HARVARD-DARTMOUTH ANNIVERSARY

To ANYONE WHO studies the list of football games engaged in by Dartmouth teams over a period of fifty years it is at once apparent that the number of games with Harvard leads the list by a considerable margin. Since a green team (then green and white) first traveled to Cambridge in 1882 there have been many interesting battles, at first a bit one-sided and then evening up to an almost fifty-fifty basis.

Dartmouth's first inter-collegiate encounter was with Amherst in the year preceding the first Harvard game, and Amherst continued as Dartmouth's chief and equal rival for some twenty years or more, the rivalry to be broken up only as the size of the two colleges became disproportionate and Amherst sought rivals in Williams and Wesleyan. And from the time of the breaking up of the Amherst rivalry Dartmouth has been without a "near- est and dearest" rival. Amherst has been played a number of times second only to the Harvard total, with Williams and Brown following in frequency. Vermont was an early Dartmouth rival, also Wesleyan in the old days of the League. Bowdoin has appeared a number of times and games with Princeton and Pennsylvania have been important features in various schedules. Despite the fact that the Yale series is comparatively new, Yale has been met at least twice in the earlier stages of Dartmouth football. The Cornell games have been prized additions to the schedule and a revival of the Princeton series now seems a possibility and would be extremely welcome.

But the friendly battle with Harvard has remained an event on Dartmouth schedules which has in its possession a bundle of memories for the alumni. At first there was the excitement involved in trying to score against a larger and better trained eleven, then came the meeting on more equal terms, and the final dedication of the Harvard stadium by a Dartmouth victory, which assigns, as many Dartmouth men believe, part ownership of that structure to the whole Dartmouth family. A certain friendly tradition grew up around the game, class reunions were held in Boston on the night before the game, general social jubilations and dances and parties marked the coming of Dartmouth en masse to the New England metropolis, and at the contest which is perhaps waged officially "for the championship of Greater Boston" there has been considerable interchange of courtesy between Dartmouth and Harvard men. Much of the renown of past Dartmouth teams has been won within the walls of the Cambridge stadium, much of tradition which is cherished in Hanover had its start there. In old days no Harvard game was complete unless the captain came on the field wearing Mac's old faded sweater which in itself implied a harking back to older, perhaps more heroic times. Fifty years of friendly rivalry with an institution so noted for its sportmanship and high plane of athletics is something to be proud of.