Big Green Teams
Evidence Grows That This Is "One of Those Years" As Indian Eleven Bows Before Minor and Major Foes
BEFORE I STARTED to pen this football report, I tried to think of a more unfortunate time for Whitey Fuller to land in the hospital nursing an acute sore throat. If the football team were riding high at this writing, going into the Yale and Harvard games with a staggering scoring total, as has been the case in many past years, this author's return as a pinch-hitter to a post he once held, would be much easier.
But with Whitey out of action with tonsil trouble, which I believe was brought about by a two-hour spell of exhortation from the press box during the Columbia game, I have to report that at this writing the football team has dropped two games to opponents before the season is hardly warmed up. In fact, it is the first time in twenty years that such a thing has hapened.
To take a deep breath and plunge into the story, we find St. Lawrence opening the season in what should have been a routine matter. The score, 35-0, was routine enough, but as we sat around in the Western Union's press room after the game, nobody seemed satisfied with the spectacle that had been spread before the crowd that afternoon. What we saw that day was a Dartmouth team which sputtered around and stalled, which at times looked like the Columbia muddle huddle in comic relief, and yet which at times showed power,;; you can call it power when the opponent comes from an entirely different league.
Dartmouth showed new faces in that game, as a parade of sophomores were un. veiled during the afternoon, and the usual sophomorics were interjected into tie game. But those things, you figured, enter into any opening game. Ray Wolfe, Ed Kast and Johnny Krol were all promising youngsters, and that Wolfe flipped, caugfc and ran during the afternoon in approvec fashion.
It was a disquieting week thereafter. Franklin and Marshall was the opponent Now, nobody knew very much about thai team or even why they should be called tit Diplomats, seeing that Marshall was'matt a jurist, but it was to be a game about which all sorts o£ strange publicity evolved. In the first place Lou Young Jr., who live in shouting distance of Franklin and Mashall and is the current Dartmouth cap tain, was reported to have been bombardee by telegrams from the F. & M. boys, tellk him that he had had his fun the previotf week and he'd better watch out Saturday Incidentally, F. & M. authorities later nied the wholesale sending of telegramand chalked the matter up to bad publicity.
Before the game Mr. Arthur Sampsoul the eminent football critic for the Boston Id checked into Hanover, and we were curious for his reason for taking an unruled trek when all the rest of the Boston writers had cast their lots with the Harvards that week. It seems that Mr. Sampson, wending his way through Philaj inhia during the baseball season, had fflet cronies who lured him to Easton, ivhere F. & M. has its proving ground. When the guest had a look at the sun bronzed squad, eight of whom were seniors in the starting lineup, saw them go through their repertoire of bullet passes and crashing runs, he decided then and there that he would have no truck with the Harvardtaherst game, but would make a mental note that Hanover was the place to be about that time. The student body caught the idea about the middle of the week, and in an unprecented action piled sticks and staves high in the center of the campus and touched off a huge bonfire on the eve of a game with a team which a year ago they would have thought the representative of two different colleges.
The game itself was a sight to see. It was one of the most inconsistent football contests ever played on the fields of Hansver. The final score of 23-21 in favor of the boys from Easton in itself tells just about how some 8000 spectators were sent home groggy. The game was pitted with wld passing in the literal sense of the word, zooming punts, a field goal and freuent fumbling which directly led to ouchdowns. Franklin and Marshall picked ix errant footballs out of the air and seven umbles were written into the books durng the afternoon.
Throughout the entire first half the Dartmouth attack totaled a perfect zero, nth no first downs, while a little halfback lamed Johnny Quick was an arrow through the Indian's teepee all afternoon. But with a 17-0 score against them, the Dartmouth players came to life in a manner which was reminiscent of a day long ago in the Yale Bowl when A1 Marsters scored two touchdowns in five minutes.
Suddenly the sophomores who had looked uncertain and weak started to click and the veterans who should have known their assignments, started leading the way. For five minutes the Big Green was again a mighty football machine.
The first march covered 58 yards and ended with Ray Wolfe tossing a scoring pass to Joe Crowley. That was the last play of the third period, and when Bob Krieger squeezed a fumbled football to his chest to start the fourth the Indians were off again.
The sophomore backs, Wolfe, Kast and Krol, who had fizzled in the first half, now went to town. In four minutes another march had been ground out and Wolfe raced 10 yards through the visitors for a touchdown.
For the third time Dartmouth started to roll, and it appeared that the game would go on to a hair raising conclusion, but suddenly Master Quick again was in the scene. In the middle of a Dartmouth forward passing attack, he made an interception on his 35 yard line. Seconds later he tossed his looping touchdown pass.
From then on Dartmouth was frantically trying to beat the clock. Dale Bartholomew, Ray Hall and Ted Arico now swung into action, ripping through the Diplomats for 56 yards and a score, but the clock was ticking off the final seconds and the Indians could not beat the clock.
Hanover awoke the next morning to find every window of every store plastered with the legend F. & M. 23 D. 21. Not only that, the lettering was also extended to the center of Main Street, but the whole business was cleaned up by diligent Hanover merchants before the bulk of the student body was out of bed on Sunday morning.
The natural reaction to expect, following such a game, would be that the Indians would hit some sort of an emotional peak against Columbia. It was expected that the Lions of Lou Little would bring up one of their small, colorful teams, would parade the muddle huddle, but would succumb to a Dartmouth group which finally would find itself.
EXCITING MOMENT FOR THE HOME ROOTERS Dartmouth fans got a real thrill at the very start of the second half of the Columbiawhen Arico took Will's kick-off and returned it to midfield, almost getting awaytouchdown romp. Here he is about to be tackled by the Lion safety man waiting fornear the 50-yard line.
LONE GREEN TOUCHDOWN IN 13-7 VICTORY FOR YALE Dartmouth's Score in Yale Bowl on October 19 came as the result of a forward passfrom kast to Wolfe, who caught the ball near the Blue 30-yard line and sped down thesideline, eluding Anderson shown sprawling out of bounds.
