Big Green Teams
Basketball Team Downs Penn, Hockey Six Upsets Yale, As Both Open Defense of Eastern League Crowns
THERE IS NO moss on Ivy League basketball" sayeth a California sportswriter after the Big Green five had downed Stanford during the Christmas vacation much to the surprise of the Pacific coast court fans and to the great delight of Eastern basketball adherents
"Some day, perhaps, the Quadrangular League hockey teams will win more than their share of encounters against Toronto, McGill and Queens in the International Intercollegiate Ice Hockey League" sayeth Coach Ace Bailey after Toronto had met and defeated a stubborn Dartmouth six that had on the previous Saturday night forced Queens to a stiff 1-0 victory
"Half miler Johnny Woodruff and two miler Don Lash will appear on the Dartmouth indoor track on March 15" sayeth Coach Harry Hillman, "and both of them should set new all-time marks in their distances on the world's fastest indoor wooden saucer.". . . .
"I dropped in to see some of the fellows while the hockey team was at Rye during the Christmas holidays," sayeth John Welden '38, "and ended up in the locker room before, during, and after the game with Brown.
"I was very interested to see how Eddie Jeremiah worked, especially in view of his last year's record, aside from the fact that this is one of the major sports at Dartmouth during the winter season. It occurred to me that others of the alumni might be interested to learn something of what goes on behind the scenes at a Big Green hockey game. It was with this in mind that I wrote this sketch and send it to you.
"I hope that you can use it in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. If you do I might tell you that Eddie doesn't know I wrote it. I didn't know I was going to myself when I was at Rye:
BEHIND THE SCENES AT RYE WITH EDDIE JEREMIAH AND THE HOCKEY TEAM-
The present edition of Dartmouth hockey teams, which is currently blasting its opposition all over the Atlantic seaboard, is as spontaneous a bunch of athletes as it has ever been our pleasure to witness. Apparently Coach Jeremiah is just one of the gang. It is understood of course that he is the leader of the gang and takes upon himself such duties as planning strategy, directing play, and generally master-minding the various Indian attacks and defenses. He can and does apply the needle and his hypodermic injects a wealth o£ hockey knowledge and psychological fitness but he seldom forgets that his doctoring is just as effective if an anaesthetic is coincidental.
We sat in the Dartmouth locker room while this club was massacring all opposition at Rye and listened to his between the period talks. Jeremiah stood in the center of the room, coat open showing the first trace of a stomach which was as hard as rock when under the care of Jack Cannell. He gave forth, gently but firmly. "Now we look all right considering we haven't done any skating in the last two weeks. We've got to check back faster. Remember, you go down fast and come back faster! Watch this number two at left defense, on your right as you come down. Try to work a stick's length away from him because he's a good poke checker and is liable to poke that puck away from you before you know it. We look all right now and you're putting on a good show."
That's all for the group and the players laugh among themselves. They're a light hearted bunch of clowns, until they get on the ice. Freddy Maloon stands in the corner and tosses oranges to all who want them. Big Jim Feeley, the "fabulous invalid", sits quietly against the wall and admits that he let that wing get away from him but insists that that was no board check he got penalized for. He asks Jeremiah whether it was or not and we wait for the answer because we know that Jeremiah hadn't seen the play; couldn't have seen it from where he was because we were right beside him. He said, "I don't know, Jim. As a matter of fact, I didn't see the play. I heard it." And we were glad because we knew that kids know an honest coach from one who isn't and work their hearts out for him. Wesley "Mouse" Coding, keeper of the pipes, seems the most tired and stretches out flat on the floor using pads as a pillow. Danny Sullivan confides in Eddy that his trouble is passing and receiving behind himself while "Harpo" Walsh announces that he is waiting for the Middlebury game to start playing hockey. The wisecracks fly and then Jeremiah breaks in again.
" 'Soup', what's the first criticism of you?"
"I know," says Campbell, "I didn't shoot."
"That's right. What's the sense of looking good all the way up the ice if you're not going to do anything about it when you get there? If they'd opened the end of the rink you'd have gone all the way to Rye Center with that puck on your stick. And Maloon, while that legs of yours stays bad you can keep me quiet but when it gets better you're skating back just as fast as the rest of us."
"Yeah, it feels bad" says Freddy, faking pain and the rest of the squad hoots and laughs.
"I don't imagine," smiles Eddie, "that you could go any slower because if you did you would stop."
[Note: the needle (with anaesthetic) worked wonders. Maloon was much faster on the ice the next period.]
When the laugh dies down, several routine questions are put and answered and then the word is given to "lace up." Over the subdued murmur of players strapping on skates and talking quietly to one another, Jeremiah's voice dominates the room.
"All right you defensemen, don't forget your ten points and you've got to make those guys respect you at the blue line. If you're going to body check, body check and if you're going to poke check, poke check but never mind this half of each and doing a poor job of both. And you forwards, don't forget to check back and remember to look up on all passes and shots. O.K. now let's go and don't let up just because you've got a two or three goal lead. Remember, we're going to skate hard at all times. If you get tired, I'll pull you. We'll go down stairs now."
When the team is on the ice, Jeremiah says little. He may point out that a certain type of pass should be watched for. Once in a while he gets excited and yells at a thrilling play or he may show dissatisfaction at a gross error. I did not hear him adversely criticize any player while the game was in progress. Once, when Bud Foster came off the ice just after soloing for a goal, Eddy leaned over and whispered, "You actually looked a little mad on that rush, Buddy. Felt pretty good, didn't it?" (needle plus anaesthetic).
Almost without exception, Dartmouth players apologize to him for being sent off the ice. One of his most repeated adages is that his players are no good to anyone, except the other team, while sitting in the penalty box. Last year he had one lad, exceptionally willing and as a result a bit boisterous, who felt so badly that every time he was sent off the ice he apologized not only to Jeremiah but to the whole team and sometimes to the Dartmouth stands.
Eddie calls all the players by their first names and expects that they will do the same for him. The one exception to this being when he sends the lines onto the ice during a game. Then it is Foster's line or Maloon's line or Murphy's line, these being the respective centers. Once again Eddie employs a little psychology and purposely refrains from calling his lines first, second or third. The defensemen also get called by their last names during the game and it is, "Feeley and Campbell out there," or "Cross and Larkin."
There is no talk by Jeremiah after the game. He wanders around the dressing room with his hands in his back pockets, overcoat fanned out behind, and a far away look on his face. His absorption seems so thorough that no one thinks of going anywhere near him and he sits or stands alone, evidently reviewing the game and planning his practice sessions. He is the last to leave and, we noticed, among the first to arrive.
This is Eddie Jeremiah working a game; quiet, poised (another good way the players could incur his wrath is to try some "razzle-dazzle, high-schoolish, blind behind the back, hope to God it goes through pass") but conscientious and a believer in condition through hard work. His record in the past is an open book, undefeated in Quad league competition. In the future games will be lost. The best of them do it. But we would like to go as far as to say, and we don't consider ourselves out on a limb, that it will not be because Eddie Jeremiah is not applying his magic needle (with anaesthetic) or his charges are not fighting their hardest. The odds catch up with every team.
JOHN WHELDEN '38
Which is very swell going, Johnnie, and I'm sure every alumni sports follower has a real picture of Jerry at work. With this inside-looking-out sketch you have the true reason why Jerry has been a successful hockey coach, and why, even if the boys do not duplicate their feat of last winter, the Indian stickmen will fight like all hell to do so and why they will all have fun in any event.
Many were those who saw Dartmouth go down to defeat by Queens and Toronto who thought they had seldom seen any Dartmouth team show so much fight and determination to make a battle out of what was soon a losing cause. And when the Green did finally go down to these clever, fast skating Canadian sextet, there was little doubt that Dartmouth had real ability in an American sense and that this same squad spirit by the stickmeri would be fruitful once the Quad League was under full steam. This proved to be true on the opening night of the Indians defense of their championship when Yale was downed 5-1 in the Davis rink. The Elis six was much heralded before the faceofF, but at least in this one match proved to be slightly inferior to the Green sextet.
Dartmouth's basketball forces also proved that the Stanford win was no mere flash in the pan by starting out with an initial E. I. L. victory over a Penn team that had already defeated Cornell and Yale in previous League contests. When Dartmouth journeyed to Penn. the Big Green roster was at full strength much to the delight of all Dartmouth court enthusiasts. With Bob MacLeod and Joe Cottone wasting no time whatever in returning to the court following Christmas vacation, Coach Cowles had reserve strength for the first time since he took over the coaching reins two winters ago. The first five of Vin Else, Swede Broberg, Moose Dudis, Joe (Gloomy) Batchelder, and Bob White was kept intact for the whistle at Philadelphia, for these men have been playing well indeed and are still in advance of the two veterans who reported late. However Coach Cowles was able to insert Mac and Hartford Joe into the fray, and although neither was up to their form of last season, both had the necessary experience to keep the quintet on a steady drive while White and Else rested. What the lineup will be when Cottone and MacLeod are at peak form is hard to guess, but it is not the important factor by any means. No team can expect to be good throughout the long schedule without substitutions of ability, and this year, unless examinations take a heavy toll, Dartmouth will not suffer at the end of the season as was the case last year when four men had to carry the entire load.
You have all heard of a moose-trap in football, but the Dartmouth skiers found out what it meant over the Christmas vacation when the Green runners lost the Harding trophy at Lake Placid. It seems that Coach Walter Prager entered his strongest team for the Lac Beauport, Quebec, college meet and the Indians successfully downed McGill, their only real rival in intercollegiate skiing. However, it was also necessary for Dartmouth to enter another team at Lake Placid and by the time three of the outstanding skiers had drifted to Sun Valley and the main strength of the squad had finished at Lac Beauport, it came pretty near being a Dartmouth "C" team. Which would have been all fine and dandy only McGill rushed its "A" team to Placid in a clever move that spelled the downfall of the Green forces that were unable to cope with this unexpected turn of events. Naturally the papers made a great ado over McGill ending Dartmouth's supremacy and the campus ski followers like the procedure not even a little bit. And if this wasn't enough, Dartmouth sent a "D" team to Colgate that was defeated and again the papers made a great item of the fact that Dartmouth's ski team had been defeated in an intercollegiate meet—the mighty had fallen, the invincibles had been taken, with not a word being said about the quality of the Dartmouth forces. All of which is but small talk, and it has but served to fire the Dartmouth skiers into a spirit that won't do any harm at Carnival time. If you must wager, a sure thing would be Dartmouth to win the Carnival and Dartmouth to try harder to win than is the usual custom of the Dartmouth skiers. My idea of a smart thing would be never to rub the fur of the Dartmouth varsity ski team the wrong way unless wanting to start another hurricane such as we suffered back in the fall.
But to go from material plenty to material scarce, Coach Sid Hazelton is having his troubles molding a Dartmouth varsity swimming team together. Probation of many of his stars wasn't enough, it seems, for now he has had vacation accidents and many other plagues to bother him. Of all the Dartmouth sports teams I have ever seen or heard about, the swimmers this winter seem to be in the most unfortunate position, and if they can but keep up their hopes and try their best, then they will deserve the praise of a winning team at the end of the season.
And as this is going to press the Dartmouth athletes face the one opponent who in a single blow may take the underpinnings right from under their feet—old man examination period! May all the boys do as well on the books as they have been doing on the field of battle and then we can let the opposition do the worrying from here to the finish.
ALUMNI HOCKEY FANS NOTE
Because the Yale-Dartmouth hockey game at New Haven on February 25 comes on the date of the Yale Prom, meaning a capacity house for the Quadrangular League clash, followers of the Green team are cautioned to purchase their seats well in advance. Reserve seats are now on sale at the Yale Athletic Association at $1.65 for the side sections and $1.10 for the end sections.
RETURNS TO COURT Bob MacLeod '39, Dartmouth's Ail-American halfback, who has reported to CoachOssie Cowles after starring in the East-Westfootball classic on New Year's Day.
SWIMMING LEADER Bob Cushman '39, swimming captain fromWinchester, Mass., upon whom Coach SidHazelton is relying heavily in the 100-yarddash and 400-yard relay.
HARD-SHOOTING WING John W. Kelley '41, Minneapolis sophomore, whose sparkling play has earned hima position in the first line of the Greenhockey team. He is also a leading endcandidate on the football squad.
SCORING POWER OF BIG GREEN HOCKEY TEAMWings and centers on the first three lines are, left to right, Sam Snow '40 of Braintree,Mass.; Dan Sullivan '40 of St. Albans, Vt.; Fred Maloon '41 of Belmont, Mass.; Junie Merriam '39 of Greenfield, Mass.; Bud Foster '39 of Leominster, Mass.; Dave Walsh '39 ofWalpole, Mass.; Hugh Murphy '41 of Boston; and Clem Costello '41 of Lowell, Mass.Murphy was lost to the team when he suffered a concussion in a head-on collision duringthe Queens game.
