Following the Green Teams
WITH PHIL SHERMAN
At this point in the football season, it is the hardest thing in the world to sit down and try to diagnose the Dartmouth football team, for the simple reason that so much lies ahead. Incorporated in this issue will be a flash on the Dartmouth-Harvard game, which at this writing cannot be foreseen, and by the time alumni are perusing the issue the Yale game will be history.
Consequently anything which is said here will have to be taken only from the viewpoint of mid-season.
Dartmouth started with a rush. They bowled over little Norwich 68-0, crushed Hobart 67-0, walked through Allegheny 53-0 and startled all New York by trouncing Columbia 34-0. Just what that makes the Green is easy to see, for immediately the anvil chorus started up and Dartmouth was already being poured into a championship mold.
The funny point of the whole business was that we sat in the various press stands and after the game was over wondered where all the points came from. Not until the Columbia game was over did this writer state quite emphatically and definitely that "in this game there was nothing to criticize in Dartmouth's playing." Even the rotund Mr. Dooley, who used to throw footballs for Dartmouth, looked on from the wooden box atop Baker Field and admitted that Dartmouth really looked quite fine, although he did use the word "ragged" once in his dispatch.
Norwich furnished no real opposition and the same could be said for Hobart. They tried to build Allegheny into another Temple game with all the psychological quirks which are necessary to such construction. Even at that, Allegheny was no pushover. Their score might just as well have been around 28-14, which wouldn't have looked so bad on paper.
Mr. Alton K. Marsters, known as the "special delivery kid," has lived up fully to pre-season prognostications. He at this writing is so far ahead in eastern scoring honors that the experts are watching the battle for second place; he has squirmed, side stepped and eluded so many tacklers that the writers have all run out of adjectives, and in short, he has been just grand. And then, W. 0. McGeehan, eminent sportist, capped it all at New York by saying that Mr. Marsters "did not stop running until they thought it best for him to take a rest."
Do not get the idea that Marsters is the greater part of the 1929 Dartmouth outfit, for he is not. He simply has that touch of gridiron color which makes spectators forget that there are ten other men on the field and that they are all part of Dartmouth's latest machine.
The Dartmouth line is the best since 1925. At New York they came out of the positions and smacked the Lion so hard that he did not have time to regain his wits. With such veterans as Capt. Ellsworth Armstrong, Paul Crehan, Gay Bromberg, Harold Booma and Harold Andres in the forward wall the Green is on a flood tide of strength. Then there are the replacements and sophomores whose names will be breaking into print. Hank Barber, a mere 218, holds down one tackle berth and has as his sub Cowboy Cole; Ping Ferry is a colossus at center, and a pair of 1932 wingmen, Stan Yudickey and Jay Whitehair, are keeping up the old traditions.
The Dartmouth backfield should be a real joy to Head Coach Jackson Cannell. Once Dartmouth had a great group of backs, but had no line to clear the way for them. This year will be another story. There is the Marsters-Sutton-Wolff-Clark combination. Following that comes that Longnecker-McCall-IVigard-Johnson crew, and outside of Marsters there is nothing to choose. In fact this writer likes the FrigardMcCall set of halfbacks a little better.
Now, after all this bedlam of optimism, one would think that an undefeated season would naturally follow. The Harvard game will be recorded in this number, of course, but just in a way of prediction, Harvard seems at this writing to be a better team than Dartmouth. I hope that I am wrong. But take a team like the Crimson which tied the Army in a perfectly marvelous last minute exhibition, and they can't be kept down. The Navy is coming along strong, and will give Dartmouth a heavy battle, and I would again pick the Navy as winner.
Dartmouth has no 1925 team as yet. So far they have shown only fundamental football, although for the past three weeks plays have been religiously practiced which have yet to make their appearance in games. The Green has a great deal up their sleeve, but as yet they do not know the practical application of it. They beat Norwich and Hobart on straight football, and only running plays were used. A few forward passes were uncorked against Allegheny, and even down at Columbia, Marsters called for the simplest pass formations which called for no deception. There have been no hidden ball plays and no triple passes shown.
The interference has steadily improved. Last year this was one of the weakest points in the Dartmouth attack, but 1929 is a different story. So far the quarterbacks have shouldered the burden of the ball carrying and it has devolved upon the halfbacks to interfere. Clark and Wolff have both done good work in this department. Aarne Frigard, playing his first season of varsity football, is better on the offense than either of the two above mentioned. He has shown both ability as a ball carrier and passer when he received his chance. Bob Wilkin, fullback, and Wild BillTMcCall, halfback, have yet to show, and it is a sneakingsuspicionthatMcCall is being held in reserve for a very good reason. The little time that he has been in games has shown that he is a natural football player, and even as a substitute he has gotten his quota of touchdowns.
The reserves are Dartmouth's best strength With replacements galore, the Green is able to continue a battle once it has started, and there is none of that dreaded let down so often seen when the game is petering out in the dusk.
This is a poor time to write football. Perhaps in the next issue a better slant on the season can be given.
The other Pall sports, which have been somewhat eclipsed by football, have all been doing their best. The soccer team has momentarily grasped the limelight because it is the best group Dartmouth has had as representatives in years. The shining light happens to be a gentleman by the name of Andre Stollmeyer, playing his first varsity season. He has seen much service in the West Indian country, and has proven a valuable asset to the Green. Scores so far show Dartmouth winning from Syracuse 7-0 and M. I. T. 7-3.
Freshman football, under Pat Holbrook, Frank Foster and Myles Lane, turned in an 8-6 victory over Tilton and crushed Clark School 39-0. The team is just getting into stride, and there are a number of likely lookingplayers who are at present somewhat green. The cross country team was beaten by Springfield 20-35.
COACH JACKSON V. CANNELL '19
CAPTAIN ELLSWORTH ARMSTRONGTackle, of New Haven, Connecticut
EDMUND SUTTON '31 Fullback, of Waterbury, Connecticut
LEONARD CLARK '31 Halfback, of Newton Highlands, Massa- chusetts
WILLARD C. WOLFF '31 Halfback, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
MARSTERS SCORING Hobart failed to stop the Big Green quarterback in a plunge through center which carried Marsters over the line, shaking off the tadkler immediately ahead. Note the Dartmouth interference ahead of Marsters and the efficient blocking by Clark at the runner's left.
MARSTERS SCORES IN COLUMBIA GAME Marsters going over the goal line for a score in the first quarter of the Dartmouth-Columbia game
ALTON K. MARSTERS '30 Quarterback, of Arlington, Massachusetts
*Dartmouth hereafter will not be referred toas "Kg green" in these columns, following avote of the alumni which was overwhelminglyagainst such appellation. The final vote:Against, 2; For, 1.
