Big Green Teams
Baseball Team Drops to Third in Eastern League Campaign; Golfers Win Sectional Title, Lacrosse Team Nears One
THERE is no week that passesor so it seems—that some high school youngster doesn't write in or verbally ask, "I am a senior in high school and have been quite successful in athletics, but I haven't much hope for the future now that I look ahead to college, for I weigh only 140-155 pounds and have been told that little fellows like myself haven't a chance in intercollegiate sports."
The reason we lead off with this question for the month may not seem immediately apparent, but it does offer copy of a different nature and also answers those who are absolutely certain that there is no place in college sports for the halfpints.
On one hand it is true that the 140 to 155-pounder must have speed in any form of sport he wishes to participate in. Some of the giants of intercollegiate athletics get by on size alone, but their brother competitors who spot them 40 or 50 pounds haven't a prayer unless they are gifted with enough speed to run around what they can't possibly knock over by running through.
Dartmouth has in the last five years had several athletes who have proved beyond a doubt that the little fellow can make a spot for himself if the ambition is there. Warren King in football is one example of a boy who lacked size in a sport that is generally considered to be the pastime of the big boys, and this spring there has appeared on the campus another gridster even smaller than King who seems destined to be the most colorful back on the squad next fall and by no means the least valuable. Coach Earl Blaik recently told the writer that he feels certain the boy is no flash in the pan and that he will see plenty of action as a sophomore next fall. His name is Joe Arico, former Belmont, Mass., footballer. Joe weighs 141 pounds with all his equipment on, but what there is of him is put together like a little Greek statue, and I'm sure he will prove to be a great favorite with the fans if his ability continues to function as it has in the off-season scrimmages. He runs to the line of scrimmage as fast as King was wont to do, and for his size, blocks and tackles with amazing deftness and we might add courage.
And for those who feel that the small lineman is something else again and not quite so likely as the small backfield man, we need only point to senior Gus Zitrides, who was a bit of the all right despite the fact that compared to the aoo-pounders he faced, his 183 pounds made him look like a grammar school player. Henry Ingersoll, even small than Gus, has not made the first line as yet, but he has been on the squad for two fall semesters and helps refute the claim that college coaches are interested only in the giants. Naturally they would like to have big men all around them, but the dash and spirit of men like Zitrides and Ingersoll is never overlooked in place of slow, easy-going big men.
In baseball Dartmouth for three years has found George Hanna its ace performer. Currently the Big Green is in third place in the Eastern Intercollegiate League race, still very much in the struggle for the pennant, but on a spot that will permit no more defeats if the championship is to return to Hanover. One has only to say that if the team had two or three more Hannas, the race would be over already. For George grants the bigger men their added power at the plate, and then leads the team in hitting by a comfortable margin. Then he takes to the field and makes impossible catches, stops, and throws, and shows the way to the rest of the League in downright smart baseball tactics. Possibly the big leagues would frown on a player of Hanna's size, college baseball doesn't. George also was something of a great basketball player in his sophomore and junior years, and only a foot injury kept him from the varsity squad this past winter. Basketball pays off handsomely to height, but still there is room for the aggressive, scrappy type that Hanna so well represents.
And so it goes all through the list: Harpo Walsh in hockey, Wes Goding in the same sport, Junie Merriam in lacrosse, Dick Durrance in skiing, and numerous others of the past and present. The good big man is still better than the good little man—to coin a new expression—but the good little man need never worry about finding a place in the sun if he is really good and realizes that too many of the big men are much too contented merely to be big and not good at the same time.
Speaking only from the knowledge of how all the Dartmouth coaches go about selecting their starting teams, I would say that college coaches are great believers in the axiom that some men are the winning type and others are not. All of the men picked on the teams are not the winning type to perfection, but the first stringers represent the nearest approach to be found for the position. Seldom is there any discussion in the coaching circles as to whether a man is big, medium or small, but merely does he think in terms of winning, or losing only after the other fellow has proven his superiority the hard way. If Dartmouth has a philosophy of athletics this is it, and it has been built by taking each man on this merit alone and the team naturally is the result of the combination of the type.
This should be enough to cement the point for those who have their doubts. The only other thing that should be said is that each boy should give it a try as a freshman rather than admitting without trial that he just isn't built for the college brand of sports. Our latest rage, Arico, might have quit when he was shoved down to the freshman "B" squad in football last fall. He didn't, though, and now he has every right to smile down at some of the freshmen who fared better in the rush that has to mark the early fall freshman football practice sessions. Jack Orr, letter winner in football last fall and in baseball this spring, also knows what it means to come up from the freshman "B" squad to a higher spot in the football picture. Weighing between 165 and 170 pounds, Orr was light as fullbacks go. Still he had that certain something that knows no weight chart, and forged quickly to the front in the actual test.
Now to come down off the horse and put to sea on what has been going on in the Indian warfare.
At this writing the Big Green has won six games and lost three to drop to third place in the torrid three-way battle for the E. I. L. baseball crown. Two o£ the three defeats came in baseball's most unorthodox arrangement—the seven-inning contests that are played in the League on double-header dates. Columbia defeated the Indians in one of these abbreviated tilts and Princeton vanquished the Indians on Memorial field in the second half of a twin bill. It has long been the excusable gripe of college baseball fans that the seven-inning games run against the grain of everything that is good in baseball, for the better team can often lose in the short set-to if the poorer team gets off to a fast start in the first two or three innings. Perhaps it is sour grapes to say so, but in both the Columbia and Princeton contests Dartmouth was just "getting to the winners" as the boys in the center field bleachers say, when it was all over but the shouting. The Harvard loss was of a different nature, and left the taste that the team that deserved to win won.
Oddly enough this baseball nine of 1939 was supposed to be strong on the mound. With Chief Wonson, George Sexton, Johnny Lendo, Bill Maxson and Lefty Ed Hughes, it was thought that Dartmouth would suffer few poorly pitched games. All of these men have pitched well and all are considered better than average college twirlers. Nevertheless they haven't as a mound staff been consistent. Take for example the events of the week of May 8 to May 13. Sexton won the opening game from Princeton, 15-2, and pitched brilliant baseball at all times. Lendo, who was started on the mound, was off to a very poor start in the second frame and the bases were loaded and none out before the crowd had settled comfortably for the contest. Maxson was rushed into the fray and he was no better than Lendo. He lacked control and four runs were across and still none-out when Wonson came in to retire the side with no further damage. It was a surprising occurrence, for Lendo had pitched well against Yale on May 2, winning the game 9-3. Maxson's lack of control was equally amazing, for he had the week before looked like a great college relief twirler while stepping into the Yale game at New Haven on Friday, April 28, and again at Worcester on the next day to rescue Dartmouth's first win over Holy Cross in baseball since 1926.
To make the picture even more topsyturvy, Sexton was off at Cambridge against Harvard, and when Lendo relieved after the damage had been done, he looked great against the Crimson. It is no wonder that Jeff feels he never knows what to expect and that his policy from now on might well be, start the pitcher who seems least likely to be "on" rather than the twirler most likely to be the best on any given day.
Remaining on the League schedule are games with Pennsylvania and two with Cornell. The Big Red is one of the teams that threaten to take over Dartmouth's supremacy. Harvard must also face Cornell once more and Yale twice. Happily either Cornell or Harvard will drop down a peg as the result of their contest. Thus there is still hope in Hanover that an unsmirched record for the last three games will be good enough to pull the old hat trick.
Dartmouth's track team also met a powerhouse Harvard track team at Cambridge, and at no point in the meet was the Big Green a threat. The final score was 9S-43, with first place honors going only to Jack Stewart, javelin thrower of the Indian team. Sophomore Don Blount, broad jumper and high jumper, was a disappointment to his followers. The Dartmouth star has, however, been lamed with a wrenched back muscle of late which explains his falling off in performance. Captain Jud Foster, who had high hopes of making it a real race in the quarter mile for Harvard's famed Lightbody, never had a chance to press the Crimson star, for Lightbody cut in front of Foster on the second turn and neither man placed. Foster was knocked down and Lightbody disqualified to end what might have been a thrilling race.
Coach Harry Hillman's men came back quickly to down Holy Cross on Memorial field, 84-51, to show that there are only two dual teams in the East at most that could master the Green by any large score. Lack of running event power has been the greatest handicap that Hillman's forces have had to overcome. Harry will probably forget his troubles for an hour or two when the New York alumni tender him a banquet in his honor on May 19 at the Dartmouth Club of New York. Harry certainly deserves any honors that come his way for one has only to inquire around track quarters to gain an inkling of the respect that track men have for this Dartmouth coach, who this year marked his thirtieth milestone in Hanover.
Alumni out of college for more than three years will undoubtedly find it difficult to realize that lacrosse at Dartmouth is no longer the small-time sport that it was formerly. Always a great sport but only recently recognized to the extent that a lacrosse crowd now runs into three or four thousand fans, most of the credit goes to Coach Tommy Dent, who has not only turned out championship teams but has also worked untiringly to create enthusiasm on the campus for his sport. He has succeeded both as a coach and a tubthumper.
In defense of its New England League crown the Indian team has already defeated Harvard, M. I. T., Yale and Williams, with New Hampshire and Tufts the last two hurdles to be jumped. Nonleague victories over Stevens and Pennsylvania have also been included in the undefeated string since the team returned north from its southern training trip.
Coach Red Hoehn in tennis can take a big bow, too, for his netmen defeated Harvard, 5-4, for an unprecedented win for the Indians on the courts. This alone made the tennis season a success. In the New England Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament held this year in Hanover, Dartmouth players did not fare as well. Wayland Avery, defending champion in the singles, lost out to teammate Bud Foster in the semi-finals, and Foster was defeated in the finals by Williams' star, A 1 Jarvis. Foster and Avery, defending doubles team, also lost out in the finals to Jarvis and Pete Shonk of Williams. Foster was able to win only one set against Jarvis and Foster and Avery also won but one set in the doubles. The tournament offered three days of outstanding college tennis and was a mecca of tennis fans from hereabouts from start to finish.
GOLFERS WIN SECTIONAL TITLE
Dartmouth's golf team under Tommy Keane took four matches as against one defeat to enter a playoff with Yale in the New England Golf Association. The Big Green golfers have performed exceptionally well considering the conditions under which they have been practicing on the home links, and the Elis should be downed in the playoffs. (Editor's Note: They were, Dartmouth winning 6-3.) Should Dartmouth face Princeton, winners of the Southern division of the championship flight, the Green will press the usually strong Tigers according to Coach Keane.
Dartmouth's crew, without a home race this spring, won its first race against American International College of Springfield but found the Rutgers crew out of its class. This is the strongest crew that Dartmouth has had since the sport was refounded. Speaking of difficulties under which athletic teams can work, the crew must race in shells that are so old that not only are they coming apart in the stems, but they leak water during the races, which acts as a check in progress each time the oarsmen recover for the next stroke. However the men under Coach Smith are still in the sport for the fun they receive and it will take more than minor difficulties to discourage this hardy band of enthusiasts.
Spring football ended with a game scrimmage on Friday, May 12, after the worst spring conditions since Coach Blaik arrived in Hanover. The game scrimmage marked Bob Krieger as the outstanding ball carrier of the contest, witnessed the discovery of aforementioned Arico, proved that Dartmouth still needs a blocking back although Don Norton despite his lack of speed showed improvement over last fall, offered encouragement at the center post where Charlie Pearson, converted end, showed promise for next fall, and indicated that lacking any stars of the equal of MacLeod, Howe, Zitrides, Gibson, Dilkes, and Parks, the 1939 eleven is being groomed toward a smooth working unit that will place top emphasis on blocking and tackling above and beyond the work spent on these two departments when there was more speed and experience to be found in the Dartmouth football ranks. Captain Whit Miller at end, Lou Young Jr. at guard and Bill Hutchinson at left halfback represent all there is left of men who have received the test of competition under stress. So the fall will bring new faces at least, new names, a renewal of the old time pre-game fear that any one of the major opponents has the stuff to down Dartmouth, and the hope that none of them will.
Gus (SWEDE) BROBERG ROUNDS FIRST ON HIS HOME-RUN CLOUT AGAINST HARVARD IN HANOVER
ENDING COLORFUL CAREER George Hanna, present third-sacker for JeffTesreau, will close a sparkling college baseball career with the Cornell game on June17. George, who is head marshal of thesenior class, has been the darling of theHanover baseball fans for three seasons.
QUARTER-MILE DUEL IN HOLY CROSS MEET Captain Jud Foster of Dartmouth led O'Donnell of Holy Cross as they turned into thefinal straightaway, but the Purple star passed him to win the 440-yard event in the fasttime of 48.8 seconds.
RINGING THE CURTAIN DOWN ON SPRING PRACTICEA full-game scrimmage on May 13 ended the spring training season for Coach Earl Blaik'sfootball hopefuls. In the above action shot Mike Gross '41 is plunging through the line,preceded by Don Norton '41 who has been filling the important No. 2 blocking-backposition.
