ATHLETICS
By the time this is read the merits of the 1923 football team will have been well tried and post mortems on the contests with Cornell and Harvard will have revealed, presumably, all the virtues and all the defects of the entire athletic system in Hanover. Little is in order, then, save a resume of the three early season games and a few casual remarks indicating opinions in Hanover not apt to be revised whatever the outcome of the games of major importance.
In the first place there is unanimous belief in Hanover that, given the continuance of this year's coaching staff, Dartmouth will very shortly emerge from the period of lean years recently encountered and again sit in the seats of the mighty. There is a feeling that the long-awaited "system" is about to become more than a beautiful dream. And there is evidence that good football players will be more numerous in Hanover during the next two years than at any time since the dissolution of the 1914 team.
In the game played with Boston University, which was not only the best game played by Dartmouth this year (up to the moment of this writing, of course) but, in some respects the best game played by a Dartmouth team in many years, six of the best performers were members of the sophomore class. In fact all three touchdowns were scored by sophomores. Four members of the Junior class may also be named among those who did well. In addition to those included in the foregoing poll there are a number of other Juniors and Sophomores who have shown promise and Coach Hazelton, who has charge of the Freshman team, though no more optimistic than football coaches generally are, is willing to admit that the new class contains a few men who may be of value. Granting then, as most Hanoverians are at the present entirely willing to grant, thai the 1923 team shows greater skill and greater power in all departments of the game than any Dartmouth team since 1919, and evidence of more definite ideas of its opportunities, its ends and the means by which these are to be accomplished, the spirit of optimism on the campus does not seem unwarranted. In fact it appears almost permissable to believe that within these next few years the terrible juggernaut from Ithaca may be called to account for its recent indiscretions.
Among the new men to whom alumni should pay attention from their grandstand seats are quarterbacks Dooley and Fallon, halfbacks Loomis and Kelley, and in the line Oberlander, at tackle, and Diehl at guard. Bjorkman, at left end, and Leavitt, at fullback are Juniors who have already been brought to the attention of spectators. Haws, a senior, who is apparently just recovering the form displayed during his freshman year, and Hall, quarterback, in 1921, who returned last February, after a semester's absence, have been attracting much favorable attention. George Murphy, younger brother of "Cuddy" Murphy who starred in the teams of a few years ago, has also given evidence of ability. All three have pretty capably carried out backfield assignments.
