FOLLOWING THE BIG GREEN TEAMS
The second chapter of Earl Blaik's football regime at Dartmouth was opened on September 6, when a squad of 56 "invited" candidates reported for the usual preliminary training period. The players arrived in town in the very pink of condition, and the coaches plunged at once into heavy work. As a matter of fact, the highlights of the opening week were the excellent shape in which the squad reported and the uncommonly advanced stage of practice to which the Indian gridmen attained within the short space of a few days.
The Big Green squad first assembled on Memorial Field on Friday morning, and on the following Tuesday scrimmage was the order of the day. Contact work was ordered for both morning and afternoon sessions of the next three days, and on Saturday afternoon the squad engaged in a team scrimmage to round off the first full week of activity. It is interesting to note that the first scrimmage last year was held on September 22, and this season on September 10.
SUMMER JOBS A HELP
The Dartmouth players took to heavy work like a duck to water, and Roland Bevan, the new trainer of the Big Green eleven, was visibly pleased with the shape of his charges. The varsity gridmen spent the summer in all sorts of hardening occupations, such as railroad building, ditchdigging, construction jobs, and camp counselling, and consequently came back ready for the give and take of contact work.
The returning group included 16 lettermen, ten in the line and six in the backfield, and a contingent of 18 numeral- winners from last year's freshman eleven. Missing from the scene were 11 men lost by graduation, four ineligibles, and three others out of football because of injuries or heavy studies. Graduation took its heaviest toll in the backfield, whisking away such dependables as Jack Hill, Bill Clark, Harry Deckert, Norm Rand, Jim Aieta, and Gene Burnkrant. Graduates from the line were Dick Carpenter, end; Myron Ritter and Herb Stearns, guards; and George Price, tackle. Ineligibility has struck a particularly damaging blow in eliminating Bill McNeil, sophomore giant, who was expected to help solve the tackle problem, which seems to be the most seri ous facing Earl Blaik and his aides. Other ineligibles are Paul Lefebvre '37, Parran Dawkins '38, and Tom Sheehan '38, all backs.
Victor Kiarsis '36, who won his letter at tackle last season, has dropped football this year in favor of Medical School studies, and Don Erion '36 will also be missing from the tackle group because of a bad shoulder. A third letterman rendered hors de combat is Tony Geniawicz '37, stocky line-plunger and intercollegiate weight champion, who had his knee operated on at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital a few weeks ago and will remain out of athletics in an effort to get in shape for spring track.
SQUAD MORE EXPERIENCED
Of the 56 men on hand for the 1935 version of the Big Green, 26 are backs, eight ends, eight tackles, nine guards, and five centers. Veteran material isn't exactly plentiful in the Green camp, but the squad as a whole is vastly more experienced than that of last year in the intricacies of the Blaik system. Captain Jack Kenny, the first quarterback leader since Bob MacPhail '28, heads the list of available lettermen, which also includes El Camp, Jack Matzinger, Tony Muello, and Jack Merrill, ends; Gordon Bennett and Don Otis, tackles; Joe Handrahan, Henry Billings, and Latta McCray, guards; Carl Ray, center; and Eddie Chamberlain, Frank Nairne, Phil Conti, John Handrahan, and Joe Kiernan, backs.
In an effort to solve the tackle problem, made serious by the loss of Erion, Kiarsis, Price and McNeil, the Green coaches have shifted John Williams from center to tackle, and have put both Bennett and Otis on the right side of the line. If Williams, a strong 195-pounder, comes through as Dave Camerer's understudy, Dartmouth will have a sturdy quartet of tackles, but will still be weak in the reserve strength behind these men. Only four inexperienced sophomores remain for Harry Ellinger to work with, but out of Ed White, Frank Cannell, Auguste Ewing and Francis Schildgen the Green line coach may develop a pair of tackles to equal the work of Bennett and Otis as sophomores last year.
Dartmouth will be greatly improved at the ends, and Joe Donchess has eight outstanding men to develop this season. Camp, Matzinger, Merrill and Muello are all lettermen, and Merrill Davis heads a quartet of sophomore candidates who will push the veterans throughout the fall. Lawrence Hull, Karl Seidenstuecker and Tom Boyan are the other newcomers to the varsity who are giving Coach Donchess something to be pleased about.
The guard situation should be a little improved over last year, with Joe Handrahan available at the outset rather than at the tail-end of the season, and with Latta McCray and Henry Billings showing signs of being greatly improved players. Bill Cole, 180-pound junior, was leading the competition for the fourth berth up to the time he was stricken with appendicitis, and the battle will be continued among Roy Duckworth, Bob Bott, Dick Francis, Beverly Smith and Henry Reeve, all sophomores.
CENTER POST STRONG
The center position will be bolstered through the availability of two good reserves for Carl Ray in the persons of Frank Young '37 and Lewis Frick '38. Young was not out for football last fall but was outstanding in spring practice this year. Frick is joined by two other sophomore candidates in Bill Stratton and Bob Areson.
In the backfield, Coach Blaik and Andy Gustafson have done a little juggling, shifting John Handrahan from the spinner to the tail-back position and transforming Henry Whitaker, a center last year, into a fullback because of his sparkling defensive play last spring. In his new position, Handrahan will take over some of the passing and punting duties and will be used for end-sweeps and off-tackle runs rather than the spinners and line smashes to which he was largely confined last fall.
All together, the backfield situation is pretty much the same as it was last year, with a hopeful note injected by the arrival upon the scene of a dozen untried but promising sophomore backs. Lack of weight is still a major backfield problem, with very few of the candidates built to stand up under the strenuous ten-game schedule that Dartmouth has undertaken this year. Eddie Chamberlain and Phil Conti, a pair of galloping lightweights, are back for the team, but it is likely that they will be held in reserve this season. John Handrahan and Frank Nairne, who both weigh 185 pounds, seem slated to bear the brunt of the backfield duty in company with Jack Kenny, a rugged 183-pounder, and Joe Kiernan, whose weight of 165 pounds is about the average of the back- field squad.
Aside from Whitaker, Tino Lando, and Eddie Casey, who is out for varsity football for the first time, the shock troops for the Big Green backfield will have to be culled from the sophomores. Coach Blaik has let it be known that there are some first-class backs-in-the-making in the sophomore group, and if Dartmouth surprises the football world this fall, the unexpected will probably materialize through this little coterie of inexperienced ball-carriers.
Herb Christiansen and Fred Holling- worth stand out among these newcomers, the former at the fullback post and the latter at the halfback position which Handrahan and Chamberlain share. Christiansen is the stocky, line-smashing type, while Hollingworth, a tall, loose- limbed runner, has a deadly forward-passing eye. Other sophomores who have made their presence known on Memorial Field include Bob Archibald, John Armour, Jim Barrett, Warren King, Bob McConeghy, and Vining Sherman. King, a diminutive 135-pounder, is the lightest man on the squad and also the fastest.
It is futile to pick team line-ups at this stage of the season, but the following tentative personnel of the two first teams will doubtless make interesting reading for alumni:
Team A—Camp and Matzinger, ends; Bennett and Camerer, tackles; Joe Handrahan and McCray, guards; Ray, center; Kenny, quarterback; John Handrahan and Frank Nairne, halfbacks; and Kiernan, fullback.
Team B—Merrill and Davis, ends; Otis and Williams, tackles; Billings and Smith, guards; Frick, center; Chamberlain and Conti, halfbacks; and Christiansen, fullback.
The really interesting £act is that these line-ups contain only three sophomores in contrast to about ten in the A and B lineups at this time last year.
Squad Notes
Eddie Casey, junior backfield candidate, is the nephew of the former Harvard football coach of the same name. He was the leading hitter on Dartmouth's championship baseball team last spring.
Frank Cannell, sophomore tackle, is the nephew of Jackson L. Cannell '19, former Big Green coach.
Bob Bott, sophomore guard, is the brother of "Molly" Bott '29, who won fame as a hockey goalie.
Joe Kiernan '37, who seems slated for a regular backfield berth, is soloist for the Dartmouth Glee Club.
Vining Sherman, sophomore halfback, is the son of Nate Sherman '10, one of Dartmouth's track immortals.
Henry Whitaker '37, made-over back- field man, is the brother of Elroy Whitaker '24, who was center on the 1923 football team.
Jack Merrill '37, one of Joe Donchess' leading end candidates, is the son of Richard B. Merrill 'OB of South Pasadena, Calif.
Gordon Bennett '37, who won his letter at tackle last year and is assured of a regular berth this season, is the son of Dr. Hamlin P. Bennett '03.
Latta McCray '37, who has been holding down a first-string guard berth, is the brother of Sam McCray '34, former member of the winter sports team.
