BASKETBALL
Indian Courtmen Win Eastern Intercollegiate League Title; Other Teams Post Fine Records as Winter Season Ends
DARTMOUTH has won another basketball championship. By decisively defeating Columbia 47-27 on the night of February 16, the Big Green quintet gained undisputed possession of another Eastern Intercollegiate League title. This is the seventh time Dartmouth has won this championship in the eight years Coach Ossie Cowles has been at the helm, a record which cannot be approached by any other coach in the Ivy League and by few in any league. This latest title represents an outstanding coaching achievement for Coach Cowles, who took over a some- whatuninspiring organization at the beginning of the year—with two former stars and several unknowns—and developed it into one of the tightest aggregations ever fielded on the local court. This team dropped three out of its first five games-to Pennsylvania, Holy Cross, and Yale—and then went through the rest of the season undefeated, disposing of the rest of the League teams as well as several other outstanding teams from various parts of the country. At the close of business at the end of its regular season, this club, so inept at the beginning, was one of the two or three outstanding teams in the East and among the top teams in the country.
Praise is due not only to Coach Cowles but to the team as a whole, which demonstrated one of the most inspiring examples of group cohesion—particularly on the defense-seen in these parts in many a day. Captain Bob Myers was the outstanding individual performer at his pivot position, where his height and his savoir faire combined to earn him an undisputed position on the current crop of all-league teams. James "Chip" Coleman, the only other veteran of the Cowles style of play, turned in another sterling performance at guard and was the other Dartmouth representative on most of the all-league aggregations. Boyd McCaslin, after a slow start at forward, developed into a consistent scoring threat, capable of counting from any angle at any time. George Heddy, the other guard, came along more brilliantly with every game, while Paul Campbell, the other starting forward, scored well over 100 points for his season's work. Outstanding among the substitutes were big Bob Harvey, who rose to the occasion several times when Bob Myers was banished because of personal fouls, and little Mac Simpson, whose long set shots frequently threw the customers into a frenzy of delight. Teamwork was the outstanding motif of this group, a teamwork which was increasingly exciting to watch on the defensive and which, on the offense, made possible several close victories in which the leading Dartmouth scorer produced fewer than 15 points. The others chimed in and helped.
The final game against Columbia was somewhat of an anti-climax, after the grueling contests with Cornell and Pennsylvania. The boys needed this one for the title and they took it, but they were not at their sharpest, particularly during the first half. One of the hallmarks of a champion may be that he can play just well enough to win and save his most inspired efforts for when they are really needed. This was certainly the case in the Columbia game; the pay-off, however, lies in the small but important matter that Dartmouth scored 47 points and Columbia scored only 27.
This was the swan song of Captain Whitey Myers, returning from the wars after a brilliant prewar career on the courts, and he made the best of the brief moments at his disposal. Playing most of the game under wraps because of the fouls hanging over his head, he nevertheless scored 14 points in approximately the same number of minutes and led the team in that department. When he was finally banished from the game and trotted off the floor for the last time, he received a tremendous and well-deserved ovation. The other leading performer in the net was Boyd McCaslin, whose 12 points kept the Green safely out in front. Bob Harvey carried on capably in Myers' key pivot position and ran up a sound 10 points on his own. After apprising you of the heady in- telligence of the League victory, we may now return to a chronological recapitula- tion of the events which led up to that pleasant conclusion.
The first Cornell encounter was played before a packed Alumni Gymnasium crowd and saw the Green nose out the favored Big Red (and they really were big) team by the score of 48-44. In addition to the game itself, the afternoon was featured by an unscheduled wait of some two hours while the officials made their way to the local scene. These minions had not been informed that the game was to be played in the afternoon rather than the evening and had planned a leisurely arrival on the afternoon trains, in plenty of time for an evening performance. But after they did get here, they had something to see, as Dartmouth fought its way to victory over a towering Cornell aggregation which had yet to taste defeat this year in a League contest. The game was marked by flurries of scoring as first one and then the other team put on scoring drives, one of which left Dartmouth in the lead at half time by the cozy margin of 27-25.
Then Cornell turned on the pressure and surged ahead after five minutes of the second half. After trailing through most of the half, Dartmouth in turn put on a last drive which sent them out in front going away, marked by the basket of Boyd McCaslin which initially put them ahead. With two minutes to go, the score was in our favor 46-43. Another foul was scored by Cornell, then a final basket by McCaslin, and the game was over. The high scoring honors for the Green were shared by Myers and McCaslin with 16 points apiece and it was the latter who had the crowd on their feet during the most crucial moments with tallies from all angles. But this was also a team victory, with Coleman, Heddy, and Campbell collaborating to pull a victory out of the fire which even the most fervent Dartmouths had considered only dubiously possible. The clients got their money's worth in this one.
The next week the boys journeyed to Princeton for a return engagement with the team they beat with very little trouble earlier in the season. This time it was no harder and Dartmouth rang up a decisive 49-33 triumph over the tail-end Princeton quintet. The starting five of Campbell and McCaslin at forwards, Myers at center, and Coleman and Heddy at the guards contributed another sparkling team triumph, with all of them joining in the scoring, in which Campbell was the leader with 11 points. When you can score 49 points with the leading figure coming through with no more than 11, then you have that something called balance which has characterized the current aggregation all season. Toward the end of this encounter, the pressure was so relaxed that Coach Cowles put in the second team and let them dally with the tiring Tigers. After the bruising Cornell set-to of the week before, the boys could take this one in their stride and with only a slight perspiration to show for their evening's activities.
The middle of the following week, Dartmouth was host to a visiting aggregation of behemoths from Valparaiso University, one of whom towered some 6 feet 9 inches and another a mere 6 feet 7. This skyscraping personnel was not quite sufficient to beat the men in Green, who took the game 56-51, although the boys from the banks of the Wabash gave the Green some bad moments toward the end. This was a big evening for Bob Myers, who paced the scorers with 21 points, with Boyd McCaslin close behind him with 15. The man-to-man defense of the Green, which has been one of its chief claims to fame this year, had the big boys shackled during most of the first half. In the second stanza, however, they began to catch on and at one time were even with the Green. The latter put on the steam and ran the score to 53-44 with only five minutes to go, a move which was promptly countered by the visitors, who dumped in three straight field goals. With time running out, however, the Dartmouth boys managed to outlast their gargantuan rivals and finish 5 points in front.
The team spent the weekend of Carnival far above Cayuga's waters, where they came through with a stunning 56-53 victory in the second meeting of the year with a favored Cornell team. This victory, one of the hardest fought of the entire campaign, put Coach Cowles' proteges in the League lead for the first time and left Columbia the only hurdle to surmount on the road to another championship. After leading for most of the game, Dartmouth was again forced to come from behind in the waning seconds of the contest, a way of life in which they have specialized this winter. This was another big night for Chip Coleman, one of the slickest guards who ever wore the Green, who was high scorer from his back court position with 16 points. McCaslin came through with 13 points, while Myers and Heddy contributed 11 apiece to swell the total to satisfactory proportions.
In the late minutes of the game, with Dartmouth apparently fading fast, Cornell was out in front by the score of 53-49 and the 5,000 customers in the Ithaca gymnasium were ecstatically pounding one another on the back at the heady thought of pulling this one out of the fire. At this juncture, the Indians rose to great heights, with McCaslin, Coleman, and Myers notching baskets in quick succession which, together with a foul by Mac Simpson, rocketed them out in front where they managed to stay. Just to indicate the aplomb of this aggregation, George Heddy distinguished himself in this game by sinking seven straight free throws, a maneuver which had no slight influence upon the final result. That is the sort of thing which brings tears of joy to your own coach and grey hairs to the mentor of the opposition. The boys have been doing that most of the season.
EASTERN INTERCOLLEGIATE LEAGUE COURT CHAMPIONS. Dartmouth's 1945-46 basketball team, the seventh to win the title in Coach Ossie Cowles' eight years at the helm, consisted of, front row (I. to r.) Mac Simpson '4B, Paul Campbell '4B, Joe Sullivan '49, Captain-elect Jim Coleman '46, Dick O'Brien '49. Back row: Al Bildner '47N, George Heddy '47N, Bob Harvey '46 MC, Captain Bob Myers '44, Boyd McCaslin '47N, Spence Smith '46, and Norm Falkin '47N.
CAPTAIN AND COACH. Every season since he took over as Dartmouth hockey mentor Eddie Jeremiah '3O has staged this pose with his team captain. This year Charlie Holt '45, wing from Melrose, Mass., goes into the scrapbook.
