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Nile Kinnick correspondence, January-May 1940
1940-02-27: Front
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TEMPLE EMANUEL DAVENPORT, IOWA ALVIN S. LUCHS, RABBI February 27, 1940. Mr. Nile Kinnick, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. My dear Kinnick: You have received so many awards and trophies, that an additional encomium must certainly seem superfluous and dispensable; but perhaps this is the first letter you have received from a rabbi, and adding it to your many laurels, you may treat it as a kid who collects stamps or autographs (you certainly are an adept in autographs by this time), and has another item for his album. These few lines, however, have no such intent. They are not designed to repeat what your ears have heard time and again; they are meant to say two simple things. In September and October, we heard that we had a football star at S.U.I.; in November we knew it; but this rumor and this knowledge are infinitely trivial when measured by the fact that in December and January, we knew that we had a gentleman at the University, one of whose avocations was football. That is the first thing I want to say. The second is perhaps less important, though more pregnant. The papers say that you will enter law school next fall to pursue a course designed to make you an attorney - or perhaps a jurist. I am wondering (and one can not be impeached for wondering) if you have chosen this pursuit, simply because it seems to be the thing to do, and when accomplished, it will afford you an honorable profession and a livelihood - or because after a deliberate judgment, you have chosen the legal profession because you think you will fit into it and will love its pursuit. As I saw you and studied you last night, I discovered (or think I discovered) traits and characteristics highly dispensible to the practice of law, attitudes of character in fact, which are not adaptable to law; and at the same time I think I saw the stuff out of which real pedagogues are made - the raw materials of the finest profession the world can offer. I said above that one can not be reproached for wondering - especially for unselfish wondering, and I know that you will pardon me for thinking about you "out loud". My kind greetings and best wishes for your ultimate success, whatever you may do. Faithfully yours, Alvin S. Luchs. Rabbi. ASL:S
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TEMPLE EMANUEL DAVENPORT, IOWA ALVIN S. LUCHS, RABBI February 27, 1940. Mr. Nile Kinnick, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. My dear Kinnick: You have received so many awards and trophies, that an additional encomium must certainly seem superfluous and dispensable; but perhaps this is the first letter you have received from a rabbi, and adding it to your many laurels, you may treat it as a kid who collects stamps or autographs (you certainly are an adept in autographs by this time), and has another item for his album. These few lines, however, have no such intent. They are not designed to repeat what your ears have heard time and again; they are meant to say two simple things. In September and October, we heard that we had a football star at S.U.I.; in November we knew it; but this rumor and this knowledge are infinitely trivial when measured by the fact that in December and January, we knew that we had a gentleman at the University, one of whose avocations was football. That is the first thing I want to say. The second is perhaps less important, though more pregnant. The papers say that you will enter law school next fall to pursue a course designed to make you an attorney - or perhaps a jurist. I am wondering (and one can not be impeached for wondering) if you have chosen this pursuit, simply because it seems to be the thing to do, and when accomplished, it will afford you an honorable profession and a livelihood - or because after a deliberate judgment, you have chosen the legal profession because you think you will fit into it and will love its pursuit. As I saw you and studied you last night, I discovered (or think I discovered) traits and characteristics highly dispensible to the practice of law, attitudes of character in fact, which are not adaptable to law; and at the same time I think I saw the stuff out of which real pedagogues are made - the raw materials of the finest profession the world can offer. I said above that one can not be reproached for wondering - especially for unselfish wondering, and I know that you will pardon me for thinking about you "out loud". My kind greetings and best wishes for your ultimate success, whatever you may do. Faithfully yours, Alvin S. Luchs. Rabbi. ASL:S
Nile Kinnick Collection
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