Holy Cross 28, Dartmouth 6

Dartmouth opened the 1953 season against Holy Cross at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Mass., before a "live" audience of some 10,000 and a television audience running in the millions. Selected as the "Game of the Week" under the NCAA restricted television program, the Dartmouth-Holy Cross contest went out over an 82-station NBC hookup and Crusader coach Eddie Anderson chose the occasion to unveil a rather unique type of offense. The Crusaders started with a straight Information attack, then shifted from the T to a single wing, then to a variation of the Notre Dame box, and in general confused the spectators, TV viewers and the Dartmouth team.

Holy Cross wasted no time. Two minutes after they received the kickoff, quarterback John Stephens tossed a 27-yard pass to end John Carroll and Holy Cross went out ahead. Dartmouth drove back but couldn't keep the ball and in the second quarter halfback Gene Schiller passed to Carroll for another score. Dartmouth, meanwhile, had gone nowhere with quarterbacks Bill Beagle or Leo McKenna, so senior Jack Reilly took over. Reilly finally connected, in the only long play of the game, when he hit end Dave McLaughlin with a 35-yard pass and McLaughlin outraced two speedy Crusader halfbacks for thirty more yards to the goal line. But the Crusaders scored twice in that final period, first on a six-yard buck by fullback Tom Murphy (who had come in to replace Gerry O'Leary after O'Leary had sparked a 48-yard Crusader march and had been removed from the field with a broken leg) and then on a 24-yard pass from Bill Haley to Warren O'Donnell. Dartmouth played an erratic game, made some bad mistakes and in general could not compete with the speedier, more aggressive and physically better Holy Cross team- This was the first contest played under the new limited substitution rule and the Big Green used 22 men, while Holy Cross played only 18 during the game.