THE NEBULOUS IVY LEAGUE
The Eastern Ivy League is really a figure of speech, and it's probably going to remain in that category because Harvard, especially, wants no entangling alliances beyond her traditional one with Yale. And Harvard is the England of eastern intercollegiate politics. She maneuvers the others around pretty generally to rule the way she wants them to. But the ephemeral Ivy League consists of: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia and Pennsylvania at present. A new system of general eastern intercollegiate athletic overseeing, somewhat comparable to the Midwest's famed "Big Ten" Conference will be set up the first of the year, headed by Asa Bushnell, now Graduate Manager of Athletics at Princeton. Mr. Bushnell has been quoted as saying he expects to expand the Ivy Loop to include Army, Navy, and Brown.
But as "the league" now stands, if it has a champion, that champion is Dartmouth, and so far as the core of it goes—the Harvard-Yale-Princeton-hub—the Green, athletically,has beaten two and tied the third now twice in succession. And the Green is the road team of the set-up, forced to be the visitor upon every occasion, but, now, apparently, capable of filling the pews every time it comes calling.
The prime reason, of course, is a reborn Dartmouth football system which seems to be hitting pretty close to its all time high under the Messrs. Blaik-Ellinger-Gustafson, at cetera. Of course, there's no discounting the ground work of the last dozen years or so. Football relations are cumulative, and our present fine friendships with Harvard, Yale and the rest, have been a steady and healthy post-war growth.
And so far as the present coaching staff goes, as fine as it is, it isn't the first good one we've had even in this post war period. For whatever my guessing is worth, Jess Hawley was a fine coach as a college ever had, and his 1925 team—the OberlanderTully-Sage unit—was a coaching masterpiece. Furthermore, Hawley's personal contribution especially to the present warm relations with Harvard should never be forgotten nor discounted.
But the present coaches deserve a world of credit because they started from even back of scratch. Our gridiron property had run down completely. It'll be unbelievable to some of you older brothers, but spirit, even on the campus, had gone into that defense complex of indifference. The erstwhile Big Green was back on its heels and the chute wasn't far. The only Ivy League it rated, the way it was going, was what one supposes might be referred to as the Potted Ivy League—the playmates of an earlier era—Williams, Wesleyan and Amherst.
The new staff didn't get off to any heartening start. The town and the college greeted them like the beleaguered citizens of Lucknow greeted the Campbells when they first showed up in the spring of '34 and their spring practice struck a new high in numbers, enthusiasm—and, incidentally, length.
But the fall started badly. Capt. Jack Hill was out with a recurrent bad knee. Bill Clark was out with a bad ankle. Erion, the stand-out tackle dislocated his shoulder. Pop Nairne, the best back, was out—all this as the annual opener with Norwich was written into the records. Yet the Green scored 39 points to Norwich's none and every scout and scribe left Hanover talking or writing about Dartmouth's "smoothly drilled," or "beautifully drilled" team which whanged out 420 yards and 18 first downs, using only one formation and four basic plays.
ROLAND W. BEVAN Graduate of Ohio Northern Universityand, head athletic trainer. Superb conditionand phenomenal lack of injuries on varsityteams have earned Rollie a fine reputation.
