Time Is On His Team

Two years ago, Dartmouth first became aware that it was to have a new basketball coach. His name was "Doggie" Julian. He had coached Holy Cross to the national championships and had been in charge of the professional Boston Celtics for two years. All the facts of his life were released, but nothing was said of Julian as a person.

It was this personal side of Doggie Julian that most interested me. I was curious about how he expected to improve a Big Green five that had been steadily going downhill. While he was at Holy Cross, his teams won 65 of 75 games. Could he possibly hope to do the same at Dartmouth?

My first contact with Doggie was during his first year as Indian coach, a year in which his team won four and lost 26 games. I expected to find him wondering why he ever took on an impossible job. His only reply was, "I'd heard a great deal about Dartmouth spirit and wanted to see if it really worked." At that point it didn't look as though he would get such an opportunity the first year, but I was wrong.

After Dartmouth's worst basketball season in history, I again approached Doggie for some comment. Here was his reply: "I've never seen a team like this one. They never gave up. The team would be 20 points behind with but three minutes to go, and they would still hustle and fight for a score. Believe me, I'm sold on Dartmouth."

From that point on I was sold on Doggie Julian. Sure he liked to win, but he had that quality beyond and above the victory desire; he knew, understood, and appreciated his ball players.

Alvin Julian first became known as "Doggie" in his high school days. He and about twenty of his friends used to walk to school together, which usually made it virtually impossible for anyone to pass them on the sidewalk. One day, two old ladies tried to wander through the blockade. Julian stepped back to let them pass. The retort from his school friends was, "Here doggie, come on doggie. ..." And it's been Doggie ever since.

Julian went to Bucknell University where he starred as an athlete. After graduation he signed to coach in a local high school. However, he was offered a contract to catch for Reading in the International League and he promptly accepted. Julian always had his eye on the big leagues, but he broke a finger and as a result turned to coaching. Before he actually became a coach, he played semipro football for three years with the Reading Keys. It was there that he gained valuable experience that gave him his first coaching job.

Doggie coached football at Albright College for two years, finally becoming mentor of all sports. His next stop was Muhlenberg where he again began with football. Muhlenberg did not have a good basketball team so Julian proceeded to build one with local talent. In three years he had built a great club. He gradually became more and more interested in basketball, and that soon became his chief coaching task.

From there he went to Holy Cross, where he developed the best teams in that school's history. Julian had such stars as Bob Cousy and George Kaftan.

What makes a good coach? Doggie's answer to this is "Good players! All a coach can do is teach fundamentals. A boy must have natural ability and speed, and must know what to do with the ball."

Right now, Doggie Julian is undergoing the biggest test of his remarkable career. But anyone who knows him will claim, even if he won't, that time is all that is needed to build a good Dartmouth club.

Julian is very superstitious. For example, he never starts a game without first rubbing the heads of his starting five. This superstition goes back to Muhlenberg days. During a time out in one contest he just happened to rub the boys' heads. The team came from behind to win, and then went on a long victory streak.

Doggie Julian came to Hanover to find out about the Dartmouth spirit and now he is a fine example of it himself.

COACH "DOGGIE" JULIAN demonstrates the head rubbing act that has become his trademark as Big Green court mentor.