Sept. 24, 2010
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Watch video of reading
BERKELEY - Jack Clark, head coach of the California Golden Bears rugby program, was the leadoff reader at the University's "Lunch Poems" Series, held Sept. 2 at the Morrison Library within the Doe Library on campus.
Coach Clark chose a poem by an unknown author called "Don't Quit," which was previously read aloud in a classroom more than 30 years ago by Clark's football teammate Joe Roth.
Roth, the 1976 All-America Golden Bear quarterback who died Feb. 19, 1977, from cancer, is the only player in Cal history to have his jersey, No. 12, retired. A month before his death, Roth read the poem in Evans Hall to his classmates in Rhetoric 160.
In his introduction at the reading, Clark called Roth "our star quarterback while being the most humble and team-oriented person we had. He remains today, 33 years later, a personal inspiration to every one of his teammates."
Coach Clark was introduced at the event by Robert Hass, a Pulitzer Prize winner and two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, who called the coach "a person who's been a source of amazement to me for some time. What an amazing record."
Hass added on Clark: "He's just a gift to this place."
Clark's reading was followed by Suzanne Guerlac, Professor of French, who chose an E.E .Cummings selection. She later called it "just wonderful to experience this incredible range and possibilities in poetry... I really enjoyed hearing [Clark] read. It was a pleasure."
Joe Roth is honored every year at the Cal home football game featuring either UCLA or USC, in recognition of Roth's Southern California roots. This year's Joe Roth Memorial Game is also Homecoming, with Cal football taking on UCLA Oct. 9 at Memorial Stadium.
Following is the text of Clark's reading. Click here for the video.
Don't Quit, Author Unknown
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he just stuck it out,
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You make succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell just how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
