Swarthmore

When a bunch of angry football players showed up at the door of Swarthmore College President Alfred Bloom last winter, it was a demonstration of the school's deep belief in participatory democratic processes, Bloom said, "a means of educating its students to become leaders of a democratic world. " As far as the players were concerned, though, the college had abandoned them. They had to hit rock bottom, players thought, before anyone noticed. "We were on an island," said the team's top wide receiver, Mason Tootell, who set NCAA Division III records last season for kickoff returns in a game (11)

Theodore "Mike" Green made it perfectly clear at Monday night's Borough Council meeting: Swarthmore is not Philadelphia, but neither is it Cape May. Green won the council's approval to build 10 townhouses and four apartments at Princeton and Dartmouth Avenues after rebutting a resident's accusation that he proposed to build "Philadelphia rowhouses. " The charge was made by Edward Stranix of Dartmouth Avenue, whose twin home backs up to the site at issue, a former coal yard at the end of Princeton Avenue along the SEPTA rail line.

The Centennial Foundation has announced it will launch a campaign by the end of next week to raise $25,000 for its planned park at Dartmouth and Park Avenues, for which ground is to be broken March 6. Borough Council members expressed concern that the foundation had not allowed enough time before the groundbreaking for a general fund appeal and said they did not want the park to become a project of just the council and a few wealthy contributors....

A Swarthmore Borough Council member is one of two new names on the masthead of the weekly Swarthmorean. Beth Gross made her debut as a publisher last month when she and business partner Don Delson bought the community paper from Lewis Rinko. It is a venture that Gross and Delson had talked about for years over the backyard fence as neighbors and later, after Delson had moved elsewhere in Swarthmore, cemented while standing on the sidewalk near the paper's storefront office.

Swarthmore wrestler Eric Williams would like to become a doctor. "I want to do some kind of surgery," said Williams, who has been accepted by three medical schools so far. "What kind of surgery, I don't know. I guess I'll find out in medical school. " Williams, a two-time NCAA Division III all-America scholar, has demonstrated the precision of a surgeon in his college wrestling career. The Swarthmore senior has won 13 of 15 bouts this season, including a recent 8-5 decision over three-time Division III national qualifier Jim Peltier of Carroll (Wis.

Although the days when fresh milk and bread were delivered right to the door every morning have passed, Bill Willis has an idea for a home-delivery service he thinks will be popular in the Swarthmore area. He plans to deliver freshly washed laundry to his customers' doors. Willis, a Wallingford resident since 1970, owns three stores on Park Avenue in Swarthmore. When the video store renting one of the stores from him announced plans to move, Willis decided to open a laundry service there.

Of all the players entered in the NCAA Division III men's tennis championships, Swarthmore senior Andy Dailey should be among the best-equipped to handle his emotions. Dailey was there two years ago when Swarthmore hit the depths of anguish, losing after four days by a grand total of two points. Last year, Dailey and his teammates catapulted to euphoria by winning the national team championship in front of their home fans. As he awaits his last college tournament, Dailey is feeling those up-and- down emotions again.

For a change, Swarthmore's football players enjoyed a bus ride home from a game. The Garnet halted its 31-game Centennial Conference losing streak Saturday with a 15-10 victory at Gettysburg. A year ago, the Bullets trounced Swarthmore, 55-8. "[The players] were grinning from ear to ear on the bus ride home," Garnet coach Pete Alvanos said at yesterday's weekly college football luncheon. "It was a big win for our program. It was a very emotional, exciting day for us. " Swarthmore (2-1, 1-1)

The Wallingford-Swarthmore school board met in special session Monday night to borrow $26 million needed to renovate and expand Strath Haven High School. Although the board generally does not meet in August, president Robert Firkser explained that it decided to convene before September to take advantage of a favorable bond rate, the lowest in 23 years. Firkser referred to the amount borrowed, $26,130,000, as a "blended" bond issue because it refinances $10 million borrowed for the same project in June 1996 along with a smaller amount of district debt service.

For many European instrumentalists, playing in America is a comedown. Not artistically or psychologically, but in pitch. Instruments are tuned higher on the Continent, and sometimes the problems raised by the difference can affect performances here. That was the case Sunday when two principal wind players from Moscow's Bolshoi Theater - Rafael O. Bagdasaryan, clarinet, and his son Rafael R. Bagdasaryan, horn - played at Swarthmore College's Lang Concert Hall. The piano had even been tuned higher for this program, but finding some common ground for intonation proved an insoluble problem throughout.