To the Editor:

I was taken aback upon reading the stories about the school board’s change of heart regarding naming the football field after Coach Kenyon.

First, let me say I never played football for Coach Kenyon. I did have him as a gym teacher, though, and had occasion to complain about my grade to him.

Frankly, I was a little nervous about broaching the subject because Coach Kenyon's rep was that he was a tough guy who favored jocks, but he listened to me and gradually my grade rose.

It really didn't matter because it didn't affect my grade-point average, but gym grades were a source of pride for me.  He wasn't even my favorite coach, and he wouldn't know me if he fell over me.  (My favorite was probably Coach Wyld.)

But I think that the school board’s action was a knee-jerk overreaction and I'm very disappointed.  I always thought that the measure of a man was by his entire body of work, not by a few isolated minor indiscretions, and I think Coach Kenyon does not deserve to have this honor taken from him as it has been.

Michael J. Hall

Albany

Editor’s note: Michael J. Hall was in the Guilderland High School Class of 1974.