Big Green Teams
While Bill Cunningham Reviews Indian Football Season Sports Editor Pays Tribute to Genius of Coach Blaik
THIS IS AN ATTEMPT to portray the coaching personality of the man who was called upon to lead Dartmouth out of the wilderness in football, and who succeeded beyond all expectations.
it is never easy to describe any individual. It is doubly difficult to cover the full character of Earl Blaik, Miami University 1919, West Point 1920, Dartmouth 1934.
The first time the writer ever met Mr. Blaik the introductions were more than informal; they were entirely accidental.
Out on Memorial field a cocky freshman was practicing golf shots in an effort to improve a touch that at the time was fairly satisfactory but that has since gone completely to hell, when a complete stranger to me sauntered out on the forbidden driving range to watch the exhibition. As far as I was concerned he was a guy named Joe, although I had read in the paper that Big Green football was under new management. Had I known that I was talking to the man whose name had only recently been spread in 36-point type across the front page of a special edition of The Dartmouth, I believe that I would have choked up, said nothing, and gracefully retired in stage fright to tell the roommates that I had seen the new mentor and had actually spoken to him.
Such is the maturity of a freshman. As it was, I missed the chance of being a big shot on the first floor of New Hampshire Hall for a day and also failed to faint or anything like it because it never dawned on me who my spectator was.
Instead, in answer to a few leading questions concerning golf, I became the teacher and he the pupil, and to this day I never recall the incident without chuckling inwardly at the ridiculousness of ray words of wisdom on golf and my even more ridiculous tips on the fine art of instruction.
In the first place, Coach Blaik now wallops me soundly on the links, and in the second place I have found out that there is little he doesn't know about instructing people, and more especially football players.
I believe that Blaik the man made an indelible impression on me that first day I saw him on the field, for there was something about his carriage, something about the set of his face that marked him for the person he was, even to one who did not know his identity.
Since that original crossing of paths, I have seen him at work on the football field for six years. In these six years I have missed only a handful of practice drills. To be honest, the first two years it was hard to grasp what he was driving at in his longrange program to make Dartmouth football fundamentally sound.
In his first year he was the disciplinarian through and through. To say that this was a major gulp for Dartmouth footballers to swallow without looking like the tramp who stole the pie is putting it mildly. Not that most of the Indians of the first campaign didn't make an effort that was 100 per cent, but so much of it was new to them that it was not logical for them to understand it overnight. It was the same with the gridiron fans. However, one thing that everybody could understand was that there was a new order of things established. The players realized that a man who knew nothing else but square shooting was in charge and that they as players would have to "give out" more than they had ever dreamed of "giving out" if they were to match the industry, zealousness, example, and worship of perfection that their new leader typified. All these things meant that an evolution was taking place, with Blaik the coach and his staff alone fully aware that it was an evolution and not a revolution.
Today it is comparatively simple to look back and see the path that was being followed. Yesterday it was not, or at least the youngsters of the period could not see the path. This is not my opinion only, for I have heard many of the gridsters who went through the building period say the same thing. If at times they did not know where they were being led, they at least followed with respect and admiration.
If they did not understand at the time why they felt a gap between themselves and their coach that they could not leap over with familiarity or flippancy, they understand now why this bridge between them was created. For Dartmouth football needed a good dose of discipline more than it needed anything else. In a season like the current one, with material scarce and the going precarious at every step of the way, Dartmouth football is drawing upon the resources deposited over the last five years. There is a complete harmony between players and coach. There is a full understanding on the squad that all players are equal, that the best man for every position is on the first team, that every player has a chance to be a regular, and that none knows when this change will come to him. This is the esprit decorps that discipline and fairness have brought about, and we can all be thankful that this is the case.
BECOMES A PARADOX TO MANY
After two years of putting cement into the bottom of the football foundation, Coach Blaik became to many a paradox between the disciplinarian and the man with a heart as big as a basketball. I have only lately heard a Dartmouth gridster use this phrase. He also said that the two sides of Mr. Blaik's coaching character are both dear to his memory. The man with the heart as big as a basketball gave him a second chance after he had violated one of the major tenets of the discipinarian's code. The second chance with the disciplinarian made him a man who will go through life confident of his own backbone.
Again it is relatively easy to look back and understand that it was no paradox at all Blaik the coach was beginning to have assurance in the foundation of discipline and he was, therefore, allowing himself more freedom from the unpleasant task of keeping it constantly to the fore. Today he has been almost relieved of the unappreciated job as the head of the discipline department. Every member of the varsity squad has split the assignment up 35 ways. I hate to think what the squad's reaction would be if any member of the group were to violate the passion that now exists in the Big Green ranks for perfect condition gained only by strict regard for training rules. I am afraid that the College student body would also object strenuously. Afraid because the boy in error would be something of an outcast.
With so much assistance from all sides it has been possible for the man who started the present ideal of discipline to relax and turn toward his other side more and more. Perhaps if one were to ask Mr. Blaik what has given him most satisfaction as Dartmouth coach, he would probably laugh softly to himself and admit that his coaching masterpieces are the self-appointed disciples of the best discipline that can be inculcated into college athletics.
Thus with less and less need to emphasize the discipline that has brought Dartmouth out of the mire of the Ivy League to near the top year after year, Coach Blaik has allowed his heart to have more and more to do with his coaching. One of the things that will continue to amaze me is the fact that he can draw himself closer and closer to the boys and still keep the gap between pupil and teacher that is basic in his genius as a coach. But I suppose, on second thought, that it is not amazing when one takes into consideration the years that he worked to build the framework that will stand year after year, as newcomers to the squad inherit from those ahead the attitude collected in three years of varsity football. It is likely that Coach Blaik would object to any analysis of his six years in Hanover that claims he has shifted his emphasis from one tack to another. To be clear, his original purpose is still his main purpose, and were he to see even momentary signs of any letdown in the religion of discipline, he would become the Major again so fast that no one would need to be told the direction of the wind.
For if there is one thing he detests, it is mental or physical softness. He likes his players to have hard courage, hard bodies. He likes those about him to be able to think straight and with firmness of mind and staunchness of conviction.
Out on the practice field one gains the impression that Mr. Blaik is forever racing against time. When the squad goes from one place on the field to another, it is the head coach who runs out in front on the gallop to catch that second that might be lost by a more casual trot into position. If you have ever attended a Dartmouth football practice these words ring in your ears after five o'clock: "Speed, speed, speed." Linemen are coaxed to run faster than they know how. Backfield men are asked to fly through routes when top speed looks good enough to the average railbird. And then in the midst of all the hurry and drive, a Dartmouth gridster will ask a question, doubt a point across by the coaches, and the order, "As you were," comes through the air and briefly the whole program stops while the player has his say concerning the play, the strategy or the tactics. It is astounding to me that there can be such a relationship between coach and player when there is so much hurry, but not astounding when one ponders the depth of respect all around. Countless times I have heard Coach Blaik say to a player who had raised a good point, "I'm wrong, you're exactly right," and then practice resumes. Anyone can command discipline by dictatorial methods, but the man who has discipline that conforms with the best in American democracy is a great leader, and Coach Blaik is one.
To many Coach Blaik is primarily a pessimist. Nothing can be further from the truth. Three years ago the sports writers with whom I talked were firmly convinced that Blaik and pessimism were synonymous. Today these same experts place him at the top of the list among those coaches who call a spade a spade. They like his frankness, admire his regard for his team and his players, feel refreshed at his complete lack of sharn and hyprocisy, and they have come to know him and to understand him where at first they jumped to conclusions that they have since retracted. They know that he takes the blame for defeats and hands out credit to all around him for victories, that he thinks before he speaks and that he is often looking far down the road when his estimates do not jibe with their own immediate conclusions, and that above all he does not wear his friendship on his sleeve.
I have not said everything that there is to be said about Coach Blaik. Suffice it to end with the thought that he is respected on every side by his players, his associates, and his College by adoption, and that even those who cringe at the expression are convinced that he has not only brought winning football to Dartmouth but that he has also built character as well. A multitude of Big Green players past, present and future are setting their courses parallel to his in the effort to be as fine, as good, and as decent a man as Coach Blaik.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF AT HARVARD Bill Hutchinson shown at the end of his brilliant touchdown run, which was almost an exact duplication of his sophomore-year feat of scoring after a bad pass on punt formation.
THREE EXCITING MOMENTS AS DARTMOUTH BEAT YALE Top: Bu Hayden, Green halfback, advances the ball 75 yards on a sparkling run to Yale's20-yard line in the opening quarter.Center: Burr's pass intended for Whiteman in the second period is intercepted by BillHutchinson, who ran the ball to the Blue 15-yard line.Bottom: Arico goes over from the 7-yard line in the fourth quarter.
THE TIGER HAS HIS DAY Van Lengen, Princeton's left halfback, gets away from a Green lineman, who has brokenthrough, to gain 4 yards in the first quarter. Kelley (89) and Pearson (64) are shown.
