Football
The first thing everyone wants to know is how we are going to do. With apologies to Messrs. McLaughry, Piepul, Dell Isola and Lampe, here's how I figure it:
Dartmouth will win—Holy Cross, Colgate and Columbia.
Dartmouth will lose—Navy, Army and Cornell.
Depends on how the ball bounces—Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
In other words we have three wins, three losses and three tossups. By the law of averages we should win at least one and possibly two of the close games, which would give us a record of either four or five wins in the nine-game slate. Five wins would make this the best team since 1949 (6 wins, 3 losses), while four victories would equal the 1951 record of four wins, five losses.
From the 1953 team Dartmouth has lost 14 lettermen:
Ends - McLaughlin, Thielscher.
Tackles - Caswell, Pierson.
Guards - Gaylord, Godfrey.
Centers - Johnson, Mackey.
Backs - Anderson, Clark, Daley, Jennison, Malcolm, Reilly.
Back for the 1954 team are 13 lettermen: Ends - Flagg.
Tackles - Krosnowski, Samuelson.
Guards - Bagdasarian, Stan and Stu Klapper.
Center - Simms.
Backs - Beagle, Fulton, Krol, McKenna, Nicolette, Turner.
Most of the pre-season dopesters pick Dartmouth to win from three to five games. In Ivy League competition, the same experts rank Dartmouth anywhere from third to seventh place and almost unanimously pick Cornell and Yale as the leaders. I'll go along with the Cornell pick but not Yale. Either Dartmouth or Harvard could go into that number two spot.
THE OPTIMISTIC APPROACH - Like almost everything else in this world, the Dartmouth 1954 football picture has its bright side and its dark side. The optimists reason as follows: Dartmouth's going to be terrific this year. We've got another very strong end squad with veterans like Tim Anderson, Dick Flagg, Don Gray, Don Marriott and Bud Roth. And look at the sophomore ends like Monte Pascoe, one of the brightest soph prospects in the East, and Bob Charman, Bob Sterling plus reserves like Roy Brown and Rod Jennings, who played on the 1950 team.
Got some pretty good tackles too. Jerry Samuelson and George Krosnowski both played a lot last year, Tom Bechler and Bob Mongeon are good reserves, and this sophomore Wayne Kakela looks like a starter already, while George Bixby is another promising soph. We're even better off at guard with three letter-winners - Bob Bagdasarian and the Klapper twins. Understand Pete Conroy, a junior, is looking very good and there's Tex Levy, who won his letter at guard as a sophomore. Admittedly, center is not too well off with only Fritz Simms having experience, but sophomores like Bob Adelizzi and Bud Landgraff should help, and Art Johnson has been shifted to center from the end squad and looks fairly good.
As for the backfield, well, if this team doesn't run further and pass more than any team in recent years, we'll refund the price of admission. We've got five quarterbacks. Bill Beagle tossed ten touchdown passes last season and completed 39 out of 77 passes for 660 yards. Leo McKenna, who alternated with him, connected 41 out of 79 times for 649 yards and four TD's. And they were only sophomores last year and took half the season to get started. But they may have a real battle on their hands from Tom Hamilton Jr., son of the Pitt athletic director. He's been looking awfully good at the practice sessions and played for Navy as a sophomore before transferring to Dartmouth.
Then at halfback we've got Captain Lou Turner, without doubt one of the best halfbacks in the East and Dartmouth's top ground-gainer in 1953 (400 yards on 83 carries, 9 pass receptions for 160 yards - five touchdowns). There's Frank Krol, who was out last year with injuries, but who is rated as a fine halfback. Bernie Fulton is light but won his letter last year and should help. Dick Barnett, Doug Melville and Forrest Fraser have all had some experience at the halfback posts. Lou Rovero and Bob Rex look like the best sophomore bets and they've both got a lot of speed. Ed Nelson is another top soph prospect and we note that end Bob Charman has been moved to halfback because of his speed. These boys will be hard to stop once they get the ball.
Sure, there's a problem at fullback. You don't lose fellows like Jennison, Clark, Primo and Malcolm without being hurt. But Jack Nicolette has moved over from halfback and he runs like a streamlined express train. And sophomore Tommy Trainor, they don't come much tougher or gamer. Dick Smith, another sophomore, also looks good. We'll have enough fullbacks, don't worry.
So with a team like this, who's crying the blues? The schedule is rough, but if we can get by the first three games - Holy Cross, Navy and Army - without getting too dismembered or disheartened, we should do very well in the Ivy League competition. Now bring on that Holy Cross team!
THE PESSIMISTIC APPROACH - These darn optimists! All they're trying to do is to promote ticket sales and pacify the alumni. Dartmouth will do well to keep up with last year (2 wins, 7 losses). Why expect more? We meet exactly the same opponents we did last year and not a one of them will be that much weaker. One of our wins last fall was a 32-0 victory over Yale. Now Yale is favored to top the Ivy League and we're not going to repeat at New Haven this fall.
So we lost only 14 lettermen! But look who they were - Dave McLaughlin and Dave Thielscher, the finest pair of ends in the East; Big Emery Pierson, who won the tackle berth on the All-Ivy team and who was the player who held the Indian line together last fall; Clint Gaylord and Jack Godfrey, a fine pair of guards. And who, pray tell me, can play center and back up the line like Paul Mackey or Bayard Johnson? Wally Anderson and Bill Daley were both fine halfbacks and without a fullback like Dick Jennison to hit the line, half the Dartmouth offense will be gone.
Up front, we've got a good end squad, but we have only a few good men at tackle and guard and at center - ouch! - only one regular. Take this weakness at center and tie it in with the weak fullback spot and you don't have any linebackers. Sure Dartmouth will score with Beagle, McKenna and Hamilton pitching to those ends, but if you can't hold the opposition - and linebackers are the key to any defense - you don't get much chance to play with the ball.
Turner, Krol, Fulton and some of the sophomores look good at halfback, but most of them are fairly small. If they don't get that blocking ahead of them, they won't be going far. Same thing for the fullbacks, only they have to double as linebackers and from what's happened so far, not a one of them looks too sharp on defense.
Another important fact. So far we've considered the squad with all the players physically fit. We've been lucky in scrimmages to date with no serious injuries. What happens if we lose one or two key men before the opening game and then get a few more crippled in these rough early games with Holy Cross, Navy and Army? That's what happened last year, remember. Before we even got started against the Ivy teams we had a dozen men, nearly three-quarters of them first- or second-team members, out with injuries. If the same thing happens this year, Dartmouth could lose to all five Ivy opponents very easily.
Have we sent in our ticket applications yet? Sure, but don't try to sell us any Big Green pennants or buttons in the stands. We're not buying this fall. Anyone for golf?
THE COACHES APPROACH-Coach DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry (now starting his 12th season at Dartmouth) and his assistants Milt Piepul, John Dell Isola and Elmer Lampe are neither over-optimistic or over-pessimistic. All of them admit that, barring major mishaps and completely wrong bounces, Dartmouth should do better this fall than last year. Just how much better, they say, depends largely on how fast some of the more promising sophomores can develop and on their success in finding some adequate linebackers and fullbacks. They rate the 1954 team as a better offensive unit than that of last fall, but somewhat weaker defensively. In other words, Dartmouth should score more through the air and on the ground, but so will the opposition, and hence it's a question of who is firstest with the mostest.
All in all it looks like a mighty interesting season. Only trouble is that by the time this analysis reaches most alumni, Dartmouth will have already played both Holy Cross and Navy. By that time we may have been forced to eat most of the predictions herein.
ON THE JOB: Red Rolfe '31, who took over as Director of Athletics on July 1, was adaily observer of pre-season football practice and is probably telling Coach Tuss McLaughry that it looks harder than baseball.
FAMILY FOOTBALL TRADITION is behind these three Big Green quarterback candidates. Left to right, Mike Brown, sophomore son of Paul Brown, coach of the Cleveland Browns; John Dell Isola, a senior, son of Dartmouth's line coach, who was All-American at Fordham and a New York Giants star; and Tom Hamilton Jr., also a senior,son of the former Navy Ail-American who is now athletic director at Pittsburgh.
