Big Green Teams

College's Speeded-up Program Not to Affect 1942 Winter and Spring Schedules, Although Policy Changes are Considered

WORLD WAR NO. 2's influence on Dartmouth's athletic program of the future became the feature sports news of the month when Director of Athletics Bill McCarter made two extremely important announcements during the week of January lath.

First came the sports chief's release for the Athletic Council that outlined a four point policy as follows:

(I) Football and all other sports will be continued insofar as circumstances make it possible.

(2) There will be no changes in the current winter sports schedules.

(3) The spring sports program will be revised to meet the changes in the College calendar, but there will be no curtailment in the program itself.

(4) If possible, a summer sports program will be inaugurated for the new summer session, if arrangements can be made with other colleges.

The above, of course, silences all the wild rumors that spread over the country previous to Christmas vacation that Dartmouth planned to discontinue intercollegiate athletics entirely. Naturally, however, there remains much that is problematical that can not be outlined or predicted, the main question being that of the quality of manpower that will be available for competition. This will, nevertheless, affect only the standard of play, and not the fact that play will continue to the limit of ability of the boys participating.

The matter of quality may or may not be tied up with the next policy established and announced by the Council. It is probably more to the point of activity for all, rather than any worry concerning the calibre of the teams that will represent Dartmouth on the field of athletics. It also reveals the complications now connected with sports and the many problems involved in directing a program that includes so many uncertainties.

In any event Dartmouth will not organize freshmen teams for athletic competition during the coming spring season. Freshmen will be included on varsity squads and will be allowed, with the consent of opponents, to compete in varsity intercollegiate contests. An exception will be made for freshmen track, which is already organized and which can complete its normal schedule before Dartmouth's final examinations begin on May 1.

Freshmen numerals may be awarded on the recommendation of the coach without actual competition being required in all cases.

The reasons why the freshmen eligibility rule was waived for the spring sports is quite obvious. Baseball and lacrosse will be the major sports reached by the change, with golf, tennis, and crew also involved. None of these sports are able to start competition at all much before the new closing date of the second semester. Unlike the track program there can be no possible move made to hurry the programs as track alone can compete indoors as well as out. Hence without freshmen competition on the varsity squads none of the yearling athletes in spring sports would be able to train for competition as no incentive would exist. Many of the freshmen schedules include several dates with preparatory school teams, most of whom are progressing normally and are not in a position to change plans even if the Hanover weather was not the all-important factor that it is.

But more important than the immediate reasons why freshmen will be eligible this spring (opponents' permission required as aforementioned) seems to be the handwriting on the wall that the policy may be again revised to include freshmen participation in fall sports. This is purely a guess on the part of the writer and it can be said with certainty that freshmen won't be eligible for football in the fall unless some necessity arises to make the move justified.

It goes without saying that freshmen competing on the eleven here and elsewhere would do a great deal to take up some of the slack that will be noticed when several or many of the veterans are not available in September. Freshmen would lack experience, maturity and background, but they would at least supply the physical necessities for football and this is a matter that has many ramifications other than the desire to keep football on as high a plane of perfection as possible.

All of which makes it, and will make it, even more difficult than ever for the socalled experts. Even as things now stand in a rather normal winter sports season, it is already tough enough to draw conclusions that will hold water. For example the Dartmouth basketball quintet played four encounters before Christmas vacation and won them all. Two of the opponents belong in any who's who of outstanding basketball teams, they being St. Johns and Fordham. The former the Indians swamped, 74-55, and the later they nosed out, 53-52, in a game that was not as close competitively as the score would suggest.

Then to make matters even more hilarious the Indians journeyed to Milwaukee and slapped the national championship Wisconsin five around, 57-49. At Toledo against one of the nation's best the Big Green lost, 46-59, but looked every inch the title holders that they are until completely exhausted in the last five minutes of the tilt. Three hours' sleep, a day's train ride and a high speed game all contributed to the downfall. With two days' rest the Indians bounced back against Seton Hall and won, 43-42, after leading by a comfortable margin until the last minutes of play.

As any mid-western alumnus who saw the team in action on their road trip would agree, the Indians were and looked great in pre-League contests.

You can easily imagine then the shock that hit Hanover when the Indians lost to Harvard in the first E. I. L. test, 36-49. The Dartmouths would have given all of their previous victories back for a win in the League over the Crimson, but when it counted most the Indians could do little that was right. They just didn't look like the same ball players they had been in previous tests. Forward George Munroe and Captain Stub Pearson were the only ones who played as they can when right. This now makes twice in the current college year that Harvard has upset a heavily favored Dartmouth team, and there'll be a day of reckoning, you can bet your life on that. One thing about basketball, the day for revenge is not far off as was the case with the football team in the fall. The basketball lads can't wait for Harvard's appearance on the 7th of Feb. in one of the Winter Sports week-end's feature attractions. The Winter Sports week-end was formerly known as the Dartmouth Winter Carnival.

And then to show you how completely wacky sports can be, the Big Green, mad and disappointed at the outcome of the Harvard game, faced Pennsylvania four nights later and toyed with them, 75-31. Now Penn. is no Harvard in basketball this winter, but no team in the country could have held off the determined pace and fighting effort of the Indians the night that the Red and Blue ran into the Cowles blitz, and one can hardly blame Penn for feeling sorry that Harvard ever aroused the Indians to their full ability.

Munroe and Pearson have been the steady stars of the array. Center Jim Olsen, a great player whose size qualifies him in every way for a place among the game's greatest, has been terrific in every tilt but the two that Dartmouth has lost. It almost seems as if the team goes as Olsen goes. Sophomore Bob Myers has started slowly, but more than came into his own against Penn. with 16 points. Guard Stan Skaug has not as yet flashed the consistent ability that he possessed at the end of last season. Stan is, however, a brilliant performer and will unquestionably hit his peak very shortly.

The first-game defeat has dealt a severe blow to a fifth straight title effort. It may well be the deciding weight in the League's outcome. However Dartmouth is still in the running and Cornell's great start with two road victories can be evened up by Dartmouth at home and at Ithaca. It can also be said that the League has not seen the end of upset results as the League this winter has a far better balance than many fans realize.

As for the varsity hockey teams, the rabid stick fans have no complaints whatever to make. In fact from the letters received from the mid-west, especially from alumni who witnessed the two Minnesota victories, there is nothing but wild praise to forward for Eddie Jeremiah's men. Perhaps few Dartmouth teams in recent years have ever received the "business" as the sextet received it at Minneapolis. Both games were hard fought. Both teams played to win the rugged way. Both games packed about all the excitement any hockey series of two encounters could possibly supply. Dick Rondeau lost three teeth. Johnny Krol still suffered from a twisted knee and many others came back with bumps and bruises attesting to the severity of the Gophers body checks. That the Big Green six was able to stand up under the blasts and still eke out 4-2 and 5-3 wins speaks a mansized volume for the team's ability to play good hockey under any circumstances. The Christmas vacation also brought a 3-2 win over Colorado and a 3-1 defeat from the same foe. Moving on to Illinois the Indians also split the series, 1-4 and 5-4 in contests that offered the usual thrills of overtime excitement. After Illinois the Indians moved to Buffalo when the Indians were by some strange circumstances installed as pre-game underdogs. By whose judgment we wouldn't know except that the Indians soon proved otherwise by slapping in six goals in the first period and coasting to a 7-2 triumphant the next two frames. Then came the Minnesota jaunt and the wild and wooly climax to the vacation trip.

At home after vacation the Indians, badly battered but still fighting, downed B. U., 4-3, and Harvard, 5-3. The League win was certainly a convincing show of power for the Indians, with the sophomore line of Rondeau, Jack Riley and Bill Harrison more than living up to the advance publicity they received as freshmen. This line is far and away the best to wear the green since the heyday of 12 straight League victories, and will improve as it goes along. Right now it has captured the imagination of the hockey fans who walk around the streets muttering, "Rondeau, Riley and Harrison, oh boy!" If anything unforeseen breaks up this line until they have had at least one year in action together we believe that it would take a hundred Bob Hopes cracking funny at one time to even force a smile back on the average hockey fan's lips once more.

The second line with Ralph Dushame starring has also contributed mightily to the sextet's glory to date. Jeremiah has named Dushame as the most improved player on the squad and the Duke has certainly not disappointed his coach in this judgment.

Karl Michael's swimming team has also started with colors high. A warmup victory over Bowdoin, 58-17, gave the swimmers just enough edge to help them down Columbia, 40-35, in a League test. Harvard comes next on Feb. 6 and three guesses how the boys feel about this match. The Indian swimmers are still trying to win an initial victory from Harvard in the pool, and plus the fact that it's a chance for Dartmouth to do a little upsetting of its own, the meet builds up as something extra special. Michael will not bend the limb on the outcome, but does feel it can be done if his lads go all out in each event.

Two varsity squash matches, one lost to Harvard, 2-7, and the other won from M. I. T., 8-1, started Red Hoehn's varsity off to a record that should be improved on in the future. A freshman basketball triumphant over Tilton, 41-25, a freshman swimming win over Greenwood Memorial, 41-25, and a freshman fencing triangular meet with Seton Hall and Middlebury which Seton Hall won completes the activities to date.

And as for the boys in green, they're all thinking ahead to another contest they're now following in the papers, waiting and preparing themselves for a scrap that they feel will require many of the same characteristics that their athletic tests have called for, and if a little more of the same is needed that, too, is all right with them.

CAPTAIN TED LAPRES SAVES THE SITUATION IN A CLOSE CONTEST WITH BOSTON UNIVERSITY

DARTMOUTH SKI TEAMS HAVE MUCH TO LIVE UP TO The 1942 Edition is shown as follows: from, left to right, Coach Percy Rideout '4O, Rich-ard Morse '44, Hanover, N. H., Joseph K. Hutchinson '43, Burlingame, Calif., Robert H.Meservey '43, Hanover, N. H., William R. Epply '44, Manchester, N. H., Harry A. JacobsJr. '42, New York, N. Y., Vernon C. Genn Jr. '45, Bienne, Switzerland, Hans R. Huessy'42, Norwich, Vt., John C. Tobin '42, South Orange, N. ]., Philip F. Puchner '44, PortChester, N. Y., Richard C. Bradley '44, Madison, Wis., John K. Snobble '44, HighlandPark, 111., Eric G. W. Barradale '44, Guilford, Vt., Jacob R. Nunnemacher '42, Milwaukee,Wis., William G. Distin '44, Saranac Lake, N. Y.