Honoring Alan C. Goddard '53 Images from the Homecoming event honoring Alan Goddard '53 and from the day's Bates-Colby football game. Photographs by Nathan Tsukroff, Daryn Slover and Jay Burns.

Alumni winners of the Alan C. Goddard '53 Award for Achievement in Football returned to campus on Oct. 28, Homecoming Saturday, to honor Al Goddard.

The former winners came from nearby (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut) and from a distance (California, Colorado Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia).

They returned knowing the occasion was bittersweet, because Goddard was in the later stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. On Nov. 24, Goddard died in his sleep at his home in New London, N.H., after saying goodnight to his family, who had gathered for Thanksgiving.

Goddard was a three-sport athlete at Bates, a Phi Beta Kappa math major and all-around model of sportsmanship and upbeat tenacity. He was not a physically imposing football player at 5 feet 6 inches tall, but his zeal and spirit won over coaches and teammates.

A year after graduation, Goddard began to fund a football award, the College's first in that sport. He didn't want the award to carry his name, but head coach Bob Hatch thought otherwise. Hatch believed the award should reflect Goddard's outlook on football and life. "We decided that it should focus on where a young man was, what was anticipated of him and what he finally achieved, both personally and in football," Hatch said.