The Dartmouth 1929 Football Team
"Special Delivery" Marsters, "Arlington Al," the"Arlington Antelope," and the Big Green Fire Chief areall one and the same—Alton K. Marsters of the seniorclass whose home is in Arlington, Massachusetts. Thegridiron gods have both smiled and frowned on Dartmouth'spopular and gifted young half back. During the 1927season, as a sophomore, he set a pace for himself whichearly injuries the following fall compelled him to abandon.The entire football public, Dartmouth alumni, undergraduates, coaches and members of the team all looked forward to the past season with one common thought: "Howwill Al Marsters go this year?"
The story of his glorious meteoric season is now achapter in Dartmouth athletic history. The spinal injuryhe suffered in the Yale game left no room for an anticlimax to his career. He takes his place among the greatestplayers the game has ever known, either on Dartmouthteams, or elsewhere.
FOOTBALL has become a sport which is not only played in the fall but which is talked about during the entire year. Soon after the disastrous season of '28 speculation became rife concerning the '29 season. With the appointment of Jack Cannell to succeed the retiring Jess Hawley this speculation received an added impetus. Groups gathered about the streets of Hanover, in "dorms," in Allen's Drug Emporium, and in Campion's bullpen. Would the forward pass be relegated to the background, would the small Sage type of end be discarded, would the huddle be used, and countless other speculations common to football fans the world over were heard from the Bank to the Golf Club. But as is well known football games are not won by undergraduate "bull sessions."
When the squad met for preliminary practice several new faces were seen in the line-up of the coaching staff. Cannell, as head coach, had gathered around him as assistants "Swede" Youngstrom, to work with Norm Crisp on the line, "Mel" Merrit and Syd Hazelton to handle the backfield, and "Bull" Lowe to help Hagenbuckle with the ends. Cannell's choice of assistants alone augured for a successful season.
PRELIMINARY PRACTICE
Preliminary practice was much the same as of old save that more emphasis was placed upon the funda mentals, tackling and blocking, to say nothing of line play. In one of Jack's first talks to the squad he made it plain to everyone that if the team did nothing else they were going to tackle and block to perfection, and ensuing work bore out this statement. The backs were instructed that no longer could they stand in their tracks and wait for the opposition to throw a pass; they must go up fast and help in the defense against running plays. So much stress in recent years has been put upon the forward pass that, unconsciously, they had slighted their full secondary duties. A program was installed in which every member of the squad took part. At the beginning of each practice every man was compelled to take three "shots" at a stationary dummy, then three head-and-shoulder blocks on a line of standing dummies, then three whip blocks on the same dummies. Their legs were then limbered up by stepping through Syd Hazelton's boxes and over his hurdles, and the men finished with a tackle at a flying dummy. This program was followed during the entire season.
EARLY GAMES
The season began as usual with Norwich as our first opponent. The early season concentration upon running plays showed a very decided effect upon the score. But one pass was used during the entire game and this was incomplete. Spectators went away vowing that, although the Dartmouth team looked very ragged, they exhibited great power in their attack. Hobart's light and tricky team came next with their customary reverses and hidden ball plays. They were snowed under by a Dartmouth team, that, though improved over the week before, still looked ragged, and still refused to use the forward pass. Allegheny, "Mel" Merrit's old pupils, were our guests the following weekend. Their rugged team bowed before Dartmouth's powerful plays 53-0. Before the game we were told that at last we were to meet a line which would force us to open up and pass, but the early season tutelage of "Doc" Crisp and "Swede" Youngstrom told the tale. Newspaper writers could not account for the large score for Dartmouth still seemed very ragged, and missed many favorable opportunities, but they overlooked the fact that Dartmouth's strength was in its line.
Columbia came next. Before this game there was much speculation as to the outcome. Columbia was reported to have a strong team. Dartmouth, up to date, had not been tested. Sporting writers predicted a close game, but they evidently overlooked the fact that Columbia, like ourselves, had played minor teams. The team before the game realized that here was the first test of a long and tough season. Much depended upon this game. The forty thousand people who jammed Baker field to see the Indians and the Lions tangle saw Dartmouth sweep to a touchdown in the first five minute's of play, and thereafter utterly rout a nervous and indecisive Columbia team.
PEAK OF THE SEASON
Dartmouth reached its peak in the Harvard game. Deadlocked with the Crimson 7-7 at the half, the team came back in the second stanza and submitted to Harvard the greatest defeat ever given them by a Dartmouth team, 34-7. Critics proclaimed that the Green again had a team which ranked on a par with 1925. The line played magnificently. Each individual lineman was begging the quarterback to send the play through him. The team functioned so perfectly in its assignments that any play went for yardage.
The following week, however, the Yale jinx again raised its ugly head. With Dartmouth leading 12-10 with very few minutes to play, a Yale man intercepted a pass and ran eighty yards for the winning score, The fact that the Yale man who intercepted was away out of position only served to accentuate the traditional Yale "hoodoo" in the minds of Dartmouth men.
After such a heartbreaking defeat everyone naturally looked for a let-down in the morale of the team. However, the disastrous Yale game seemed rather to inspire the men to greater efforts, and the team came from behind in both the Brown and Cornell games to win hardearned victories. Brown was defeated 13-6 after a blocked punt had given them a touchdown early in the first quarter, and Cornell bowed 18-14 before the savage onslaught of the Dartmouth line.
The Navy game proved to be "one of those things." Hampered in practice by snow and frozen ground, the team was taken to Atlantic City the Monday before the game. Logy and tired they fought a game but losing fight against the Navy's stalwart line and plunging backfield. Opening up in the second half with a passing attack which scored a touchdown the Green threw a scare into the Navy, but the middies fought off the rally and won out 13-6.
JACK CANNELL's SUCCESS
No Dartmouth man can deny that the season was a success. Jack Cannell in his new role as head coach produced a team which only lost two games, and these by close scores. He was faced with a difficult schedule from the start, six major games in a row, and the hat of every Dartmouth man should be off to a coach who can take a team through such a season with the loss of only two games. Not a little of the credit for this showing must go to Harry Hillman, the trainer. Throughout the season he watched and took care of every individual player. He realized the difficulty of such a schedule and handled the team accordingly. After a particularly hard and trying game, such as the Yale game, he would give the team from one to two days' complete rest before allowing them to start on their drive for the next Saturday's battle. No man played who had the slightest injury, and each scratch was watched carefully. Many a team's crop of injuries occur in practice scrimmages owing to poor preliminary conditioning, but because of Harry Hillman these accidents were reduced to a minimum during the past season.
PRAISE FOR CAPT. ARMSTRONG
But in the last analysis all the coaching, all the training would have gone for nought had not the members of the team themselves been imbued with the spirit that makes a winning football team. Every man who played football for Dartmouth during the season of 1929 played because he enjoyed the game. The coaching staff itself fostered this spirit. Led by "Ellie" Armstrong the team played football because it would rather do so than eat. Not a little of the credit for this spirit must go to "Ellie" himself. Never flashy, never spectacular, but always in the game, he led his men through his own consistency.
Throughout the season there was always a constant raillery and bantering between the members of the squad. Jack Cannell sensed the value of this and fostered it. One incident which will serve to bring out this point occurred in one of the preliminary games. "Jerry" Jeremiah was in the game when his roommate, Bart McDonough, came in to relieve the quarter-back. After the first play the team went into the huddle and Bart prepared to deliver the signal when Jerry piped up in a perfectly serious voice, and asked anxiously, "Bart, have you met all these fellows?" This incident may seem trivial to the average observer, and to the man who believes that football games are a matter of life and death it may look like rank heresy, but it was the same Jeremiah who came into the Yale game in the latter part of the first half, after Booth had put the fear of the Lord into our team, and he, Jeremiah, resurrected an almost broken morale. Instances such as these occurred in almost every important game, and nearly every one of them came from different players. Understand, the team did not for one minute forget the seriousness of its tasks and no one over-emphasized the spirit of levity.
NO STAR ON THIS TEAM
No one could be a star on this outfit with ten of the best fellows in the world telling him how "lousy" he was. A star, after all, is the fellow who gives the public its thrill, but to see real football one must look ahead of the ball carrier, and see who is really doing the work, clearing the way for the point scorer.
ANDRES ELECTED CAPTAIN
Soon after the Navy game the letter men met and elected Harold Andres captain for the 1930 season. "Hal" has been regular at center for two years playing in every game. He has never received the full amount of credit due him, because he is another player of the Armstrong type. Never spectacular, but always steady and reliable. During the past season he not only performed his regular duties at center, but also directed the defensive backfield formations.
The outlook for a successful season next year under Andres is particularly bright. At the beginning of this article I attempted to make it clear that football games are not won on paper nor in "bull sessions," but the temptation to do a bit of predicting is too strong for me. With only three men lost from the varsity, and with a wealth of material already on the squad to take their places coupled with those coming up from "Pat" Holbrook's undefeated freshman crew tends to lead me to the conclusion that the Green will again have a winning team. Of course anything can happen, but with any "breaks" at all, next season looks bright.
For the season of 1930 Dartmouth faces a somewhat lighter schedule. However, the team makes one of the longest trips ever made by a Green athletic squad when they play Stanford at Palo Alto next fall. The recent overwhelming defeats sustained by Army and Pitt show that no team can make such a long trip and retain its normalcy. If the Green is able to defeat the Indians Dartmouth will have done something that very few Eastern teams have accomplished.
IN CONCLUSION
The one thing that impressed me most throughout the entire season was the predominance of the spirit of fellowship and good will which existed between the players and the coaches. Jack Cannell and his staff tried to make football as enjoyable to the players as possible. Personal initiative was stressed to its utmost degree. Football after all is a game primarily for the players, not the spectators, and the Dartmouth team of 1929 would have played football whether anyone came out to see them or not because they all loved the game.
ALTON K. MARSTERS '3O
MARSTERS BEHIND PERFECT INTERFERENCE HARVARD VS. DARTMOUTH, 1927
