Big Green Teams
The Bulldog and the Tiger Go Down to Defeat, But the Virginians Prove to be Too Much for the Indians
IF THERE HAS BEEN one outstanding item in Dartmouth football this fall it has been the development and the rise to starting positions of the Big Green sophomores on Tuss McLaughry's squad and the brilliant football they have displayed in becoming the real backbone and spark of the Indian machine. No other team in recent Dartmouth history has had to place so much faith in its sophomores as this current McLaughry edition and it has been a long time since any group of new players has come through so nobly under fire.
Any football coach will tell you, and Tuss McLaughry himself has agreed to this on many occasions, that there is no substitute for experience and this is one reason why Dartmouth's 1941 team has been getting better each time out. When we look back on the early-season defeat by Harvard we think that now perhaps, some weeks later, we have one of the best explanations for that defeat. It is apparent now that this sophomore representation on the Dartmouth team is, and has been, the main strength in the Indian squad. They rose to great heights for players in their first major game when they defeated Colgate but they lacked the experience of veterans in digesting their victory and going after another. Because of this letdown the sophomores were of little value to the Dartmouth team when it played against the Crimson and without this sophomore strength the Indians were not as powerful as they had been previously or have beer since that time. That the Harvard defeat was a tonic to Dartmouth's second-year men goes without saying. Every '44 man on the squad responded in the next week's practice and since that time these sophomores have played an all-important role in Dartmouth's victories over Yale and Princeton and are slated to play an even more important role when the Big Green tangles with Cornell and Georgia.
Another highlight of the season has been the inspired leadership of Captain Stubby Pearson and his adaptability as a football player. Any man who can change from position to position the way Pearson has deserves the ranking of a great football player even though his name does not crash the headlines or top experts' lists of All-something players. During the past two weeks Pearson has proven himself to be one of the most versatile gridmen in Dartmouth football history. Starting as a freshman end, Pearson was moved to center as a sophomore, to tackle as a junior, and finally to the blocking back spot. Against Princeton, Pearson played both right tackle and quarterback at different times in the ball game.
This change for Pearson was necessitated when John Krol was injured in the William and Mary game and Coach McLaughry found himself without much strength at the No. 2-back post. At an emergency meeting on Sunday after the W 8c M game, the coaches unanimously voted that Stubby was the one man on the team who could be counted on to swing over to the blocking position, learn the signals and assignments, and turn in a commendable job. For four days Pearson worked in the two-back spot and saw action there against Princeton. Although he was not the greatest blocking back ever seen in Palmer Stadium, Pearson performed ably enough and took the pressure off that position.
Perhaps this season, more than any other in my experience at Dartmouth, injuries have cut down the potential effectiveness of the squad. To go down the line and list the number of injured players would take too much time and would start me dealing in trivialities but there have been some outstanding injuries that should be mentioned in order to explain better what has transpired in Hanover this year.
Anyone who sat through the wild and woolly battle in Palmer Stadium on November 8 saw Dartmouth's team line up and go into a double-wing back formation. Here was a new system at Dartmouth. The Big Green had been running nothing but single-wing or modified single-wing formations for years. Within one week, between the William and Mary defeat and the Princeton victory, Dartmouth had installed a brand new system of double-wing attack.
If you think this system was installed here in Hanover for the sake of a surprise against Princeton or because the coaches felt the team needed some new plays you are mistaken. This system of double-wing was installed because it was absolutely necessary for Tuss McLaughry to do so. He knew he was going to play against Princeton without his blocking back, Krol, and without his best tailback, Ray Wolfe, who was out with an injured leg. Bill Wierman, the regular fullback, although he played against Princeton for a short time, was not in top shape because of an injury to his arm. This left the coaching staff with only one member of the original starting backfield ready to play against the Tigers for any length of time. That was Bud Kast. Up front on the forward wall there was more trouble but nothing like that which took three top-flight performers from the Indians' starting backfield. Left end Harry Gerber suffered an injury which kept him out of the game against the Tigers. Doug Stowell had an injured elbow and suffered a decrease in efficiency. Indeed, it is a tribute to trainer Johnny Bronk that Stowell and Wierman were able to face the Tigers at all. With these losses staring them in the face the Dartmouth coaching staff proved its capabilities by doing three things, (1) switching Pearson to the blocking spot to keep the single-wing attack functioning; (2) moving up five sophomores to fill the breach; and (3) installing a new double-wing attack. With these changes and a determination to atone for the William and Mary defeat, Dartmouth went into Palmer Stadium and defeated Princeton 20-13.
Perhaps one of the outstanding examples of a team pushing another squad around the field for sixty minutes and then barely gaining a one-touchdown victory was seen in the Yale Bowl on October 25. The Big Green eleven entered the Yale game with as much fire as it had against Colgate two weeks before. It ran and passed the Elis dizzy and yet barely took top honors by a 7-0 score. Anyone who sat through that encounter felt all along that the Indians were eventually going to win the ball game. Coach McLaughry inserted two new men in the starting backfield that afternoon. Little Ted Arico started in place of Ray Wolfe at left halfback and Dale Bartholomew, the senior fullback, got his first start of the season. Although this combination was able to outclass the Elis throughout the first stanza they were unable to score and McLaughry rushed Wolfe and Wierman into the game as the second period started. During the second and third quarters the Indians kept marching to the Yale goal but never were they able to get into pay dirt. Three different times the Yale team rose up and threw back the Indians when a touchdown seemed imminent, once taking the ball on downs inches from the line after they stopped a savage plunge by sophomore fullback Tommy Douglas.
Dartmouth was not to be denied and as the fourth period opened, the longest sustained drive of the season for the Indians carried them to a touchdown. Starting from their 8-yard line, Dartmouth marched 92 yards to score. On this march Ray Wolfe and Bud Kast took the offensive into their own hands and ploughed up the field, Wolfe sparking the drive with a 22yard gallop to the Yale 29-yard line. At this point the Blue dug in to stop the threat again but Kast on a reverse swept around the left side to the Yale 10-yard line and in three plunges Wolfe went over. After Kast kicked the point Yale threw one desperation pass after another but never seriously threatened.
Back in Hanover once again Dartmouth prepared for the game with William and Mary whom scout Johnny Handrahan reported to be the best team the Indians had faced up to that time. To those who attribute the William and Mary defeat to overconfidence let it now be said that such was definitely not the case. Every man on the Indian squad knew that the Southerners had a great team and that they had been making rapid improvement since the 34-0 licking they took from a great Navy team. The entire Dartmouth team was looking forward to a bitter engagement with the Virginians and such a battle eventually transpired.
On a cold, rain-swept field the William and Mary team proved that it really was a hard-hitting, tight-defensive machine. In fullback Harvey Johnson, the Southerners had the best back that Dartmouth has faced this year and it was his long, beautifully kicked field goal that enabled his team to provide what was officially listed as an upset over Dartmouth 3-0. Dartmouth's team fought savagely and was always a threat to score. This engagement brought to light the ability of Dartmouth's sophomores, ten of whom played together as a unit on the second team and were in the game during the second and fourth periods. In the second period this sophomore-studded eleven marched from its 20yard line over a muddy field to the William and Mary 15 before an intercepted pass stopped the threat. In the dying moments of the game a belated Indian passing attack nearly succeeded in scoring what would have been a winning touchdown but this time a questionable decision by an official stopped the threat. No excuses need be made for the W & M defeat. It was a case of two strong defensive teams on a muddy field waiting for the break and William and Mary took advantage of their only real chance to kick its winning field goal. William and Mary returns to Hanover next season to play Dartmouth, and will come with virtually the same team that stopped McLaughry's squad. This will be one of the outstanding games of the Dartmouth 1942 season. The Southerners also play Harvard next fall in Harvard Stadium and unless I'm completely daffy there's going to be something astir in Cambridge that day.
There was an improvement on the part of the sophomores in this game and, added to the injuries to the regular backs, Dartmouth's line-up in the Princeton game saw three sophomores in the starting backfield. George Troxell was at fullback, Tom Douglas at quarterback in the double-wing system, and Meryll Frost at left half. Two of these men scored touchdowns in the craziest game seen in Palmer Stadium in many years.
Dartmouth scored first—on Princeton's first play from scrimmage. A fumble by Lawry of Princeton was grabbed by Bud Kast and the talented halfback went 40 yards to score. He kicked the point. In the third period a Princeton kick rolled dead on the Dartmouth 6-yard line. From that point, Troxell, on a spinner from single wing, broke over the right side of Princeton's line and sailed 94 yards for another touchdown just as Princeton's cohorts were shouting "Block that kick." Then, a few moments later, Kast intercepted a Princeton pass deep in Tiger territory. Douglas, on third down, threw a pass to Kast and Dartmouth was on the six-yard line. On a sweep around the right end with good blocking, Douglas went over standing up and Kast kicked the point to make it 20-0.
It was then that Princeton began to come back with a devastating aerial attack. That the Tigers were able to complete so many passes against Dartmouth and score two touchdowns cannot be attributed to a poor Dartmouth pass defense. Indeed the Big Green has a very capable pass defense and actually led the nation in this department during the first six weeks of the season. But when a team is in the hole 20-0 as Princeton was, it can afford to take chances that it would not take under other circumstances. Bob Perina's passing was exceptional and the Princeton receivers were making impossible catches as the fourth period ticked away. But when the Tigers threatened to tie the game, the Indian defense tightened and squelched the Nassau passing attack by some fine end play turned in by Joe McDevitt and Fred Carey.
Dartmouth has come along the road to improvement, and with the sophomores gaining in finesse and experience the Indians will be a tough nut to crack for both Cornell and Georgia.
SOPHOMORE BACK ELUDES THE TIGERS Meryll Frost shown folloxving Doug Slowell through a wide hole in the Princeton line fora first down. John Peacock is the Green lineman making the helpful block on No. 80.
Captain James Rendall '42 and Coach Tom Dent (left, above) guided the soccer team to another very successful season.Cross country, under veteran Coach Harry Hillman, earned high honors this fall with an undefeated record up to theIC4-A championships. At right, above, the squad is shown, left to right: John M. Hughes '44, Dormont, Pa.; RobertWilliams '43, New York, N. Y.; Richard Morse '44 Hanover, N. H.; Donald L. Burn ham '44, Lebanon, N. H.; SidneyH. Bull '42, Captain, Lexington, Mass.; Charles C. Richardson '44, Dover, N. H., while in the center picture are thethree stars of the team: Burnham, Bull, and Williams.
