Big Green Teams
Rain, Snow, Sleet and Sunshine Herald the Spring Season. Baseball Prospects Show Strength with Big Stick
IT'S ALMOST INEVITABLE to talk about the weather when discussing Dartmouth spring sports. It's the prime determining factor in their early season successes or failures. Throughout the months of March and April, the various spring sports coaches spend a good bit of their time pacing about the lobby of the Davis Field House, glancing out the windows, and doing considerable mental gymnastics in an attempt to calculate the future quirks of said weather and to guess at the earliest possible date that their boys can get out-of-doors.
The .general impression is that this spring has been somewhat better than the usual deluge of rain and snow. Hanover has had its quota of rain and snow this spring, but it hasn't come down in the customary day-after-day manner. One day it will rain and/or snow, but the next it will very likely be sunshiny and balmy. Result: the teams have been "in and out" as Harry Hillman said recently.
With the spotlight turned their way, regardless of rain or snow, it appears that the spring sports teams will, on the whole, present somewhat of a different aspect this year. Biggest difference will no doubt be noticeable in baseball where Coach Jeff Tesreau appears to have molded a hard-hitting, but relatively untried, outfit after a number of light-hitting units in the past few years. For the opening game with Temple at Philadelphia, March 27, Coach Tesreau fielded a predominantly sophomore more outfit, and from the way they performed in this game, it looks as if the team will retain the sophomore tinge.
An indication of the number of first-year varsity men he is relying upon is gathered from a look at the infield. Starting at first base and swinging around the quartet, there are exactly four sophomores in the four positions, two of whom ousted veteran senior performers from their regular posts. At first, big, heavy-hitting Bob Mara has proven by his punch and adequate fielding that last year's standout, senior Chet Jones, could be moved to center field.
in center field—a position he played as a freshman. Completing the lineup is big Ed Roewer, another sophomore, in right field, and one of the spare wings on the hockey team this past winter.
Right on down the line they all can hit, with some long-looked-for power available in the persons of Koslowski, Mara, and Callan. The studied aversion of the pitching problem thus far has been done for a reason—the reason being that it presents a real problem for Coach Tesreau to worry over. Two holdovers are available from last year—Will Gray and Bill Parmer, and the latter only recently started practice due to his long jaunt as a member of the basketball squad. In Gray, Dartmouth has at least one good pitcher—that much is certain. The slender, bespectacled right-hander was troubled a bit in early workouts by a sore arm, but that ailment has disappeared, and at present he is showing his usual complete repertoire of baffling pitches. After an extremely successful start last year as a sophomore, Gray should be all the better this season for his added experience.
Right there the definite pitching strength stops and the rest is in the realm of the unknown and untried. Parmer may be a very valuable addition to the staff later in the season, when he catches up to the rest of the team in the matter of conditioning. He certainly has had the experience in his past two seasons as a relief hurler and may be ready to blossom forth as a starter. From two sophomores and two freshmen is likely to come the remaining portion of Coach Tesreau's pitching power (or lack of it). Snook Hughes, a righthander, and Phil Brown, a southpaw, are graduates of last year's freshman team, while Jim Doole and Bob Grunditz are promising-looking freshmen available for non-league varsity games this season. On the basis of his last year's record, Hughes will probably be the more reliable of the two sophomores, although if Brown can combine some control with his assortment of stuff, he can very easily be a top-notcher. Doole, for a freshman, shows an amazing amount of coolness and poise on the hill, and may very well be the man to watch, out of this quartet.
That is the way things look at this present moment—good hitting and fielding, uncertain pitching. In their opening game with Temple, which was their first workout of any kind out of doors, these attributes were reasonably evident. The Indians got seven runs—a relatively high score —but, unfortunately, the Owls were pounding three Dartmouth pitchers for 17 hits and 17 runs. A second game on the abbreviated near-Southern trip with Navy at Annapolis, March 28, was called "on account of weather," as all ballgames cancelled this season will be designated.
One of the less well-known success stories of the Dartmouth sporting scene concerns Coach Tommy Dent and his lacrosse team. For the past five years they have won five straight New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse titles, and this season are pointing for their sixth, in an attempt to get one up on Coach Ossie Cowles' basketball teams in the matter of league titles.
However, of all the Dartmouth teams, Coach Dent's is the first to feel the real pinch of war in regard to depletion of personnel. Of ten possible returning lettermen only five are left. Howie Lamson and Doug Riley, both two-year attack stars, were lost to the armed forces since last season—the former to the Naval Air Corps, the latter to the draft. Wally Sigler, speedy mid-field man, likewise a would-be senior, is with the Indian Squadron of the Naval Air Corps, and Walt Delaney, a standout as a sophomore last year on defense, has transferred to the Naval Academy. Fifth loss is senior goalie Ted Lapres, who severely injured his knee in the latter part of the hockey season and will be unavailable for any duty this season.
Returning as a small nucleus around which Coach Dent must build his title-defenders are Captain Joe Wilder, AU-American attack-man, Bodie Mosenthal, shifty junior mid-field ace, Bill Melanson, letter- winner his sophomore year at attack but ineligible last season, Dick Nehring, senior defenseman, and Dick Landsburgh, former mid-field player who has been shifted to goal.
Around this group of experienced players and a large and willing group of sophomores and reserves, Coach Dent has gradually built the team up to a point where it looks ready to go places. On a southerly trip, the stickmen lost to Navy, 10-9, and Army, 10-0, without benefit of much outdoor practice. However, in their league opener with M.I.T., the Indians squeaked by with a 10-8 win, largely on the strength of a quick opening-minutes splurge, and in their second league encounter, completely overcame Tufts, 11-0.
Moving over to the inactive (as far as actual schedules go) sports list, the footballers are now coming down the home stretch of their spring training after nearly four weeks of intensive training. As may have been suggested on these pages in earlier issues, Coach Tuss McLaughry and aides have been hit awfully hard by service losses. Of twenty-two possible returning lettermen, sixteen have already gone by the way, at the latest count, with others likely to be gone before next fall. Add to this the unusually low number of departing seniorssix—and you have quite a depletion of material. With freshmen eligible for competition this fall, the whole picture is a very hazy one as far as judging potential weaknesses and strengths go. It might be best to leave it at this—that Coach McLaughry and assistants will have a job cut out for them, to assemble a consistently winning team next fall. However, from this rather distant point of vantage, it appears that most of the Eastern colleges who will furnish the opposition for the Big Green this fall will be pretty much in the same boat—with the exception of land grant schools such as Cornell whose R.O.T.C. units defer students from the draft.
Still another spring sports outfit will be defending a championship this season- Coach Tommy Keane's golfers, who garnered the Eastern Intercollegiate Golf crown last year. Three holdovers from last year's six-man team are available—Captain Bill Martin, senior Dick Remsen, and junior Stan Calder. Filling out the other three posts will be Bill Remsen, and Roy Cutting, juniors, and Bob Giles.
Winding up the round-up, Coach Red Hoehn's tennis squad presents a front divided almost in half between experienced holdovers and new talent. Captain Hal Eckardt, number one man last year, Art Cohen, a junior who played number two in his first varsity year, and Larry Austin, also a junior and holdover from last year, represent the experienced material. Filling out the other positions will be determined from this group: Art Cox, Charlie Dell, and Jim Barr, all seniors of limited experience; Dick Bugbee, a junior who advanced to the semi-finals of the fall open tournament; George Munroe and Jim Olsen, junior basketball stars who reported for tennis the first time this spring; and Hardy Caldwell, Eric Barradale, and Herb Wolff, all sophomores.
To wind up this account, a little resume of the basketball team's post-season wanderings, which are fast becoming ancient, but not forgotten, history before the onslaught of spring. After tying with Princeton in the regular EIL season, they defeated the Tigers in a play-off in Penn's Palestra, 46-38. Then in their opening round at New Orleans in the Eastern N.C.A.A. play-offs, they defeated Penn State, 44-39, and the following night knocked off Kentucky in the finals of the Eastern Division, 48-28. One week later they journeyed to Kansas City to take on Stanford, winners of the Western Division for the national title. After staying slightly ahead of the West Coast Indians for the first half, the home lads buckled beneath second half pressure and lost, 53-38.
BATTING PRACTICE AT MEMORIAL FIELD Catcher Warren G. Kreter '42, of Rockville Center, N. Y., doesn't get the ball as HenryW. Hughes '44, of Medford, Mass., belts out a line drive. On deck (center), James E. DooleJr. '45, of Chelmsford, Mass., hopefully awaits his turn.
SPRING FOOTBALL TRAINING FOR THESE HUSKY PROSPECTS FOR THE 1942 FORWARD WALL, HAS KEPT THEM BUSY. LEFT TO RIGHT, THEY ARE, STEPHEN W. HOLMES '44, WINCHESTER, MASS., SON OF ROBERT J. HOLMES '09; JOHN Q. GOODING '45, HANOVER, N. H., SON OF WILLARD M. GOODING *11; HEAD COACH DEORMOND "TUSS" MCLAUGHRY, JOHN H. BURROUGHS '45, OF WESTBORO, MASS., SON OF HARRY E. BURROUGHS '09, AND COACH RAY RIDDICK.
HAROLD J. ECKARDT '42, RIGHT, OF RYE, N. Y., VARSITY TENNIS CAPTAIN, AND COACH EDWARD G. HOEHN LOOK FORWARD TO A BUSY MONTH OF MAY.
Reunion Baseball Game The Dartmouth varsity baseball team will meet Holy Cross in a game on Saturday afternoon, May 16, during the class reunion week-end. Director of Athletics William H. McCarter '19 has been trying for some weeks to arrange a game for the varsity that would be of maximum interest to members of reunion classes, and to the secretaries, class agents, class treasurers, and members of the Alumni Council who will be in Hanover on the 16th. The game with Holy Cross will begin at 3:30, following the Alumni Luncheon program. General admission will be $1.10 and reserved seats at $1.65 may be secured through advance application to the Athletic Council Office or may be purchased in Hanover before the game.
