Football Final
Cornell 21, Dartmouth 13—A near capacity crowd huddled in Memorial Field saw a fighting Dartmouth team put up a gallant struggle against a highly rated Cornell aggregation, only to lose to a heart-breaking combination of its own errors and the traditional opportunism of the Big Red. With a little luck, Dartmouth might have won this one. But the breaks were consistently against the Green, and that was that. In this connection, we may note the following:
Item. The first Cornell touchdown came as a direct result of a somewhat dubious penalty against the Green for roughing the kicker. This alleged infraction came after the Cornell offense had bogged down at midfield, but the penalty took them off the hook and let them go all the way.
Item. Toward the end of the first quarter, quarterback Gene Howard got off a long pass to big John McDonald, who caught the ball on the Cornell 35 with a completely clear field before him. The towering end ran about is yards with the ball and, for some unaccountable reason, fumbled, fell down, and finally recovered on the 23. This was as far as the Dartmouth attack went on that particular sequence.
Item. Near the end of the fourth quarter, Howard tossed an even longer pass to Russ Smale, who was also out in the clear. This diminutive scatback is one of the fastest men on the squad and had nobody between himself and the Cornell goal line. However, he was unable to get his stride and was ultimately run down from behind on the Cornell 18, where the Dartmouth attack again bogged down.
Item. The most egregious series of breaks were the eight fumbles perpetrated by Dartmouth, four of which resulted in Cornell recoveries. Two of this number were recovered in mid-air, after which the Red advanced ultimately across the Dartmouth goal line.
These items are advanced by way of documenting the above statement that, with a few (good) breaks, Dartmouth might have pulled this one out. Your correspondent is, he trusts, reasonably objective in stating the general tenor of these encounters. When the opposition beats our brains out, this column says so. This was the case with Columbia the week before when, aside from the opening moments, Dartmouth was never in the ball game. But against Cornell the Green was very much in the game. These are the tough ones to lose.
Cornell scored first, after a promising Dartmouth march had been interrupted deep in Cornell territory by John Foster's fumble and an enemy recovery. After Cornell failed to gain, the aforementioned penalty for roughing the kicker allowed the Big Red to start all over, 15 yards down the field, and eventually to go over for the score. Shortly thereafter, Charlie Curtis, who played his usual dashing game both on offense and defense, intercepted a Cornell pass on the enemy 28 and returned for 5 yards. A run by Foster and a pass to McDonald brought a first down on the 15. After another pass was grounded, Howard fired one to Dick Collins on the right flat, and this speedy back skipped into the corner of the end zone for the TD. Hank Fry kicked the extra point and the score was tied at the end of the half. During the initial two stanzas, Dartmouth had consistently given as much or more than she got and it was still anybody's ball game.
In the third quarter, however, the Dartmouth errors began to catch up with them. Cornell struck twice in this period, both times following the recovery of a Dartmouth fumble. After the kickoff, Dartmouth made a nice march down the field to the Cornell 25, at which juncture Foster fumbled again. This time the ball was recovered in midair by a Cornell back, who raced to midfield before he was brought down. The second Cornell score (the first of this half) came shortly after, with a pass play that covered 36 yards in all. After the ensuing kickoff, Dick Collins made a brilliant runback of 32 yards to the Dartmouth 38, only to fumble and bring on another Cornell recovery. Cornell scored quickly and thereby broke the back of a brilliant but maladroit Dartmouth team.
In the fourth period, Charlie Curtis brought Dartmouth back into the game with the most spectacular single operation of the afternoon. Intercepting a Cornell pass on the Dartmouth 33, he raced 67 yards through the entire Big Red aggregation to score the final Green touchdown. Time and again, it looked as if he were trapped, but each time he kept going and eventually outran the Cornell safety man into the corner of the south end zone. Hank Fry's try for the extra point was blocked, which meant that the Green still could not win or even tie with another touchdown.
In spite of these discouraging odds, Dartmouth kept on trying and it was at this point that the long pass to Russ Smale came off, which ended in his unsuccessful dash for the Cornell goal line. From the 18, Howard tried four consecutive passes, one to Dave McLaughlin and two to Dick Collins. A fourth pass did connect to Collins, but it was considerably short of a first down, inasmuch as the Indians had just drawn a 5-yard penalty (another one that hurt) for taking too much time. Cornell then took over and their big backs were ripping the tiring Dartmouth line to shreds as time ran out.
1952 FOOTBALL CAPTAIN Peter B. Reich '53 of Pearl River, N. Y. (right) is congratulated by 1951 Captain Bill Vesprini and Coach Tuss McLaughry. The 200-lb. guard is the brother of Halfback Al Reich '52,
COURT LEADERS: Basketball Coach Alvin (Doggie) Julian with Kent Calhoun '52 of Minneapolis, who leads the Green five from the guard position.
