Scorecard

In a letter to The New York Times on July 12, Edward Pessen, a professor of history at Baruch College, and Edward Margolies, a professor of English and American Studies at the College of Staten Island of The City University of New York, suggested that history may have repeated itself when position papers from Jimmy Carter's White House were used to prepare Ronald Reagan for his 1980 TV debate against Carter. Pessen and Margolies were referring to an anecdote in Reagan's 1965 autobiography, Where's the Rest of Me?, about how he'd improved his stock as a reserve defensive lineman on the Eureka (Ill.) College football team. During a scrimmage against the first stringers, the letter said, " Reagan was tipped off by a friend in advance of each play called by the offensive team, thus enabling the future President to look like a better player than he really was."

In point of fact, what Reagan said in his book was merely that he'd received a bit of informal coaching before several plays from a more experienced teammate who was adept at sniffing out opponents' strategy. Reagan wrote: "Watching the signal caller and the still rusty backs on the varsity, he would whisper, 'Knife in—they are going the other way.' Doing as he ordered, I was in on the ball carrier three plays in a row. 'Now,' he hissed, 'go straight across—they'll try a reverse to suck you in.' Of course, he was right, and by following his orders I was as effective as a traffic light in halting all movement around end."

The clear sense of the passage was not that Reagan had been "tipped," at least not in the sense that any skulduggery was involved, but had merely benefited from a teammate's ability to "read" the offense. Give Pessen and Margolies 15 yards for roughing the President.