Excerpt: "The significance of the first year in college can scarcely be overstated. The first man called to the bat in some great intercollegiate game may be pardoned for feeling a bit nervous. He realizes that players and spectators are eagerly waiting for him to give them the key-note of the contest by the way he acquits himself. The young man just entering college, if he senses the situation accurately, is equally alive to the importance of his first hits."
Charles Reynolds Brown (October 1, 1862 – November 28, 1950) was an American Congregational clergyman and educator, born in Bethany, W. Va. He graduated at the University of Iowa in 1883 and studied theology in Boston University. He lectured at various times at Leland Stanford, Yale, Cornell, and Columbia universities, and was pastor of the First Congregational Church at Oakland, Cal., from 1896 to 1911. In the latter year he became dean of the Yale Divinity School. He wrote "The Cap and the Gown" in 1910.