My blind date with a Centerfold

by

Craig Hendrickson

As a doolie in 1963, I had an experience that brilliantly reflected how USAFA Cadets were respected in that era. To the best of my knowledge these particulars have never been matched: I had an arranged-by-mail blind date with a -of-the-Month! Here's how this happened:

The class of 1967 doolies were not allowed to drink coffee or tea at meals without a "Coffee Chit". This was a written permission slip from a lady to whom you were not related (i.e., not your mother, sister, etc). One day during July, 1963 of Basic Cadet Summer, my 18th Squadron, 3rd element leader Al Ross (Class of 1964) formed up all his "dumb squats" and asked how many of us had our Coffee Chits. Of course nobody had one. He then assigned one girl's name to each of us from an article about the 12 Bunnies of the St Louis which had been featured in a recent issue of Playboy. We were "ordered" to return to our room and dutifully write on USAFA stationary a request for a Coffee Chit from our assigned . I was the only one to receive an answer!

Terri Kimball as Playboy Bunny Upon receiving this answer, I immediately drove around to Al Ross's room, knocked on the door and asked permission to enter.After I let him read her letter and he picked his jaw up off the floor, he said: Ross: "Hendrickson, do you know where the entire Cadet Wing is going the first of November?" Me: "No Sir!" Ross: "We're going to by train to attend the nationally televised Army-Air Force Football game at Soldier Field! You know what you have to do now, don't you?" Me: "No Sir!" Ross: "You're to write this Bunny-Playmate Terri Kimball again and ask her to attend the football game as your date." Me: "Yes Sir!" Ross: "Get on it. Dismissed!" Of course, I immediately penned another gem of a letter on USAFA stationary and soon received the following answer:

Whoa baby, this answer was beyond my wildest expectations! What to do now? I drive around to Al Ross's room again... Ross: "Hendrickson, do you know what kind of BIG problem you have now?" Me: "No Sir!" Ross: "You have a date in Chicago with a Playboy Bunny-Playmate. Maybe she has Playmate or Bunny girl friends who would also like a date with an Air Force Academy cadet. The Wing has about 2,400 horny cadets who are soon to be your best buddies when they find out about this. About 2,398 of them will be disappointed when you can't fix them up with a date. About 500 of those are firsties who can make your life miserable this next year. I can't tell you what to do...you'll have to figure it out yourself. Dismissed!" Me: "Yes Sir!" I wrote back to Terri asking her HOW MANY Playboy girl friends she could fix up with "my friends." I don't have her response letter anymore, but the gist of what she said was that because she hadn't been in Chicago that long and didn't have that wide a circle of friends. The only girl who had said "yes" to a blind date with a cadet was her roommate, Delilah, who was to be the cover girl on the October 1963 issue of Playboy. Could I find someone to be her date? The word quickly got out that I had an extra date available for the Army game who was a Playboy Cover Girl. A steady stream of upperclassmen soon found their way to my room, putting in a "request" to be fixed up with Delilah. What to do now? I am certainly damned if I do and damned if I don't. I did the only thing which had a possibility of not ruining the remainder of my doolie year: I fixed up Playmate Terri Kimball's roommate, Delilah, with MY roommate at the time, fellow doolie Rick. At least this "loyalty-to-roommate" decision made some sense to all those disappointed firsties! Well, the entire Cadet Wing rode the train to Chicago on Friday, Nov 1 1963. Air Force fought valiantly on Saturday Nov 2, 1963, but lost to Army 14-10. I did not plan on actually seeing Terri Kimball at the football game because during that era, only firsties could stand with their dates. It turned out that she had a photo shoot come up at the last moment, so she gave the football ticket to her brother. However, as prearranged, Rick and I made our way to 's mansion at 1340 North State Street after the game. We knocked on the door of the mansion at about 7pm. A butler answered the door. We explained who we were and that we were there to see Terri and Delilah. He said we were expected and lead us to a formal living room. Shortly, Terri came down the stairs and we met face-to-face for the first time. She looked pleased to see two handsome young men (at least we were told we looked handsome) in their Cadet uniforms. She invited us up to her and Delilah's little apartment, where we waited and chatted while the girls finished getting ready. Terri suggested that we go have dinner at a little Italian restaurant she liked. Hef wasn't there at that time, so we didn't meet him, but I was overwhelmed anyway...both girls looked gorgeous. Our dinner at the restaurant was really pretty romantic for a first and blind date. Terri and I hit it off great. However,the train returning to USAFA was to leave Chicago at exactly midnight. Our wonderful dinner date came to an end all too quickly at 11:45. We jumped in a cab, zoomed to the train station and ran with the girls up to the train while "last call for departure" was blaring over the PA system. In front of about 1,000 hooting cadets leaning out of the train windows, the girls planted big passionate goodbye kisses on both Rick and I! We jumped on the train before we "turned into pumpkins" (i.e., missed the train and had to spend the rest of our lives on the tour pad). About a week later, I got this great letter from Terri:

Needless to say, I never made it to Chicago again while at the Academy. Terri's centerfold was published in May 1964 and of course she sent me a personalized, autographed copy.

Terri Kimball Playboy Centerfold, May 1964 (cropped) Late in 1963, I received this letter from Terri:

We corresponded for a while, but later in 1964 she wrote to say that she was getting married and I never heard from her again. It was a memorable, even though short, experience.

Wylie Craig Hendrickson Class of 1967, 18th Squadron