The White Falcon - 30.04.1960, Side 3

Saturday, April 30, 1960
THE WHITE FALCON
3
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Football Helps Support
Other College Sports
By Martin Reisch, AF Academy Sports Writer
On April 15 the Air Force Academy Foundation will begin the
inservice phase of its drive for $3,500,000 to build the 40,000 seat
Falcon Stadium at the Air Force Academy.
In the 30 days following, every officer, airmen and civilian on
Air Force installations throughout the world will be given an op-
portunity to contribute. Solicitation of contributions from the Air
Force Reserve and retired personnel will also take place during
this period.
All phases of the drive, in-service and out, are being conducted
by the Air Force Academy Foundation, Inc. This organization was
formed by a group of public-spirited Colorado citizens in 1954 to
fill the position normally filled by an alumni association.
Now, with Dudley C. Sharp Secretary of the Air Force as honor-
ary Chairman of the Board, the membership includes prominent
citizens from all parts of the Country.
A part of its purpose is to ".... serve the Cadet Wing by raising
and receiving funds to be donated to the Department of the Air
Force which will provide those facilities not available through ap-
propriated funds”.
There are some good reasons why an appeal of this nature is
necessary. First, it is not possible to use Federal money to construct
a facility for which more than a minimum service charge will be
asked for admission.
Also a loan of $3,500,000 to the Air Force Academy Athletic As-
sociation would cripple the Association’s ability to support the whole
sports program. Interest on such a loan, at five percent, would
amount to $175,000 the first year. This does not allow for a pay-
ment on the principal or the cost of maintenance or improvements.
Add the $175,000 plus the $600,000 or $800,000 required for a
major intercollegiate athletic program and you will understand the
need for a fund drive. Anyway this is not an original idea. In
September last year the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium was
dedicated. Sparkplugged by its Alumni Associatoin, it raised
$2,300,000 in a similar campaign for a 28,100 seat stadium.
The Air Force Academy’s sports program is not unduly ambitious.
It is on a par with other major intercollegiate athletic programs. It
includes 15 sports on a varsity level. Thirteen of these sports are
offered also on a fourth class or freshman level. Additionally, the
Athletic Association aids in promoting physical education and intra-
mural sports for all cadets.
Revenue from football must support a major part of the sports
program with some assistance from basketball. It is already contri
buting much in this direction. Revenue will grow with a 40,000 seat
stadium in the rapidly growing Denver-Colorado Springs area, accord-
ing to an analysis of probable attendance. The stadium is designed
so that it may be expanded in the future if the need arises.
The Air Force Academy Falcons are already meeting some of
the country’s top college football teams before large crowds. The
Army-Air Force game last fall was a sell-out in Yankee Stadium.
The chances are excellent that every game played in Falcon Stadium
will likewise be a sell-out.
Your contribution to the Foundation’s drive for funds is your
vote of confidence in the entire athletic program of the Air Force
Academy and particularly its football future.
Adenauer . . .
(Continued from Page 1.)
ented Colonel Benjamin G. Willis
USAF, Iceland Defense Force
Commander. The Defense Force,
a NATO Organization respons-
ible for the defense of Iceland, is
located at Keflavik Airport. The
Military Air Transport Service is
responsible for operational facili-
ties at the base which houses
the only fighter squadron in this
command.
Major Becker, a veteran of 18
years in the Air Force, has been
a MATS pilot for 13 of these
years. He is currently serving on
the Staff of IDF here in Iceland.
Chosen as Mr. Adenauer’s pilot
because of his ability to speak
German, Major Becker has flown
many other important persons
while flying special missions for
MATS. Among these were Theo-
dore Heuss, former West German
President, the King of Morocco,
the President of Uraguay and
the late Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles. He was also one
of the pilots who flew Vice Presi-
dent Nixon on his first round-the-
world trip in the fall of 1953.
Major Becker is slated to leave
Iceland this summer to rejoin his
wife and eight children in Arling-
ton, Virginia.
Proof of heredity is that if
your parents didn’t have any
children, the chances are good
that you won’t either.
Air Force Mag
Defines Jargon
If such words as “ablation” and
“zodiacal band” cause you to “uh-
huh” through a conversation, you
are not quite abreast of the “state-
of-the-art” in the aerospace age.
To fill this technical gap Air
Force Magazine for April devotes
most of its 182 pages to a “Mis-
sile and Space Almanac” which
includes a concise, but not stingy,
glossary; a bibliography of sever-
al hundred titles covering such
subjects as rockets and missiles;
astronautics and spaceflight and
the men involved; earth satellites;
background reference and research
and photos and descriptions of 50
missiles and space weapons.
For Officers Too
Officers who shy away from
picking up a copy of “The Air-
man” under the mistaken notion
that the magazine is aimed at the
enlisted side of the Air Force are
missing their ration of tasty, in-
formative reading.
The official journal of the Air
Force uses the word “airman” in
its generic sense—that is, it’s for
men of the air, men of all grades
and trades who are concerned
with flight, today’s pioneers in
aerospace.
The last word in new cars still
comes from the back seat.
Proposed Home for Falcons
(Editors Note: The following article was derived from the Airman’s Magazine and the editors of
the White Falcon are grateful to them for allowing the re-use of the material.)
Here ere the facts about the
worldwide Air Force drive to raise
funds to build a “new nest” for
the homeless U.S. Air Force Aca-
demy Falcons.
Ever since the Academy moved
to its new site at Colorado Springs
in 1958 its gridiron squad—your
football team—has been without a
stadium. So the Air Force Acad-
emy Foundation, a nonprofit org-
anization, is holding a drive with
Air Force cooperation from April
15 to May 15 to raise money for
its construction. Officers, airmen,
and civilians will have an oppor-
tunity to participate in the drive
to provide a 40,000-seat stadium.
Cost of the ultramodern sta-
dium, situated near the Rocky
Mountains, is estimated at $3,500,-
000. One million dollars is expect-
ed to come from active-duty per-
sonnel, while civilians will donate
the reminder.
The large stadium is designed
for the convenience of both spect-
ators and participants. Five near-
by parking areas, no more than
All Members of The
United States Air
Force
The Air Force Academy needs
a suitable athletic stadium of
its own. In recognition of this
need and the fact that such a
stadium must be built with non-
appropriated funds, the Secre-
tary of the Air Force has ap-
proved the conduct of a fund-
raising campaign. This drive
will be under the sponsorship
of the Air Force Academy
Foundation, a non-profit organi-
zation, and will be made during
the period 15 April and 15 May
1960.
The in-service portion of the
campaign will seek solicitations
from all Active, Retired and
Reserve members of the Air
Force. It is my earnest desire
that the drive be conducted in
a spirit of true voluntary giv-
ing. With this basic guideline
and the great interest all mem-
bers of the Air Force have in
supporting the Air Force Aca-
demy, I am confident that you
will support enthusiastically
and generously this most worth-
while endeavor.
THOMAS D. WHITE
Chief of Staff
four minutes’ walk from the
stands, will accommodate 8,700
cars and 300 buses. All stadium
seats will have an unobstructed
view of the playing field. Seven-
ty-five percent are planned on the
west side of the field.
Each deck of the three-level
bowl will be complete with rest-
rooms and food concession booths.
The entire stadium can be emptied
in less than 15 minutes by conveni-
ent “exits.”
Other features will make the
stadium one of the best-equipped
in America. Some 3,500 square
feet of inside floor space will pro-
vide locker rooms and shower
stalls for players and special of-
fices for coaches.
In the design an enclosed press
and radio room is located atop the
stands, also on the west side of
the field. There will be room for
105 reporters’ desks in three rows.
Seven radio booths will be located
there. TV camera pits for network
television coverage are nearby.
A two-acre marshaling area is
provided near the stadium for pre-
game cadet formations. From here
cadets enter the stadium through
a tunnel onto the playing field.
The Cadet Wing will be seated in
the lower middle section.
All special seating areas and the
press box are to be made of steel.
The rest of the stadium will be
built of reinforced concrete. Con-
struction and design of the sta-
dium is tailored to the natural
bowl landscape of the terrain.
The stadium will “belong” to
both the Air Force and the Aca-
demy since the cadet team repre-
sents the Nation’s air arm in inter-
collegiate sports. In charge of
stadium construction is the Air
Force Academy Foundation, an
organization which promotes aca-
demy development by raising
funds for activities not provided
for by appropriated monies. Ap-
proval for construction of the pri-
vately financed stadium was gran-
ted the Air Force in 1956.
No “Pie in the Sky”
The proposed Falcon Stadium may seem like “pie-in-the-sky” to some
but not to Bill Kirn (left), treasurer of the Air Force Academy Founda-
tion which is sponsoring the drive to raise $3,500,000 to build the
Academy football stadium. Here Kirn explains an artist’s conception
of the Stadium to Falcon end, Cadet Bob Brickey and his date Barbara
Wilson, during a formal dinner dance at the Academy. Brickey will
graduate before the stadium is ready for use in 1962.