetime involved with the National Football Foundation, which operates as a supporter and promoter of the game in the amateur ranks, and was given the NFF Gold Medal in 2000, its highest honor. Kirby served on the board from 1982 until his death and was the vice-chairman from 1989-96.

"Fred Kirby stands as the embodiment of everything that the National Football Foundation represents: leadership, integrity, and the drive for excellence in all aspects of life,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning, father of Peyton and Eli.

Kirby wrote in his memoirs that what he learned in football helped make him a success in business, where for 39 years he steered the Alleghany Corporation to high returns and profits and sat on many corporate boards.

"Like everyone else who plays college football, I learned how to get along with types I had not earlier encountered," Kirby wrote. "I also learned team work, how to ignore pain, the value of conditioning, legitimate deception, the importance of sacrificing for the benefit of the team."

And for the benefit of Lafayette College, which honors Kirby's service today.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lafayette/index.ssf/2011/10/lafayette_college_to_retire_fi.html