Moral Victory at Harvard

The game itself was a story of Dartmouth power and Dartmouth surges which carried through the first half into the closing minutes and had Harvard bewildered and desperate as the game neared its close. "In a febrile football fandango, trimmed with drama and dynamite" Bill Cunningham writes in his lead, "holding its ultimate issue exquisitely suspended, Dartmouth outplayed, outrushed, outpassed and outgeneralled highly favored Harvard and still lost the decision 10-7."

Harvard might have been overrated for this game. The Crimson had not played harsh opponents to that date, and a subsequent 46-0 defeat by the Army took a little of the glamor out of the Dartmouth showing in the Stadium, but it is a fact that Dartmouth looked the part of the conquering heroes in this game.

Harvard's two scoring plays were a beautiful field goal by Danny Wells in the second period and a 93-yard run back of a kickoff by track man Carl Pescosolido which left the spectators gasping for its sheer speed.

But then, in fact of this 10-0 deficit, Dartmouth started to do things. Rolling into the third period, the Big Green started to click with a clever assortment of straight and shift plays which gave Harvard the jitters. Down went the Green wave 80 yards to the one-yard line where Harvard buckled up its belt and held for downs. Then a kick out, and Dartmouth was away again, mixing the plays and tossing deadly passes which found their marks. A reverse pass, Hill to Fishman to Donner carried all the way to the threeyard line and on the next play Jack Hill went crashing through a hole as big as yoor barn door for the touchdown, while Hoffman followed with the goal.

By this time the Green stands were yelling for the kill, and the following period again saw Dartmouth start one of its irrepressible surges which ended with Harvard again taking the ball on downs around the 20-yard stripe.

But down came Dartmouth again with the shift and the pass and Harvard was a desperate, defending team. For the second time they punted out and again the march started. All of this was consuming time and with each succeeding surge the big clock at the end of the field was coming closer and closer to game's end.

The final surge was the emotional peak of the game. Sammy Fishman was helped off the field with a cramp in his leg and George Stangle had come in to take his place. With the little behind the line forward pass working well, Stangle and Powers had cracked off runs toward the goal and the ball finally rested on the six-yard line, first down. Only two minutes showed on the clock.

Three plays were aimed at that line and the ball was three yards closer to the goal. Fourth down, three yards to the touchdown, and the clock showed less than a minute to play. If you were a quarterback, what would you do? The tension in the stands was terrific, and I can well imagine what went through the minds of the eleven Harvard men down on that field.