Big Green Teams

Varsity Eleven, Opening First Season under Coach "Tuss" McLaughry, Promises To Be Spirited and Unpredictable

FOR THE FIRST TIME since the Cornell game of 1940, football has returned to Memorial Field with Norwich, Amherst and Colgate offering the early- season competition in what may well be one of the most intense grid campaigns in many years. Intense because the Big Green eleven was dealt some knock-down blows before the first kick-off.

First of all came the loss of five regulars from last year's fine freshman team. The services of Harry Hood, blocking back, Dave Templeton, guard, Dick Revenaugh, end, Bill McCloskey, center, and Ave Clark, tackle, would have meant much to the varsity this fall. In fact their presence would have given the Indians the best depth in many years and also the best prospects for a great season since 1936 and 1937.

The second blow that hit the Indians came with the revelation that sophomore fullback Bob McLaughry would never again play football. A thorough check-up at the Boston City Hospital disclosed that the injury which had bothered Bob since spring practice was really a broken vertebra in his neck.

However, let there be no despair on the part of Dartmouth football fans that the Big Green hasn't the backbone to pick itself up with fighting determination. It is still safe to predict that, despite all the preseason setbacks, Coach Tuss McLaughry and his staff will field an eleven capable of making it tough for every opponent on the schedule.

With the exception of an Amherst squad that will lack material, but not traditional scrap and fire, the Big Green will not meet a foe this fall which rates as inferior in manpower and ability. Colgate will have its best team in 12 years and we quote no less an authority than Coach Andy Kerr.

The Norwich team that will have been played when this is read is reputed to be the best in the history of the little military school. Reports from Harvard have been positively bearish with some experts rating them high on the national list. Such optimism for the Crimson seems a little overdone in our opinion, but there is no questioning the fact that games with Penn and Cornell prior to the Dartmouth tilt will make the Harvards tougher to play against and readier for their best efforts than any Crimson squad has been in some years on the afternoon of the Dartmouth visit to Cambridge.

Yale, under new coaching and with a revival of enthusiasm, will be vastly improved over 1940. Princeton, always tough for Dartmouth, hopes for better football this fall in the sense that the Tiger fundamentals will be sounder than when Dave Allerdice was pitching touchdown strikes with maddening ease. William and Mary may be stronger than any Ivy League team and the same goes for Georgia, currently rated one of the three best in the south along with Tennessee and Alabama, which is certainly high class company to be grouped with. Cornell will be Cornell.

So all in all, the Indians have obstacles in their path no recent team has been asked to face. The mere addition of Colgate, William and Mary, and Georgia to the schedule would make this true even if the traditional foes improve not one bit over 1940.

Just what will the Big Green have to call upon to meet the tests? First of all, great spirit, the best we have seen in the Dartmouth camp since 1936. Secondly, the best backfield candidates as a group in a number of years, although there is no Bob MacLeod or his near equal who will stand out above the rest. Ray Wolfe, Ted Arico, Bud Kast, Dale Batholomew, Meryll Frost, Tommy Douglas, Bill Weirman, and Bud Troxell stand as potentially fine ball-carrying backs. The one backfield weakness falls again this year at blocking back, as has been the case since 1937.

Nevertheless, there have been good breaks as well as bad ones this year, and the voluntary request by Junior John Krol to be shifted from tailback to No. 2 was one of these. Krol, a real man when it comes to blocking and tackling, should prove to be a blocking back of outstanding natural talent when he has gained some experience. Another junior, Bob Liming, who was a center last fall, a tackle during the spring, and was shifted to blocking back on the first day of practice, has also been a surprise. Walt Anderson, lone veteran at this post, likewise looks more formidable this fall than last. Hence the backfield looms as good and it may prove to be better than good. Were Bob McLaughry and Hood in the picture, it would be safe to rave over the outlook behind the line.

FOOTBALL DAYS ENDED Bob McLaughry, sophomore son ofDartmouth's coach, who was forcedto give up football upon discoverythat a neck vertebra had been brokenin spring practice.

NEW REGIME: Dartmouth's footballcoaching staff pictured above includes (left to right) John Handrahan '57, freshmanassistant; Bill Bevan, line coach; GeorgeBarclay, line coach; Head Coach "Tuss"McLaughry; Charlie Ewart, bcickfieldcoach; Dick Cassiano, backfield coach; andJohn Bronk, trainer.