FOOTBALL—1949
THE PROBLEM before the house, gentlemen, is to keep possession of the ball. As long as we can do that, we are reasonably sure to score a number of touchdowns. As long as we can't, the opposition is reasonably sure to do likewise. In other words, this should be another big year for the Green offensively and a doubtful year defensively. With the galaxy of talented operatives in the backfield currently at Coach McLaughry's disposal, Dartmouth should do her share of scoring. With the extremely problematical situation at several positions in the Green forward wall, the enemy may very well pour through the holes and on down the field until that last white line is passed. We are, in short, just about where we came in last year, with a great deal of proven material in the backfield and the line more or less an unknown quantity. As the readers of this family journal will recall, Dartmouth did all right last year. We can only keep, our fingers crossed again this year.
The high-powered aggregation that wore the Green in 1948 lost only a few men, but those losses were critical. The whole left side of the line is gone: George Schreck, the 195 pound center and line backer; Ray Truncellito, 210 pound left guard; Jonathan Jenkins, 220 pound left tackle; and Captain Dale Armstrong, 215 pound left end and one of the greatest wingmen in Dartmouth's history. In the backfield, Joe Sullivan, the great running, passing, and defensive back is gone, along with Larry Perry, the talented defensive right halfback. In numerical terms, these defections may seem slight, in view of the imposing array of returning veterans. But the losses, especially up front, are going to be hard to fill. The task confronting the genial and dynamic John Dell Isola in molding another air-tight line will be one which would give pause to a lesser man.
We may recapitulate the situation, position by position, as it stands after less than two weeks of practice. When this dispatch reaches the family fireside on or about October first, there may be some unfamiliar names in the lineup. If there are, we will have unwittingly misled you. As we go to press, however, the situation looks something like this.
The Ends-We can begin this report on a happy note. The end squad is good. With Red Rowe and Dave Beeman manning the front line, the coaches could not very well ask for more. At right end, Tom (Red) Rowe stands as the greatest offensive Dartmouth wingman since George Tully hung up his cleats in 1925. Last year, this 6' 3", 205-pounder caught seven touchdown passes, thereby tying the Dartmouth record set by Tully the year of the great Oberlander-Tully passing combination. Including the seven TDs, Rowe caught seventeen tosses for a total of 335 yards. The Oak Park (Illinois) boy is also one of the two best all-around athletes in college, with letters in basketball and track along with the football D. In spite of the fact that the opposing teams will be watching him with everything they have, Rowe should have another great year and may very possibly hang up some scoring records which will stand for some time. Behind him at right end is the veteran Joe Sarno, weighing 195 pounds, and a power on the defense. Sarno, whose brother Jerry is a leading halfback candidate, will take over a good share of the time the other team has the ball, so that Rowe can conserve his very special talents for making touchdowns. George Bissell is a 200-pounder who should see some service both on offense and defense. A leading contender last fall, he broke his ankle early in the season and sat the rest of the year out.
The left end is the towering Dave Beeman, 65" in height and weighing 210 pounds. Last year, Dave alternated with Red Rowe at the right end post, where he was especially valuable on defense, but last spring he was shifted to his present position, where he should spend a good part of the coming months. Beeman is also an offensive threat of no mean proportions, with his great height proving an ideal target for passes, nine of which he caught last year for a total of 129 yards. Between them, Rowe and Beeman are as pretty a pair of ends as you would care to see. Behind Beeman at left end is VinMarriott, 195-pounder, who has been a hard luck player since his freshman year. ncapacitated most of last year with illness, he sprained his ankle this fall and is currently sidelined again. If and when he recovers, he should bear out the promise which he showed when, with George Bissell. he was the regular end on the 1951 freshman team. Leading sophomore contender for the left end position is DonMyers, who weighs 190 pounds and is especially valuable as a defensive performer. Among the other sophomores in this strong end squad are John McDonald,Charles Dey, Dick Koester, Jordan Schank, and Dick Bacon. From this group, the future Green wingmen will come.
The Tackles—At this point we enter the field of possibilities, conjectures, and pious hopes. The first-string tackles will probably be Dick Gowen and Ted Eberle, both veterans, but back of them the going gets a little rough. At right tackle, Dick Gowen will be holding down the position he filled so well last fall. With an added 10 pounds this summer, this stocky scrapper will tip the beam at about 210 which is adequate, if not massive, for a tackle these days. Fast and aggressive, Gowen is especially valuable on offense, when his powerful charge, his deadly blocking, and his intelligent play make him a good man for the position. Defensive duties at this post will probably be shared with Charles (Red) Bailey, who pleasantly surprised the coaches last season by his vicious work on the opposition. Although previously light for a tackle, Red has packed considerable weight on his sturdy frame this summer and should play at about 208 pounds, which addition should augment his authority when grappling with the massive types on the opposing lines. Joe Sardella at 225 pounds is the largest operative in the Green line. Now in his senior year, Joe has yet to realize his full potentialities, which would be considerable if he could be injected with sufficient ferocity to fling the foe on their features. If that happy inspiration should ever miraculously occur, Sardella would move rapidly up the ladder toward a starting berth.
At left tackle, Ted Eberle was the replacement for Jenkins last fall, whenever that formidable character was overcome with temporary lassitude after tossing the enemy on their posteriors. Eberle is big (215 pounds), fast, and aggressive, and should play a lot of football this fall. He is seriously handicapped by an asthmatic condition which makes continuous play difficult and requires frequent brief respites from the hurly-burly. But while he is in there, we should be in pretty good shape. Behind him, the experienced talent slopes off very rapidly. Bill Monahan is a converted guard who is watch-charm size for a tackle these days (190 pounds), but who has a lot of fight. Sophomores VinceJones (210 pounds) and Bob Herr (205 pounds) may eventually help out, but they are not yet ready for the big leagues. In short, the Green has three experienced tackles (Gowan, Bailey, and Eberle), which is not enough in the brave new world of the two-platoon system. Unless some more adequate replacements can be found, these boys will be playing all afternoon every afternoon.
The Guards-The best Dartmouth lineman is right guard Stew Young, the third of the Young brothers to hold down a regular guard spot on the Big Green. Stew will be playing his fourth year of varsity football, breaking into the lineup his freshman year, after seeing service in the Navy. The performance required of a guard these days is extremely complicated, involving a familiarity with such crafty maneuvers as mouse-traps, submarining, and similar activities. In addition, a guard must be big and fast and tough. Stew is all of these and more. As a broth of a "growing boy," he currently weighs about 210 pounds, which gives him the power to match blocks with the biggest and toughest of them. In his last year to wear the Green, Stew should have his greatest season and thereby bring to an end a long and formidable Dartmouth dynasty of Young guards. Behind him, Coach Dell Isola has several pupils of varying grades of experience and finesse, plus a couple of sophomores who are still pretty much unknown quantities.
Pete Bucklin is a persistent and scrappy lad who has come up the hard way through the junior varsity and now, in his senior year, is scheduled to see considerable action. Weighing about 195 pounds, Bucklin has gradually acquired the complex experience requisite for a guard and should be a capable replacement for Stew Young. Bill Carpenter is another senior performer who has seen a lot of action in the past, winning his letter in his sophomore year. At 205 pounds, Bill is ideally built for a guard and, if he can polish up his defensive performance to keep pace with his blocking talents, he should win his third varsity letter this fall. Pete Bogardus is the third among the reserve candidates for the right guard position. Pete saw some action last fall and his enthusiasm, size (195 pounds), and increased finesse this year may stand him in good stead.
The leading candidate for left guard is Jim Melville, a reserve for the past two years and a letter-winner in his sophomore year. He is an exceptionally heady player and called defensive signals last year when Truncellito was not on the field. Weighing about 200 pounds, Melville is not exceptionally fast for a guard, but will make up in aggressiveness what he lacks in speed. Dick Price is a rang)' 200-pounder who was unheralded last year but came up fast in spring practice. He is especially valuable as a blocker. Little Joe Morelli will also be in there pitching for a reserve position this fall, although his diminutive stature (175 pounds) makes him a rarity among forward wall operatives. Sophomores who may eventually help out in both guard positions are BillThornton (195 pounds), John Martino (200 pounds), and Al Athanasopoulos (205 pounds), a nice mouthful for a radio announcer. Both at tackle and guard, therefore, we have a couple of experienced men and behind them some large, semi-anonymous spaces, which may or may not eventually be manned in a fashion adequate for contemporary big league football.
The Centers—Paul Staley was thrown into the breach a year ago when Schreck was forced out periodically by injuries. This year, with Schreck gone, Staley will have to carry on as offensive center more or less on his own power. Extremely light for center last year, Staley put on some needed weight this summer and currently weighs about 190 pounds. He will need every pound of it. Developing rapidly as an offensive blocker, Staley will be able to fill the bill in that department, but his defensive activities will have to be extensively supplemented by others. Just who these others will be, nobody seems to know at the moment. Craig Murphy is a rangy 215-pounder who is listed in the squad roster as a tackle but who may have to play a lot of center this year because there isn't anyone else around. A good blocker, Murphy may develop as a line backer, in which event the coaches will breathe a sigh of relief that can be heard from Cambridge to Ithaca. So far, however, this happy event has not materialized. A third and even more unknown quantity in this crucial pivot spot is a very dark horse named (and you make the pun) Dave Sleeper. This boy played center on the 1950 freshman team, along with Schreck, and then dropped out of school for two years. He is returning to college with sophomore standing, weighing 212 pounds, and not having had a football in his hand since the spring of 1947. That's about the story at center, plus a couple of sophomores who may or may not eventually come through. What about Bill Cunningham, Josh Davis and Mutt Ray? Could they get in shape?
The rest of this treatise should make more stimulating reading. In contrast to the shaky situation between the tackles, the Green is, to come right out with it, loaded in the backfield. With veteran ball carriers three deep in every position, the clients should enjoy the frequent and heady experience of watching the backs go tearing by this fall. Starting with the brilliant John Clayton at quarterback and ending with the massive and dependable Captain Herb Carey at fullback, Dartmouth is primed with seasoned and capable performers.
Quarterbacks-Coach McLaughry has three experienced quarterbacks, any one of whom could normally make the first team in most major league football. For those of you who enjoyed even a nodding acquaintance with Dartmouth football last fall, John Clayton needs no introduction. This talented 195-pound sophomore stepped into the role of ballet master for the intricate gyrations of the T formation with such success that he was one of the half dozen leading quarterbacks in the nation. Virtually certain to set up an alltime Dartmouth passing record before he leaves, this modest young man completed 46 out of 90 passes in his first year for an average of .511. Clayton threw touchdown passes as follows: one each against Holy Cross, Columbia, and Princeton; two each against Colgate and Cornell; and three in the delightful massacre in the Yale Bowl which many of you happily remember. In addition to these feats, Clayton blossomed forth as one of the fanciest ballhandlers in the business, confounding the opposition and the people in the stands alike with his sleight-of-hand feats with the pigskin.
Overshadowed by the brilliant performance of Clayton are two other outstanding performers in the same department. BobMcCraney is expected to see a great deal of service this fall when Clayton gets tired of throwing touchdown passes. Bob is a stocky aos-pounder who, along with Clayton, has the physique to stand up under the occasional brutality inflicted by the opposing linemen on the passer from the T formation. A canny play-caller, a steady ball handler, and a passer whose long tosses will bring a shiver to many an opposing safety man, McCraney will be able to take a lot of pressure off Clayton this fall. He also doubles in brass as one of the best punters on the squad. The third-ranking quarterback, Gil Mueller, has consistently played in the shadow of his more spectacular colleagues but is an able performer in his own right. Weighing only about 170, Mueller is not as durable as Clayton and McCraney, but his brief flashes of brilliance in the moments he was allowed to play last year stamp him as a potentially valuable man. At play-calling and ball-handling, he is right up there with the other two and his passing leaves little to be desired. He is also the top-ranking scholar on the squad.
Fullbacks—Captain Herb Carey leads the group of three veteran fullbacks whom Coach McLaughry can alternate this fall. This is Herb's fourth year on the varsity after breaking into the big time as a freshman in the fall of 1946, after 30 months in the ETO. This big 205-pounder can advance the ball with the best of them when the occasion warrants, but his greatest forte is defense. Named on most of the defensive units of the All-Eastern squads for the past two years, Carey performs an absolutely vital function in backing up the line. He has both the speed and the physical power to hurl himself into the breach and repel the invading ball carriers, a role that may (unhappily) be more conspicuous this year than last because of the possibly porous quality of the line. So Captain Carey will be in there when the going is heaviest, carrying on in the tradition of great Dartmouth' captains.
Behind Herb Carey is Bill Dey, who saw a great deal of service last fall as offensive fullback and defensive halfback. Although his offensive activities were somewhat less flamboyant than those of several of the other backs, Dey was the leading Dartmouth scorer last fall, with five touchdowns and 15 points thereafter. Bill is one of the two best all-around athletes in college (the other being Red Rowe); Dey has already won six varsity letters—two each in football, basketball, and tennis, and bids fair to add three more to this imposing galaxy this year. Weighing approximately 190 pounds, Dey is one of the comparatively few backfield men equally in demand on both offense and defense. The third ranking fullback is Bill Roberts, who spent last fall languishing on the bench with a broken collar-bone. This 195-pounder is a slashing offensive threat who has both the power to break through the opposing line and the speed to keep on going. Although used rarely on defense, Roberts will do a lot of ball-carrying this fall and should add greatly to the explosive power of the Green offense.
Right Halfback—Dartmouth's leading running back this fall is Hal Fitkin, returning for his third (and we hope) greatest year. The handsome blond speedster came back weighing something over 190 pounds, which added weight will give him even more authority on his lunges through the line and his powerhouse excursions around the flanks. Fitkin was the work horse of the Dartmouth backfield last year, carrying the ball even more consistently than the late (at Dartmouth) great Joe Sullivan. Hal carried 85 times for a total of 450 yards and five touchdowns. In these offensive jaunts, he was almost always good for a few yards and was a constant threat to go all the way.
Ed Isbey is a sturdy (185-pound) and smiling lad who saw infrequent action last fall, largely because he happened to be playing the same position as Fitkin, Perry, and Chapman. With another year of experience, Isbey should see a good deal of action, for he has both the speed to pound out the yardage the hard way and the ability to pick his way through a broken field. The other ranking right halfback is Jerry Sarno, whose 187 pounds carries a good deal of drive when he has the ball in his hands. Those of our readers who saw the Yale game last year will remember Sarno's touchdown sortie through the opposing secondary. In the course of this sally, he feinted a couple of Yales practically out of the park, outran another, and ran right over still another. Big, fast, and powerful, Jerry will be a hard man to keep on the bench and a harder one to stop on the field.
Left Halfbacks—It the current backfield has any appreciable lack of strength (definitely not weakness) it is at the left halfback position. Performers like the dashing Joe Sullivan do not come along every day. Mindful of this situation, the coaches shifted John Chapman from right to left halfback, where he is currently the leading candidate. In the past, Chapman has carried on largely on defense, where his vicious tackling has snuffed out more than one enemy threat. This season he is also expected to blossom out as an fensive threat, especially on heavy duty punches through the line. Chapman is one of the leading punters on the squad, in which capacity he functioned more than once last fall.
Scheduled to alternate with Chapman at left halfback is Bob Tyler, the fastest man on the Dartmouth squad and one of the leading speed merchants in this part of the country. Playing in the shadow of Joe Sullivan last year, Tyler still carried the ball 44 times for an average yardage of 6.4 per try. His blazing speed makes him a threat every time he has the ball and several times last year he broke away for long runs. He is especially devastating on end sweeps, where he can run the defending secondary into the ground. Tyler may have a great season in his junior year. The third of the experienced left halfbacks is another speedster, Eddie Williams, who saw considerable action in 1947, but was out all last year with a broken verterbra. He went out for football last spring and demonstrated that he might fulfill the exceptional promise he has flashed in the past.
This, then, is the backfield picture. The reader will note that there is not a single sophomore among the 12 leading candidates for the four backfield positions. This situation speaks well for the experience of this fall's ball carriers, but not so well for the future. We should therefore mention some of the sophomore backfield candidates who are not yet ready for the big time but who will have to carry the ball sooner or later. At quarterback, Wayne Linman and Jim Churchill are currently playing behind Clayton, McCraney, and Mueller. At fullback, stocky little John Foster is receiving considerable attention. At the halfbacks, Al Reich,Dick Brown, Tom Collins, and Jim Curtis look like some of the most likely prospects. At this juncture, however, none of them looks like a future MacLeod, Sullivan, or Fitkin. Successors to these erstwhile immortals must come, if at all, another year.
THE OUTLOOK IS NOT BAD: Captain Herb Carey, veteran fullback, and Coach Tuss McLaughry look toward points west and south and seem unafraid as they launch practice for the 1949 grid season.
STANDOUT IN THE LINE: Stew Young, third son of the late Coach Lou Young to play guard for Dartmouth, is expected to have his best year.
SUMMER TRAINING: A football coach has to get in shape too, and Tuss McLaughry found work on his Norwich farm an ideal way to do it.
