Big Green Teams

Three Championship Teams and Indoor Track Carnival Provide Thrills During Past Winter Season

DARTMOUTH Wins Second Consecutive Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball Title Big Green Sextet Takes Twelfth Straight Quadrangular Hockey League Encounter and Second Crown in Two Winters Indian Skiers Come From Behind In Last Two Events to Capture Intercollegiate Ski Union Championship Meet From McGill.

John Borican Smashes Two World Indoor Marks; Fordham Relay Breaks Record in Mile in Special Invitation Meet on Famous Dartmouth Indoor Oval

Coaches Tommy Dent and Jeff Tesreau Call First Practice Sessions for Defending Title-holding Lacrosse and Baseball Squads Spring Football Drills For Freshmen OfEer Little Encouragement For Next Fall Such were the events that gained headlines on the sports pages during the month

For the court fans the winter offered more thrills, greater basketball, a new and outstanding star in sophomore Gus (Swede) Broberg, and the satisfaction that not only did the quintet of 1939 repeat its performance of the previous season, but the Green five of Coach Osborne Cowles bettered its won-and-lost record of 1938 and above all came through with a much needed victory over a rapidly improving Princeton team in the next to last contest of the League schedule for the Hanoverians when the pressure was great and a test of championship calibre was faced and conquered. Ten wins as against two defeats—by the margin of one point at Cornell and five points at Columbia—was the final standing. Individually the Greens gained further honors when Broberg, Bob MacLeod and Joe Batchelder were selected for positions on the All-star lineup by the League coaches, with Captain Roger (Moose) Dudis placed on the second team at center. In the case of Dudis it did not pay full due to a man who for three years was a very important cog in the general strength of the team. Coach Osborne Cowles deserves much credit for the success of the Indian five and now faces the task of building again as he did on his first appearance in Hanover three seasons back. Left with Broberg as his only regular, Cowles must of necessity refurnish his lineup at four positions. Sophomore Vinny Else, who played at left forward regularly until senior Joe Cottone returned to his form of junior year, will be a leading candidate for the vacant forward post. From the brilliant freshman team of this winter, six-footer Charles Pearson offers promising center material. At one of the guard positions Bob White will be given leading consideration. Neither of the yearling guards appeared fast enough or tall enough for League basketball, but this may prove to be a mistaken opinion. Coach Cowles will experiment at any rate, for with a general lack of experience on the squad, he will undoubtedly look more to future development and potentialities from his candidates rather than to the immediate differences in ability and training that the candidates present at the outset of practice next December.

In hockey, Coach Eddie Jeremiah and his hockey "family" enjoyed the rare pleasure of being the first college sextet in the Quad League to go without defeat in two years of competition in the League. In addition to this unprecedented record, Dartmouth finished in a tie for second in the International Intercollegiate Ice Hockey League—the highest point that any American entry has reached in the three winters of the 1.1.L. Oddly enough the Dartmouth players and their coach had more than wild dreams of defeating championship McGill at the close of the campaign, and came so close to their ambition that not only were the Redmen aroused to their supreme effort to defeat Dartmouth, 4-1, but were fortunate enough to score three of their four goals when the Big Green was short-handed with a man in the penalty box. Win or lose, though, it proved conclusively how well Jeremiah has instructed his men in hockey, for no team could possibly press the Canadians without a thorough knowledge of hockey at its best. Following the McGill contest the Montreal sports writers, the McGill coach and the McGill players went overboard in praising the amazing job that alumnus Jeremiah had done with his material, something that all Dartmouth hockey fans had known for some time. Still in all, it was gratifying to read that even in the very heart of the hockey world, those who excelled in the sport, were in complete accord with the general feeling on the campus. Coaches in the Quad League picked Captain Jim Feeley at defense, Wes Goding as goalie, and center Bud Foster for the All-star team, with forwards Harpo Walsh, Dan Sullivan and Junie Merriam prominently mentioned.

Next year the bottom seems destined to fall out of the Dartmouth hockey well. Feeley, Coding, Foster, Walsh, Merriam, Earl Seeley and Art Larkin all receive their sheepskins come this June, leaving the squad almost completely devoid of topnotch stickmen. It may take more than one winter for Jeremiah to bring Dartmouth back to the top again, but we are certain he needs only time to turn the trick.

One of the sports events we will always remember with renewed thrill and pride each time it revolves in our memory took place during the month when an eight-man team of Indian skiers journeyed to Ste. Marguerites, Quebec, to defend their Intercollegiate Ski Union title. Minus three of their Carnival meet stars in Eddie Wells and Bud Little in the downhill and slalom, and Johnny Litchfield, jumper extraordinary and cross country and combined man, the Big Green under Coach Walter Prager had its back to the wall for the first time in five years. Dartmouth led by a decimal point figure at the close of the jumping, and the McGill downhill and slalom men completely outclassed the Green in these two events despite the efforts of Dick Durrance in winning both the downhill and slalom.

One can fully appreciate the keenness that was McGill's to win and one can also appreciate that McGill's Redmen felt at the end of three events that at last their hour had arrived.

As McGill's entries in the cross country took their turns at the starting line it was apparent that more than training, condition and ability would go into each of their performances, for a burning ambition was theirs and this factor can never be discounted even as it was a vital part of Dartmouth's first win over Yale in football in the fall of 1935.

Had a story writer set the order of events at the I.S.U. meet he could not have set the stage more dramatically than did the race committee, for in placing the langlauf last the suspense was made terrific, as any of the spectators at the end of the 13 mile gruelling test would testify. In looking back it still seems as if it were days and not a little more than an hour and a half before Co-captain Howard Chivers loomed into site as the first runner to navigate the course. Tired to the point of exhaustion, Chivers still had strength enough left to show by his facial expression that he, at least, had met the challenge and turned it back. The question then became, how far behind was Captain Bob Johanssen of McGill? Minutes passed that went as slowly as hours, and much to the Dartmouth supporters' surprise and delight, two Dartmouth runners in Percy Rideout and Charles McLane swooped out of the wooded path down onto the lake trail that was the last half mile of the course. With these two men safely in by a comfortable margin of elapsed time, the Green made up more than the seven point deficit that confronted it and won going away by a wide margin of team points. McGill was not prepared to withstand the terriffic pace that the Indians set in cross country. Respect for the losses grew twice fold, though, when instead of bemoaning what had been so near that they could feel the thrill of victory, they set about at once planning for next year when another opportunity will be presented. Spirit of this kind on the part of McGill will not always be denied. On the other hand the Dartmouth spirit is equally to be admired making this annual battle between the Indians and the Redmen one of the exciting highlights of the Dartmouth sports program.

Speaking of excitement of an annual nature, the Special Invitation Track Meet under the supervision of Coach Harry Hillman now takes a foremost place in the circle of Dartmouth athletic events. When one stops to consider that those track fans who have attended both last year's meet and this year's have seen the fastest mile ever run by man; the fastest indoor half mile in the history of track; the fastest mile relay in indoor track annals; the fourth fastest two mile ever run; and the closest approach to the indoor record in the two mile relay record set by Georgetown in 1925 in all the attempts at this long existing mark, then the full significance of what has happened on the famous Dartmouth track and what will continue to happen bursts with a realization that is as forceful as a summer thunder storm. May we be allowed to say that the meet is not only a great event in track annals, but it is also one of Dartmouth's most valuable contributions to amateur athletics outside of the regular sphere of intercollegiate competition. A spectator at both meets can not help feeling that he, or she, has seen running of a nature that few dyed-in-the-wool track fans would not miss for all the gold in the U. S. mint.

Looking back on the winter season as a whole, the spring campaigns of the baseball and lacrosse teams will have much to equal if the approaching sports activities are to carry on where the winter sportsmen have left off.

This much can already be said, however, and that is the practice sessions have been interesting to watch, for both the lacrosse and baseball squads have so many new faces trying out for positions that each afternoon presents the ever fascinating competition amongst the candidates to rise to the top in the eyes of the coaches.

Coach Jeff Tesreau, for example, is at this time assembling a new infielder at every base and two of the outfield berths are likewise as constantly open as a revolving door. In the workouts in the cage, Osmo Linden has been given a preference at first, footballer Jack Orr has taken over second base, veteran letterman Ev Woodman, who played at second base and in right field last year, has been at short stop and all-around athlete Joe Cottone leads the third base hopefuls. No opportunity for an outfield lineup is presented in the confines of the cage, but from past knowledge and batting drills a keen struggle goes on between juniors Tuffy Reeves, Ned Hein and Will Pitz and sophomore Gus Broberg for the two vacant posts at center and right field. Hein and Reeves were on the squad last spring and played considerable baseball. Pitz makes his first bid for a place on the team after a knee injury in freshman year retired him from athletics until this spring. Broberg is known as a fine defensive player from his freshman year showing. How Dartmouth's star basketball player will perform at the plate is a matter of some doubt. Broberg is an athlete who is more than sufficiently keyed up nervously, so the one answer to his batting may be how well Or how poorly he gets underway at the outset of the season. George Hanna, veteran of two years, is, of course, a fixture in left field, representing one of baseball's true wizards defensively whether you include both major leagues or not.

The battery for today's game as announced on many afternoons will be Captain Joe Urban behind the plate and Hal (Chief) Wonson on the mound. Two more colorful athletes do not wear the Dartmouth spangles, so baseball fans believe with more than sufficient proof. To aid Wonson on the mound, Coach Tesreau this spring has sophomores Johnny Lendo, George Sexton and Ed Hughes, a big portsider. Only one of these men need come through to make the staff formidable. In addition the mound staff has Bob Dickgeisser and Jock Lynch from the "jayvee" group of 1938, and lefty Bud Clifford, who was promising as a freshman two years ago, is also making a commendable effort to regain his old speed and talent.

In making any kind of a prediction as to whether or not the nine will be able to defend its championship successfully it is necessary to merely guess at this time that the new infield will come up to scratch, although there is nothing on which to base an opinion from the cage drills—erratic as they must he under the conditions. The spring trip south will answer the many questions that exist at this moment. The knowledge that Big Jeff is without equal in the Eastern League as a baseball coach of the John McGraw school, which believes a bunt and a stolen base is worth two home runs, gives every Dartmouth baseball fan advance confidence that the Indians will be a real team with or without a championship to show in June—the former condition being our opinion.

Coach Dent likewise finds his lacrosse men facing the task of defending a titlethis time the New England League pennant. Dartmouth found last spring that lacrosse was a sport that was worthy of support from the fans, for in its combination of the passwork of hockey, the plays of basketball, the ruggedness of football, it is good for a thrill a minute to those who would take the trouble to become acquainted with this member of the sports curriculum. Prospects for the team are not what they were at this time 12 months back, but Dent is willing to state that the team will come fast during the southern trip, for experience is the one item that is lacking.

Hanover citizens awakened on the morning of March 16 to discover that 16 college fencing teams and well over one hundred fencers were swarming into the gym and all over the gym for the 1939 Eastern Intercollegiate Fencing Conference. Not knowing exactly what it was all about, a curious few attended the two-day meet to discover a sport that its adherents treat like a religion. Darmouth's fast growing fencing team placed in a tie for second with William and Mary. Further than this we can not explain fencing.

Coach Tommy Keane has high hopes that his varsity golf team will be strong this spring, while the last word of the month comes from Coach Red Hoehn when he points out that the tennis fans can not expect the Indians to set the world on fire this year, but that there will be an improvement over the 1938 team.

BASEBALL CAPTAIN Joe Urban '39 of Fall River, Mass., willlead the Green diamond forces from behind the plate this season. He was AllLeague catcher last year and led the Indians in batting.

TRACK HISTORY AGAIN MADE ON DARTMOUTH'S FAMED INDOOR BOARDS Harry Hillman's second annual indoor invitation track meet on March 15 resulted in three new world's records. At left, Wesley Wallace of Fordham is shown nosing out Jim Herbert of N. Y. U. in the anchor leg of the mile relay in which the Ram quartet set a newindoor mark of 3:15.2. At right, John Borican, outstanding star of the indoor season, is shown finishing the 880-yard event in the recordtime of 1:49.8 after just having smashed through the 800-meter tape in the record time of 1:49.2. Timers at the left are Dean Frank W.Garran of Thayer School (left) and Prof. Charles A. Proctor 'OO.

MOUND Hal Wonson '4O of Bridgewater, Mass.,who won eight league games last year andwho heads the strong Green pitching staffon which Jeff Tesreau is banking for another baseball championship.