This was the 1960s. Students questioned many aspects of American life. Such a student was Swarthmore football player Chris Leinberger. November 25: The Boy Who Quit Football Chris Leinberger, a sophomore, ended his college football career Saturday. He quit. He wanted to quit before the season ever started because he came to feel that football was a refutation of what was important in his life. But he didn't quit then because he felt he had a commitment to his teammates and the coach. Leinberger played at Swarthmore College, the fine, small Quaker school outside of Philadelphia. It doesn't matter that Swarthmore is not a powerhouse, or that football there is a game for students. Even that was too much for the young man. At the end he said, "This season has been hell for me. A lot of times I walked off the practice field because things welled up in me. Football makes two different people out of you. On the field I did certain things quite legally that I would never do off the field. I was trying to do well at somebody else's expense for the glorification of my own ego. That's wrong. The thing that triggered my decision was a one-on-one drill with a friend of mine. He needed help, but I just ran all over him in that practice. Off the football field when a man needs help, I would always try to help him. He got discouraged and eventually drifted off the team. I don't see how the experience benefitted him. I care about love and peace and helping people. These things have no place in football. Leinberger played as a freshman (Swarthmore is permitted to use freshmen because of its small enrollment of only 600 men). Before he announced he would play only one more season, he discussed it with coach Lew Elverson. The coach said, "We talked for three hours. He could have been one of the best players in Swarthmore history. I tried to explain that football could be a positive experience." Leinberger is a six-foot, 195-pounder, well-proportioned. He has a thick shock of black hair. Some of that long hair stuck out in the back of his helmet when he played. Among Swarthmore's few two-way players, he played blocking back on offense, linebacker on defense. He is also a wrestler, pole vaulter and diver, and is giving up wrestling, too. An assistant coach said, "The funny thing about it is that he's a good player. He's a cruncher. He really hits." When Leinberger heard this, he nodded with a wince. Haverford coach Dana Swarm, one of the enlightened proponents of football in its proper place on campus, was perplexed. He said, "I have to think there was some kind of breakdown of communication. I think that such a fine young man could play football without any moral conflicts." Leinberger's biggest commitment has been to Young Life, a Christian youth program of service. He spent the summer as a street worker in Philadelphia with street gangs in a poor white neighborhood. "I found that more meaningful than my college classes," he said. He is a Quaker nominally. He said, "I guess I remain one because my parents are and because it will help keep me out of the draft." Swathmore played a game on the same Saturday as the Peace Moratorium. In order to participate in both, Leinberger went to Washington for the first day of the Moratorium on Thursday and participated in the March of Death with his girl friend. "I carried the name of a dead soldier past the Whtie House. I was Stanley Newton of Washington, D.C. It was a very moving experience." His last game was Swarthmore's annual battle with traditional rival Haverford. Their rivalry goes back to1879 so it usually doesn't matter how badly the teams have fared going into the game. They usually fare badly. Swarthmore had two victories, Haverford only one, but Haverford had beaten Swarthmore two years in a row, so Swarthmore was, as they say, smarting for a victory. Swarthore was bigger, dominated the game immediately, and won easily, 27-7. Late in the first half Swarthmore led, 13-0, and was on the Haverford 18-yard line. This time, Leinberger, the blocking back, did not block. He went downfield, caught a pass and bulled into the end zone for a touchdown. As he trotted off the field with what seemed like satisfaction, his teammates pounded him on the back. A Main Line matron in the Swarthmore stands said, "See, he likes to win." Afterward, he smiled somewhat wistfully as his teammates gave the coach a traditional dunking in the shower. The coach sought him out to thank him for having stuck out the season. Leinberger said, "I'll miss football, especially next September. But I'm sure by then I'll be occupied with other things more important to me."
I tracked down Leinberger 29 years later to find out what happened to him. He was living in Santa Fe, N.M. He said he went on to Harvard Business School and got into real estate and land development business in Los Angeles and then Santa Fe. He was involved with companies that developed socially, environmentally and economically responsible projects. One of them involved a project in downtown Swarthmore where he was on one of the school boards. He was divorced with a fiancee. He had a son and a daughter, the son at Swarthmore. He said he came back to the football team for his senior year because "it was more fun than anything else."
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The Afternoon of a Football Game 
