Creating Fiction from History: Don Carroll & Victor Green

The year was 1907. College was all but a fading memory, but Don was determined not to let the memories of his old college mate, Victor, fade with them! Victor Green and Don Carroll, both of whom played football for their respective colleges, had met in 1891 at the University of Iowa vs. Iowa (Grinnell) College game in Grinnell, Iowa. This was a very close game; in fact, the lowest scoring of the season. However, the Hawkeyes had lost 4-6. The mutual respect they found for each other carried the new-found friendship beyond the borders of their college years, however, so even though Don and Victor went their separate ways after college, Victor to the East and Don to the West, a pact of sorts was formed between them to never forget each other.

As the class of ‘91 was the last season for both of them, our boys headed to their respective destinations, Victor to further his education at Harvard Medical School, under Oliver Wadsworth, AM, MD. and Don to California State Normal School (UCLA), under Ira More, to study the Theory & Practice of Teaching. Though their respective paths took them, seemingly, world apart, Victor and Don kept up a correspondence for some years, based on the friendship that had formed during that pivotal game back in ‘91. Before they parted ways, however, Don and Victor had met for one last meal together, at a little cafe in Iowa City. It was during this last, hurried meal that Don left this hastily scribbled note.

Victor and Don would never again meet, in this world anyway, but for many years, indeed, until Don’s passing 35 year later., they kept up a fairly regular correspondence.Though their friendship had begun with mutual respect and admiration on the football field, neither would step foot on that field again. Don had become a Teacher of Theoretical Physics, a fairly new field at the University at Berkley, California, while Victor had earned his MD and had a booming practice in Boston, Massachusetts. The note pictured above is the only surviving clue of their long-distance friendship.

Though the correspondence ended unexpectedly with Don’s premature death in 1941, Victor would never forget the young man who had offered him a lifelong friendship so many years ago.