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Feature Story: John Couture: Practicing Psychology with the Cleveland Indians Cover Story: Psi u News: 165th Convention 6 In memoriam 9
John Couture:
Practicing Psychology with the Cleveland Indians
Weiler explains the first images of the Mars landscape.
John Couture, Gamma ‘92, at spring training with the Cleveland Indians.
By Ron Ziemba, ’64 (Amherst)
For some people of a certain age, Bristol, Connecticut is perhaps best known for “The Bristol Stomp,” a song made popular by the Dovells in 1961.
Bristol is also a town with a number of diverse and vibrant ethnic neighborhoods, and a rich history of industrial innovation. In recent years, it also became a city where factories were being closed down and jobs were being lost.
For John Couture, Gamma ’92 (Amherst), growing up in Bristol in the 1980s, Bristol was a place to play baseball. And that’s what he did -- in pickup games, Little League (where his dad coached), Bristol High, American Legion and anywhere else he could find a game. And, when he graduated from Bristol High School, “I wanted to go to college to play baseball,” he recalls. “Baseball was my first love.”
John is an Amherst College graduate and a member of the Gamma chapter of Psi Upsilon. John is still working in the game he loves -- not as a player, but as a key part of one of the most innovative baseball operations organizations in Major League Baseball. In John’s case, the job title is sports psychologist.
In high school, John was a third baseman with a sharp batting eye and some lefthanded power. He achieved notoriety as a 15-year-old high-school freshman on the city’s popular and well-traveled American Legion team. Beginning in his sophomore year, college baseball coaches came to Bristol to see him play.
One of those coaches was Bill Thurston of Amherst College. Plenty of schools were after John, some offering scholarship money. But Bill Thurston knew he had an advantage, because John Couture was not only a solid third baseman and a hitter with promise. He was also a straight-A student who did his homework and studied for tests. “I always wanted to be the best one out there,” John recalls. If I didn’t get a good grade on a test, I’d be mad at myself.” In short, John was internally motivated.
John chose Amherst for three reasons: The school’s academic reputation, the opportunity to crack the starting lineup as a freshman, and Bill Thurston. “Coach Thurston was a well respected baseball man,” John says. “He was a teacher of the game, and he had a lot of contacts in professional baseball. He sold me on the school.”
“Some of my teachers were kind of stunned when I was accepted at Amherst,” John recalls. “And there was definitely an intimidation factor in the classroom.” But John weathered the storm and graduated in 1992 with a major in psychology.
It was John’s four-year roommate and best friend, Stephan Rapaglia, Gamma ’92, who suggested that the two first-year students
attend a Friday-night gathering at the Psi Upsilon fraternity house. “He’d met a guy in Psi U and asked me if I wanted to go to a party on Railroad Street,” John says. “I wasn’t looking to join a fraternity, but once we got to know the people in Psi U, it was such a diverse and active crowd, we thought it was great – upperclassmen, females, athletes, non-athletes, every major you could think of.”
John and Stephan both participated in rushing that fall, and became Psi U pledges. “I didn’t want to be hazed, or told what to do, or looked down on as a pledge,” John recalls. “But they opened their arms and let us in, and they taught us about Psi U. It was a pretty neat experience.”
John was active in Psi U all four years at Amherst – as rush chair, house chair, vice president, and other offices. “My experience with Psi U was the best that a college student could ever have,” he says. “My best friends from college are all Psi Us.”
As a baseball player, John hit over .400 his freshman year and was named the team’s Rookie of the Year. As a senior, he was captain and Most Valuable Player, and won second-team allNew England recognition.
But something else happened during John’s senior year: He hurt his throwing arm. Since arm strength is one thing scouts look for in infielders, John knew then that a professional contract, a longshot possibility up to this point, was now out of the question. “And I was okay with that,” he recalls. “I’d already secured a position as a teacher and coach at a prep school in Connecticut, and I was reconciled to not playing professional baseball.”
For the next few years, John taught and coached at a series of New England schools (including a year as a Thurston assistant) while he pursued a master’s degree. As he studied, taught and coached, John still thought about Major League Baseball.
When John’s wife completed medical school and secured a residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, they moved there. John taught science and coached soccer, basketball and baseball at the Gilman School nearby, enrolled at Towson State, and received a master’s degree in psychology and education a year later. Then came the call. Neal Huntington, a teammate of John’s at Amherst, had just been named director of player development for the Cleveland Indians. Neal had created a new position in his organization, and wanted to talk with John about it. The job was sports psychologist – imparting a full-fledged curriculum in sports psychology to every player in the Indians’ minor league system.
Working with Dr. Charlie Mahr, the Indians’ senior sports psychologist, who worked primarily with the major league players, John helped develop a sports psychology curriculum -- a proactive, scientifically based approach to enhancing players’ performance using mental skills. “In spring training, I meet with small groups of minor league players in a classroom, like a teacher teaching English or math,” John explains. “We talk about mental discipline, focus, self-esteem, accurate evaluation of one’s performance and many other subjects. In addition, I meet with all the minor league players individually in my office. Every player has a different path, but the principles are consistent,” he says.
Is it fair to say that some players do not warm to the idea of using psychology to improve performance in a game based largely on instinct? “Some players have doubts at first,” John acknowledges. “But it’s easier when you have players like Grady Sizemore, C.C. Sabathia, Jhonny (CQ) Peralta and others as graduates of the program, now having success at the major league level. That gives the program credibility.” John says he’s worked with about 90 percent of the players on the Indians’ major league club.
So John is still a teacher, he loves his job and he just signed a new two-year contract. “I like seeing people I work with improve their performance, maybe because of something I did or said. All those prep schools I taught at were good preparation for what I do today,” he says.
the 165th Psi upsilon Convention was held June 27-29 at the International office in Indianapolis. Below are some highlights. Next summer’s Convention will be June 26-28, 2009 in vancouver, British Columbia.
leadership Institute
Learning to organize, manage, lead, motivate and build consensus results not only in successful chapters but to success in life. At the 2008 Leadership Institute, undergraduates sought to master the four competencies of recruitment success: skills development, product knowledge, audience understanding and motivation.
While undergraduates focused on recruitment and retention of new members, alumni addressed the challenges of advising 21st century college students. Alumni advisors discussed the unique nature of this cohort, focusing on its learning preferences, communication tactics and general philosophy, and how it differs from many alumni who find themselves advising chapters.
1833 Club
The historic Columbia Club was the site of the 1833 Club reception. The Columbia Club was established by a contingent of Indianapolis’ most distinguished residents to support Benjamin Harrison in his election as the nation’s 25th president in 1888. Bill Wishard, Delta Delta ’64 (Williams College) talked about the history of the club and downtown Indianapolis while Ted Nelson, Omega ’10 (Chicago) improvised at the piano.
International office
Psi Upsilon’s rich heritage of documents, journals, photographs and other historical resources were on display at the International Office for the delegates’ visit. Of particular interest was the journal kept by Henry Poor, Gamma ’39 (Amherst), during the summer of 1938 as he travelled New York, New England and the Midwest recruiting for the Gamma chapter. The journal revealed that over a period of 36 days, Henry travelled 5,946 miles on a budget of $200 (exactly).
Everyone attending had the opportunity to take up a shovel and add some soil in a tree planting ceremony.
Banquet
The final banquet recognized those chapters that received awards by the Convention. It also honored Thomas T. Hanford, Gamma ’62 for his service as president of The Psi Upsilon Foundation and Mark D. Bauer, Omega ’83 who ended his term as president of the Executive Council. New Executive Council president James A. Swanke, Jr. Rho ’80 (Wisconsin) welcomed Samuel J. Tinaglia, Omega ’88 (Chicago) the incoming Foundation president and presented Mark with the first Executive Council past president’s medallion.
Civil war-Era Scrapbook Found
A few years ago, while scanning eBay for Psi U memorabilia, David A. B. Brown, Epsilon Phi ’66, happened upon an item that seemed too good to be true. A scrapbook from the Psi Chapter (Hamilton College) dating from the late 1850s was available for bidding.
David jumped on the chance to acquire the scrapbook and waited anxiously for it to arrive. When it was delivered to his door, he found an amazing book full of letters, programs, chapter reports, receipts and a history of not only the Psi chapter, but of Psi Upsilon Fraternity in the late 19th century.
The scrapbook was taken to Harvard, where a team of experts carefully separated the items that had been damaged by time, restored them and placed them in state-of the-art archival pouches.
The materials have been donated to the Fraternity’s archives and have been carefully catalogued. Although it has not been determined that any valuable signatures were included in the collection, the project has shed some light on the business of the Fraternity beginning in 1858, during the Civil War, through 1878.
Items of note include:
• Engraved invitations to conventions hosted by Zeta, Kappa, Psi, Theta and other chapters • Petitions for full chapter status from the Iota, Upsilon, Phi, Pi and Beta Beta chapters as well as discussions pertaining to expansion at Hobart College and Western Reserve • Orders for the 1858 College Catalogue: 47 cents each • Orders for copies of the 1862 Convention records: $4 each • A notice of shipment from American Express dated 1857 • A receipt for the purchase of a chandelier for the Psi Chapter • Countless death notices and letters in memoriam • An act of the Connecticut legislature incorporating the chapter as the Trumbull
Trust Association • A report from Brig. Gen. James C. Rice, Beta ’54, on the Battle of the Wilderness (1864) • Requests for members of other fraternities to affiliate with Psi Upsilon • Convention poetry • Expulsions • Sanctions for public intoxication • Convention regrets and replies • Recommendations for membership • Fundraising pledge to the Psi Chapter • A bill for renting a piano in 1869: $9.30
The scrapbook was a memento of the Psi chapter at Hamilton College covering 20 years of Fraternity history. It brings to mind the importance of collecting and storing the history of the chapters today. Websites come and go, and software quickly becomes obsolete. If your chapter doesn’t have a physical scrapbook, encourage your historian to begin collecting significant items now. Don’t let this era of Psi Upsilon wither and fade to cyberdust.
Psi Upsilon is deeply indebted to David Brown for his thoughtful gift which will give many more generations of Psi U brothers insight into what life was like 150 years ago.
Dartmouth Psi u Earns Pulitzer for work in China
Jake Hooker, Zeta ’95 (Dartmouth) earned a Pulitzer Prize for his stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other everyday products imported from China, leading to crackdowns by American and Chinese officials.
Jake has lived in China for the past eight years, starting as a Peace Corps volunteer. For two years, he taught English at a middle school in Wanxian, a small town along the middle reach of the Yangtze River, near the Three Gorges. In his free time there, he learned Chinese. He published his first newspaper article, about his life in Wanxian, in The Boston Globe in 2001.
In 2003, Jake returned to China to work for the Surmang Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that runs a free health clinic for nomads in eastern Tibet.
Jake has traveled to most places in China writing about rural life, AIDS, ethnic identity and archaeology. Since 2006, he has contributed research and reporting to a wide range of China coverage for the The New York Times.
Sigma Phi receives Psi u’s 45th Charter
Psi Upsilon’s newest chapter was installed at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 2007.
To receive a Psi Upsilon charter, a group must meet 15 standards which ensure the group’s longterm viability. Establishing a detailed budget and recruiting new members, and alumni and faculty advisors are some of the important steps in preparing the case for acceptance. Once the group has met the standards, they prepare a petition which is sent to each chapter and alumni association. According to the Psi Upsilon Constitution, votes must be cast within 20 days. A majority of ‘yes’ votes is required to earn the charter. The last charter granted was given to the Alpha Omicron chapter at NJIT in 1999.
St. Francis University is the oldest Franciscan university in the United States. Founded by six Irish friars in 1847, it is home to 2,000 students. Brothers of the Sigma Phi are a diverse group. From varsity athletes and Ultimate Frisbee to the Investment Club and honor societies, the 31 men have varied interests. The St. Francis University Greek Life Advisor, Bobby Anderson, had this to say about the chapter: “These young men have redefined fraternity on our campus. They are the largest fraternity on campus in terms of membership, and they have consistently held the highest academic marks of all the fraternities. They display creativity in how they plan and market their events, and they have shown a strong sense of community through collaborating with other student organizations.”
Last year, the Sigma Phi hosted several all campus events including Bouncy Boxing, a campus cleanup, a tag sale and Hunk Fest.
transformers at the Castle
In June, Director Michael Bay, Xi ’86 (Wesleyan) filmed portions of the new Transformers film on the University of Pennsylvania campus including a scene in the Tau chapter and in other locations around southeast Pennsylvania. The Castle was used for a scene at a fraternity party, and a few of the brothers were used as extras. The film is scheduled for release in the summer of 2009. Not to worry, no bids will be offered to Bumblebee, shown at left.
“ with sore and stricken hearts we , today a brother fell.”Mourn
Losing a brother is never easy, but in the true spirit of Psi Upsilon fellowship, we know that our lost brothers may be gone – but gone does not mean forgotten.
To view a list of recently deceased brothers, go to www.psiu.org/alum/inmem.html.
Robert O. Anderson, oI lm AN F or th E D ECADES
Robert O. Anderson, Omega ‘39 (University of Chicago), died December 2, 2007, at his home in Roswell, N.M. He was 90. The cause was complications of a fall, his son Phelps Anderson said.
According to his obituary in The New York Times, Anderson was an oilman whose Stetson-size accomplishments included building Atlantic Richfield into an industry giant; discovering oil in Alaska; becoming America’s largest rancher; and giving generously to environmental causes. It was Mr. Anderson’s insistence on drilling one more exploratory well on the North Slope in 1967 — after a succession of failures — that led to the discovery of what is still the largest oil field yet found in North America; it has produced billions of barrels of crude and accounts for a fifth of domestic oil production.
“It was like winning the Irish Sweepstakes, and the odds were about the same,” Mr. Anderson said in an interview with Forbes in 1993.
He told The Los Angeles Times in 1989, “There’s no question that if we hadn’t made a discovery, it would have been the last well drilled on the North Slope for a good many years.”
Mr. Anderson also led the seven-company effort to develop the Alaskan oil pipeline in 1974. In 1982, he negotiated the first American offshore drilling operation in China. Even two decades after his retirement and even after Atlantic Richfield was bought by BP seven years ago, Mr. Anderson stood out as perceptive, unpredictable and outspoken.
He was an oilman who warned of global warming caused by fossil-fuel consumption in the 1980s, and more than once advocated higher taxes on his industry. He rescued two flailing publications, The Observer, a British newspaper, in 1977, and Harper’s magazine in 1980.
Robert Orville Anderson was born in Chicago on April 13, 1917, to Hugo A. Anderson and the former Hilda Nelson. Robert attended the Laboratory Elementary and High Schools of the University of Chicago and went on to a twoyear college program at the university, majoring in economics. During summers, he worked on pipelines in Texas. His goals shifted from architecture to petroleum, and he pored over geology and engineering books to educate himself.
After graduating in 1939, he worked for the American Mineral Spirits Company, a subsidiary of Pure Oil. In 1941, his father helped him and his brothers buy a refinery in New Mexico. Over the next 15 years, he bought and improved other refineries in the Southwestern states. He also began wildcatting for new fields, and in 1957 discovered the large Empire-Abo field in southeastern New Mexico. He was not always so lucky: he passed up a lease in Colorado offered for $90,000 that eventually yielded 400 million barrels of oil.
“Never look back in this business,” Mr. Anderson said. “If you do, you’ll lose your nerve.”
In 1963, Mr. Anderson merged his company into the Atlantic Refining Company of Philadelphia. Two years later, he was chairman and chief executive. He led the company through two mergers, the first with Richfield Oil of Los Angeles, forming Arco, and the second with Sinclair Oil. The combined company was the nation’s seventh-biggest oil company.
Mr. Anderson and Thornton F. Bradshaw, Arco’s president, set a goal of becoming less dependent on foreign oil. The Prudhoe Bay find was a huge step in this direction. They also sought to balance Arco’s production, transportation, refining and marketing operations. They disposed of half of the company’s 20,000 gas stations.
Mr. Anderson is survived by his wife of 68 years, the former Barbara Herrick Phelps; their daughters, Katherine Denton of Tucson, Maria Anderson, Julia Smith and Beverly Crane, all of Santa Fe, N.M., and Barbara Kryder of Waban, Mass.; their sons, Phelps Anderson of Roswell, N.M., and Robert Bruce Anderson of Albuquerque; 20 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
