A sporting term from recent antiquity, Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball (1928) defines the the old college try as "making strenuous effort to field a ball that obviously cannot be handled." This blogger first picked up the term in John Knowles' novel A Separate Piece (1959), when the main character Phineas is told to "give it the old college try" after suffering a leg injury. To me, the old college try represents the beautiful futility of dreaming and the uncertain future, which belongs to those who seize today. From tongue-in-cheek to inspiration for forward motion, the phrase is still running strong, just like this little blog.
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