TRACK
Shortly before the opening of the indoor track season, Harry Hillman remarked ruefully that he didn't even have a good freshman team this winter, let alone a good varsity one. This will not be interpreted as any reflection upon the dean of Dartmouth coaches (35 years this month), for whose abilities this department and every Dartmouth man has the greatest respect, but will merely be a reflection of the times. Last year, with the great Don Burnham leading as talented a group of runners, jumpers, and weightthrowers as have ever cavorted on and about the famed Dartmouth board track was—last year. But this year, with a 1 few exceptions, there are comparatively few performers among the trainees or civilian students who can run faster, jump higher, or throw things farther than the average member of a normal freshman team. Harry has a high jumper, a sprinter, a hurdler, and (much to his surprise) a miler. And that is about all.
This melancholy state of affairs was clearly demonstrated on January 13, when the Army brought its galaxy of stars to the Hanover plain and went systematically to work to swamp Dartmouth under a 76-24 score. We managed to salvage only four first places from this debacle, with Snyder winning the 60-yard high hurdles, Mark (no kin to Don) Burnham running his first competitive mile and winning it, Conley winning the high jump at the very respectable height of 6 ft. 2 inches, and also the broad jump at approximately 21 feet. That was about all, as far as we wfere concerned, although we did manage to glean a few meager third places (four, in fact) at various points in the program to bring our total to a net 24. The rest of the meet was strictly no contest, with the Army sweeping the two mile, the pole vault, and the 35-pound hammer, and winning the mile relay and the three lap relay (a new event to this correspondent) by comfortable margins.
I hasten to add at this point that the Army team was practically the same group that captured the indoor intercollegiates last year, while Dartmouth was hardly a shadow of its former self. Most of the spectators spent the afternoon gaping at Doc Blanchard, the bruising Ail-American Army fullback who is built along the general lines of a Sherman tank, and Davis, their great halfback, who is only slightly less formidably built and won the improbable combination of the 60- yard dash and the shot put. Blanchard flexed his muscles in the shot put, in which he took second to his backfield mate, but it is clear that his first love is demolishing the opposition on a football field, where he is reputedly the most devastating blocker, backer-up, and line-pulverizer that has come along since Bronco Nagurski. And this broth of a lad Blanchard is only a freshman at the Point.
Another Army footballer who came to Hanover on this track team was Bud Troxell, who played fullback at Dartmouth on the great 1944 freshman team and a year on the varsity before deciding to continue his education on the banks; of the Hudson. Other outstanding performers on the championship Army team, somewhat obscured by the reflected glory of the football players, were Leon Dombrowski (also a football player, come to think of; it) in the 35-pound hammer, Lansing in the pole vault, and Truxes in the two mile. All three were intercollegiate champions and all three, needless to say, won their events against Dartmouth.
The Army meet was the second of the season for Dartmouth. The Green lost their first meet on January 6 to Tufts by the close margin of 54-50. The Green strength was manifested in the same events they dominated against the Army. Snyder won the 45-yard low hurdles and took second in the highs; Conway won the high jump; Burnham took second in the 1000 yard run; Hanley won the two mile; and Fetzer won the shot. A variety of seconds and thirds ran our total up to 50 points, which was not quite enough to win. It looks as though Harry Hillman would spend most of this year building character.
