General Information about Item:
- Text Folklore – Legend
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: James Edward Thompson III
- Date Collected: 03-03-2018
Informant Data:
- James Thompson was born and raised in Tracy, CA. A lifelong swimmer, James came to Dartmouth as part of the Class of 2017 and was an accomplished member of the Men’s Swimming team for four years between 2013 and 2017. He is no longer a member of the Dartmouth Swim and Dive Team.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: The Dartmouth Swim and Dive team has a storied tradition of lore. This particular legend utilizes a walk-on underdog figure to help the team motivate themselves and remind themselves that effort, and not reputation, is what is most important.
- Social Context: James relayed this legend in a one-on-one interview. It is often told either after an extremely hard day’s practice to help team members vent their anger through sarcasm, or when they feel that the team is not working hard enough, in order to motivate themselves through the hyperbole of this legend.
Item:
- James relayed a story of a walk-on (a team member who was not good enough to be recruited but eventually made the team after coming to Dartmouth), who trained so hard to be on the team and then set a pool record, but who perished in the attempt.
Transcript:
- “One story I remember was from a speech a Captains gave a long time ago about a swimmer a while back who was a walk-on, but trained super hard and ended up setting a pool record, but he died while training.”
Collector’s Comments:
- This story of a hero who sacrificed everything, including their lives, to achieve some fantastic goal is quite familiar in many different types of lore, but is always inspiring to hear. It also has some elements similar to Max Luthi’s tragically underequipped hero, who still succeeds.
Collector’s Name: Ashwath Srikanth
Tags/Keywords: Text Folklore, Legend, William Bascom, Max Luthi, Swimming
