Spring Football

Spring football practice was brought to an end on May 12, after two months of the hardest pre-season training that Big Green gridmen have ever had. Coach Blaik's squad numbered about 75 men on the day of the final scrimmage, which was announced as a sort of la derniere classe, and as many men as possible were injected into the regulation contest between the Whites and Greens.

The final performance on Chase Field was impressive, and also indicative of the mastery with which Coaches Blaik, Ellinger, Gustafson and Donchess are capable of teaching football. While necessarily unpolished, the precision, drive, blocking, and speed of the Green attack was comparable to that of mid-fall in recent years. The new coaching staff has made tangible progress, and has evidently achieved the purpose of the spring practice period in becoming acquainted with the possibilities of the various candidates and laying the groundwork for the new system which must be hastily developed in the fall.

Aside from the general improvement in fundamentals, the major development of the spring season has been the uncovering of a brilliant halfback in Ed Chamberlain, former star at Lynn Classical High School, who was a fourth-stringer with the varsity last fall. A speedy runner and accurate passer, he has been outstanding in every scrimmage this spring. Frank Nairne, another sophomore, and John Handrahan, a freshman, have also been impressive among the backfield candidates. The former was ineligible last fall, and it is hoped that he will be one of those to profit by the renaissance in scholarship which Coach Blaik has brought about.

The work of Carl Ray, 220-pound freshman center, Dave Camerer and Don Otis, freshman tackles, and Joe Handrahan, who has been shifted from the backfield to a guard position, has been outstanding this spring in Harry Ellinger's line. Newcomers have stolen the limelight so far, but a corps of veterans headed by Captain Jack Hill, Harry Deckert, Don Erion, El Camp, Earl Arthurs, Jack Kenny and Herb Stearns, has been in the thick of the preseason fight. Ability has been the only criterion for playing on Coach Blaik's first team, and the acceptance of this fact among the players has led to healthy competition.

At the present moment, June exams are playing the leading role in the Dartmouth football picture. Seasoned material is scarce, and a number of promising newcomers are shaky scholastically. The curtain has been rung down on spring work, however, and September will bring the next big act.