St. Louis, Jack hit a grand slam home run off Harry Brecheen to knock the Cardinals out of
contention for the pennant.
Then, in 1952, when Pittsburgh assigned him to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific
Coast League, he made the All-Star team as his team won two pennants in 1952 and 1953. In
the 1954 season when they tied for the pennant, Jack played every position on the field except
catcher, hit over .300, and was voted the league's "Most Valuable Player."
From there he was traded to the Chicago White Sox, and then to Detroit where he
played from 1955-57 before going to the Boston Red Sox, and ultimately ending up with the
San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.
He ended his 17-year playing career with Buffalo of the International League in 1959.
There, on August 18, 1959, to celebrate "Jack Phillips Night," 9,600 fans filled Buffalo's
Offerman Stadium to watch Jack hit a grand slam homer against Toronto, and seal a 6-1 victory
for his team. He went on to coach the Elmira, N.Y., team in the Pony League, a farm team of
the Philadelphia Phillies, during 1960-61, and to manage the Twin Falls, Idaho, team in the
Detroit farm system where he was named Manager of the Year.
Jack was hired to coach baseball and basketball at Clarkson in 1964. In 1965, he began
coaching the cross-country club, and led it to become a varsity team in 1965. In 1987 he began
coaching golf, leading the team to an ICAC championship in 1993-94 and to a second-place
finish in 1994-95. Even though he retired in 1988, he still coaches the team.
Pep Band
. At the instigation of and encouragement from Tim Donahue, Director of Residence
Personnel, a bunch of enthusiastic amateur musicians formed themselves into a Pep Band to
encourage the athletic teams to greater efforts. Ragged to say the least, this bunch soon swelled
to a sizeable group whose enthusiasm grew with the volume of noise it could produce. It played
for all home hockey games, traveled to Syracuse, Boston, and New York for tournaments,
played for soccer and basketball games, and during the Moving-Up Day ceremonies.
Roger Dilmore '68 described a memorable trip of the Pep Band to support the hockey
team at a mid-winter tournament at the Syracuse War Memorial. Riding in an antique bus
rented from a Massena firm, the Power City Bus Lines, the team set out early afternoon for
Syracuse. Continuously sampling blackberry brandy, the band soon ignored the three-inch hole
in the middle of the aisle floor. Not until the bus was rattling its way down Route 81 through a
lake-effect sudden snowstorm did the inconspicuous hole make its presence felt. During the
trip, snow whirled and swirled through that hole until the whole aisle had an 8-to-10 inch
snowdrift in it.
Approaching Syracuse, the bus broke down on Route 81 near Central Square. Its driver
left to find help, leaving the stranded band members to fend for themselves. To relieve
themselves of the brandy they had been consuming, Roger and several other adventuresome
lads left the bus and headed for a field stretching out invitingly - no habitation around. As
Roger and the others stepped off the roadway to enter the field, they plunged into snow up to
their armpits; snow had filled a six-foot drainage ditch. Amid much laughter and physical
effort, they extricated themselves mere moments before a relief bus arrived to get them to the
War Memorial just in time to play the Alma Mater before the first puck was dropped.
Sports
. Basketball also produced a winning season with the record of 12-7. Sharpshooter Dick
Heroux led the scoring with 269 points. As the hockey season began, the Golden Knights
proved to be invincible. They defeated Laval 6-3, Ottawa 7-3, Michigan State 7-1, Queens 3-2,
