View a eulogy for Philip Taylor Blanton, USMA '55, who passed away on January 3, 1996.
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Philip Taylor Blanton
West Point, 1955
Be Thou At Peace
Posted by Robert M. Hinrichs, USMA Class of 1955 on July 27, 2001:
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Phil Blanton was a teammate of mine on the West Point fencing team. Up until 1954, fencing was a Corps Squad intercollegiate sport, under the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Army Athletic Association. Our coach was Marcel Pasche. He had many years seniority as a coach and had been entitled to quarters on post for some time. He was promised the next set of vacant quarters, but when they became available, Col. Earl Blaik, the football coach, commandeered them for a newly-hired assistant football coach. This naturally infuriated Coach Pasche, who quit in protest. Col. Blaik's response was to not hire a replacement, but cancel fencing as an official intercollegiate sport. This left our team with no coach and no schedule for our first class year. Phil Blanton had already earned an "A" during our second class year and would have surely won another as a first classman. He might well have gone on to earn individual honors at the NCAA championships, if it were not for the ire of two coaches. Rest well, teammate. You did your best. |
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