TEAM MEETS "OLD MAN EXPERIENCE"

Seasoning of Youthful Football Players is EncouragingTo Earl Blaik and His Staff

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third and final interview with EarlBlaik in the series which the ALUMNI MAGAZINE has been publishing during the football season.

IF EARL BLAIK has given Dartmouth a new conception of football, Dartmouth in turn has taught the Green leader that football coaching can sometimes be a community affair. Although the Princeton game remains to be played, post-mortems on the 1934 season are already being pieced together, and everyone would like to know "Why this?" and "Why that?" Earl Blaik, philosophical in the face of this new experience, frankly confesses that he is a bit bewildered by it all.

This, in general, was the tenor of Coach Blaik's remarks to the MAGAZINE interviewers, who had invaded the last stronghold of privacy and had perched themselves on the beds in the coaches' sleeping quarters. "What has happened this season is quite obvious, and not entirely unexpected, to us coaches," Mr. Blaik confided, "but I don't expect others to view matters as simply as we do. A new style of play, pretty green material, and a curtailment of muchneeded work because of constant injuries—that seems to sum up this first year."

Coach Blaik places a heavy premium upon "Old Man Experience" and figures that the present season has been highly successful in one respect: that of subjecting the bulk of next year's squad to the fire of major competition. Dartmouth's 1934 team was a youthful outfit, if there ever was one, and the presence of five sophomores on the first eleven brought the average age considerably below 20 years. "The team was less matured than many prep school teams," the Green coach declared.

When asked if he thought that the 1934 schedule was a handicap to the team, Coach Blaik answered decisively that he thought it was. "To develop the way it should, a football team needs stiff opposition from the very beginning. Gaining experience may involve a few lickings, but it is worth the price if the fellows know what it is all about when they come up against the real tests later in the season." Dartmouth's gridiron leader has some interesting things to say about football as a challenge to the intelligence of the individual player. "The real thrill of the game comes from winning," Coach Blaik believes, but it is also a very definite satisfaction to know that you-are a better player than you were at the beginning of the season, and that you can't be fooled the way you could be at the start."

The discussion next veered around to the question of offensive frills. For some strange reason, the idea got abroad that the Indians were hiding an assortment of fancy plays, and the strategy behind their reluctance to "open up" got to be a regular Hanover guessing-game. Coach Blaik cleared up the matter by declaring not only that there were no triple laterals to pull out of the bag but that he didn't place much stock in them. "Properly executed, the Dartmouth attack this year was more than sufficient to win every ball game we played," the Green coach asserted. "You can go in for all the frills you want, but you won't win football games that way. It takes good old fundamental football, with sound blocking, hard running and good passing, to gain the yardage and score the touchdowns." The idea, it seems, is to cover ground the surest way and let the bands put on the show between the halves.

"Granting that Dartmouth entered every game well equipped to win, what were the greatest weaknesses in execution?" Coach Blaik was next asked. The reply that the Green team lacked a dependable forward-passer was expected, but the further statement that the team also needed a good running back was something of a surprise. The Dartmouth balltoters have been running with more drive than any in recent years, yet no one back in the current crop measures up to the high standard which Earl Blaik has set for his Big Green teams. "A first-class back could have gone to town on the openings which presented themselves during the season. A little more speed and heads-up play here and there would have made a big difference."

In addition to this deficiency, the lack of an inspiring leader on the field was also a real handicap, Coach Blaik believes. "If Jack Hill had been able to play throughout the season, there probably would have been a different story to tell. As it was, the team often lacked the spark that should have sent it simply smashing through the opposition. It was unfair to Jack to expect him to pull a crippled team together against Cornell, but it was a desperate chance which the coaches decided to take when injuries broke up the units which were accustomed to playing together."

Injuries, of course, were the big bugaboo of the coaching staff's first season. It was the original plan to play the Indians as units, this system having proved by far the most effective in Earl Blaik's experience. The idea was knocked galley-west from the very outset, and the establishment of definite backfield combinations was out of the question. Aside from John Handrahan and Jack Kenny, no back was available for two weeks in a row. "We did not have near enough work this season," Coach Blaik asserted, "and the idea that we have had too much is absurd. Real work might have eliminated most of our troubles, but with so many injuries, we just had to ease up. I believe that a squad should have live blocking and live tackling nearly every day until the end of October."

All hands agreed at this point that enough had been said about the past, and Coach Blaik volunteered the statement that he for one was encouraged by the development of a number of men this season. "Old Man Experience" has now been enrolled as a member of the Green squad, and he has been sorely needed. "The team has plenty of the will to win," Coach Blaik concluded, "but it simply lacks the ability to do what it wants to do. From now on we will have less ballyhoo and more football team."

Dartmouth Photo Agency.Head Coach Blaik and End Coach Donchess watch criticlly as the backs and ends go through a skeleton drill The players, left to right, are Dick Carpenter, end., John Handrahan, fullback, and EddieChamberlain, halfback.

Football Gives Way to King Winter on Memorial Field.