Holy Cross 27, Dartmouth 9

It was a perfect autumn afternoon in Hanover as Dartmouth opened its 71st football season on September 27. The freshman hats gleamed brightly in the sun and the Big Green band marched smartly onto the field playing "Dartmouth's in Town Again" to usher in the fall season and another college year. But also in town for the afternoon were the Holy Cross Crusaders, picked by most experts as one of the top independent teams in the East this fall. The boys from Worcester lived up to advance billing.

For the first two periods, however, it appeared as if Dartmouth might have an upset in the making. The Indians had pulled ahead to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game when Jim Miller's punt was taken by the Holy Cross safety man, Tom Murphy, on his own 5-yard line. In attempting to reverse his field, Murphy cut back into the Holy Cross end zone where Russ Smale, knifing past two Crusader blockers, cut him down for a safety.

The Crusaders, sparked by their All- American quarterback Charlie Malloy, fought back, but at this junction Malloy's aerials were not clicking and the Big Green defensive line was stopping the Holy Cross running plays cold. Then in the second period the Big Green started to march. From their own 25 they went 6g yards in eight plays with Miller passing to Dave McLaughlin for long gains and Dick Collins and Russ Smale pacing the ground attack. As 15,000 fans howled their approval the Big Green found themselves on the Crusaders 1-yard line with first down and goal to go. Then Coach Eddie Anderson put in aoo-pound Chet Millett at right guard for the Crusaders. Miller tried a quarterback sneak which Millett smeared. A pass got nowhere. Another running play was broken up by Millett and now Dartmouth was back on the 15-yard line from where a fourth-down pass failed.

At this point Holy Cross decided to show how it should be done. In eight plays they went 85 yards, with Malloy throwing three passes and halfbacks Gene Schiller and Bob Murphy gaining on the ground. The Holy Cross score came on a 6-yard flip from Malloy to end John Carroll, who skipped 20 yards through the Dartmouth right-side defense for the score.

Then, five minutes into the third period, it was Dartmouth's turn. Dick Collins took a handoff, slanted through tackle and raced 89 yards to put the Indians out in front 9-7. But the Indian triumph was short lived. On the kickoff the Crusader's Tom Murphy ran back to the 40-yard marker, Schiller romped for a first down, Malloy passed to end Bob Dee for another 25 yards and before the Big Green knew what was happening the ball was on their 1-yard line from where Malloy took it over on a quarterback sneak.

Malloy, Schiller and Murphy teamed up again in the early part of the fourth period to garner another score for Holy Cross and later in the final period Malloy hurled a 24-yard aerial to John Carroll for another TD and the final coup-de-grace.

Actually both teams appeared to have first-game jitters, but the Crusaders were hitting harder than Dartmouth and Malloy's ball handling and passing were fooling the Indian defenders most of the time. With both teams going for that all-important first game victory, this was clearly a case of the better team emerging triumphant.