Former Crimson Star Gatto, Famed for Role In '68 Comeback, Will Coach Bates Bobcats

Hall of Famers Knute Rockne and Amos Alonzo Stagg didn't start their long reigns as football mentors until after they reached age 30.

So when Vic Gatto '69 was named head coach of the Bates Bobcats football team last week at the tender age of 25, many an eyebrow was raised and quite a few jaws dropped among sporting pundits.

However, the experts were a little less surprised after a quick trip to the record books: Bates, a small college independent located in Lewiston, Me., has won only one game in the past three years.

Bates represents a significant challenge for Gatto who captained Harvard's football team his senior year and was one of the standouts in the famous 29-29 comeback tie with Yale in 1968.

But the stocky Gatto is optimistic about his new assignment. "My main reason for accepting Bates's offer is the freedom I will have to implement my own coaching program," he said.

Gatto's Program

Gatto developed his program during a four-year stint as football coach at Middlesex Preparatory School in Concord, where he compiled a 16-12 record.

"I demand a high degree of player involvement in the decision-making process," Gatto said. "Though the coach has the final word, every team member should have a say in the type of defense and offense we use."

Gatto said he believes a football coach should primarily serve as an educator.

"I have no desire to coach professionally," he said. "If this were my goal I would have gone to business school instead of getting my masters in education."

He said that the desire to apply his "nonauthoritarian educational philosophy" to football led him to turn down a number of assistant coaching offers, including a position at the University of Rochester.

Excitement at Bates

"It will be tough at first, but the Bates players are excited, and I see no reason why we shouldn't win a few the first year, maybe even reach .500," he said.

One indication that Bates may indeed have significant athletic potential: The Bobcats recently took first place in the Northern New England Intercollegiate Traying Championships at Sugarloaf Mountain.

Gatto's task will be to get the Bobcat standouts off the cafeteria trays, and onto the gridiron.