With the D. O. C.

SPRINGTIME for Ross McKenney and a group of students is the time to sharpen up the saws, axes, repair the canoes and begin preening for the annual Woodsman's Weekend.

A large group participated in the fall and spring afternoon practices and from this group two six-man teams were chosen to represent Dartmouth in the seventh annual competition, May 9 and 10, at the University of Maine.

Saturday, May 9, eight teams from five schools Maine, Middlebury, McGill, Kimball Union Academy and Dartmouth (Maine, Middlebury and Dartmouth entered two teams) began competition with the fishing events. Dartmouth took first in fly-casting for distance, with the longest cast of 87 feet; first in bait casting for accuracy; third in bait casting for distance, despite one cast of 180 feet; and sixth in fly-casting for accuracy. After the morning events the Dartmouth A team trailed Middlebury by 20 points.

Photographers from Life, Time and many newspapers were present as the afternoon chopping and sawing events commenced. Maine displayed excellent sawmanship with their expertly sharpened saws and garnered firsts in all the events to capture the lead. To give an indication of their fast times; the two-man, cross-cut sawing race requiring three pairs of men each cutting a 10"-12" log in a relay, passing the saw between cuts, required only 26 seconds. But Dartmouth began a slow comeback in the remaining afternoon events of chopping, splitting, pulp-throwing and log-rolling, taking three firsts and a second to Maine in the log-rolling.

As the last event of the day, the packboard race, approached, all attention was on Dartmouth and Maine. At the sound of a gun one member of each team started tying a 60-pound bag of sand onto a packboard with a piece of rope and blanket. Put Blodgett '53, "A" team captain, had the pack tied on his back and was 25 yards down the field before Maine had their pack tied. Each of the six men ran 100 yards with the pack and Dartmouth finished 100 yards ahead of the nearest competitor. Maine's lead was whittled down to 12 points at the end of Saturday's competition.

Having competed in 12 events calling upon almost every muscle in the body, the teams were physically tired but in the evening gathered for songs around a fire where the teams were camped.

Sunday dawned a beautiful spring day, clear and warm for the final three canoeing events held on a typical small Maine lake five miles from campus.

Skill and determination resulted in Dartmouth's winning the single canoeing events by a wide margin to forge into first place by eight points. A bad break resulted in a third place in the two-man canoe race. The final event would decide the meet. To trip, drop a paddle, or capsize in the portage race which requires a man to put on a pack, pick up a canoe, run 25 yards, put the canoe in the water, take off the pack, and canoe 100 yards might mean defeat. But Dartmouth had only one small mishap and won the event. When Dartmouth was declared the combined winner and the trophy presented, the team captain was thrown in the lake and soon everyone including spectators found themselves swimming, a grand finale for a wonderful weekend. Final results, Dartmouth won 8 out of 15 events and beat Maine by 37 points.

Few people realize the keen competition, skill and teamwork involved in these events. All these things, plus practice and good physical condition, are required more so than for many other sports.

Ross McKenney is the man responsible for developing the latent abilities of the team, building team spirit and maintaining the good clean spirit of competition. He imparts to the team a tremendous feeling of self-confidence not only for these competitive events but towards living in general. The winning of Woodsman's Weekend is not in itself the important thing; these larger values, acquired under Ross McKenney, are what count.

TEAM CAPTAINS holding Woodsman's Weekend practice with Ross McKenney of the D.O.C. are Put Blodgett '53 (left), who led the "A " team to victory, and Howard Green '56 (center), whose "B" team was one of the top contenders at Maine.