McLaughry Closes 14-Year Regime As Dartmouth's Head Football Coach
I ATE on the Saturday afternoon of December 4, exactly two weeks after he had walked from the muddy field of Princeton's Palmer Stadium where his Dartmouth team had been defeated in its final game of the season, DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry was informed that the Dartmouth College Athletic Council had voted to accept his "resignation" as head coach of football at Dartmouth effective with the expiration of his contract on March 30, 1955.
A carefully prepared three-paragraph statement carried the news from Hanover on Sunday. For the College community the news was a distinct shock. Few had expected it at this time, although it was fairly common knowledge that McLaughry's contract was up for renewal this year, and there had been some speculation as to what action the Council would take. Three days before the final game with Princeton, Dartmouth backfield coach Milt Piepul commented to the other assistant coaches, "Let's win this one for the Old Man. It may be his last one." But these words got no further than the coaches' office.
There seems little doubt that the subject was discussed by members of the Athletic Council privately during the fall and at both the Council meetings on October 16 and December 4. The final item on the Council agenda for the December meeting was listed simply as "Coaches Contracts," and it was the decision on this two-word item that brought to a close in all probability the coaching career of one of the most popular and revered men in football.
Nearly twenty years ago Tuss told members of the American Football Coaches Association: "There is no profession I can think of in which the individual is between so many lines of counterfire as the football coach. On the one hand, he is teaching a game which requires all the attributes of a real man to play. His scholars are boys of idealistic age ... he is expected, and should be able, to handle these boys as he would his own boy. Yet, on the other hand, he is forced ... to put on a show to please the public and to present a team that is attractive enough to draw ample gate receipts. He must keep in mind the fact that he is representing an educational institution, that the boys under his care are, theoretically at least, playing football only as an extracurricular pastime and he must never for a moment lose the large perspective."
During all of his 34 long years as head football coach Tuss McLaughry has never forgotten the "large perspective." In a profession which demands every ounce of courage, skill, patience, wisdom and understanding that a man possesses, Tuss McLaughry has never been found wanting. Many of his teams are now legends in the annals of football history. One of his Amherst squads was the highest scoring team in the history of the Little Three. His first year at Brown he produced the famed
"Eleven Iron Men" team which went undefeated in nine games and used the same eleven players to defeat Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth on successive Saturdays. He was the first college coach in the nation to pilot an Eastern All-Star team to victory over a professional team (the New York Giants in 1940). He was co-coach of the East team in four annual Shrine games and his Dartmouth teams of 1948 and 1949 were the first in the history of the College to win six major victories in a season.
But Tuss's contributions to football extend well beyond the playing field. A past president of the American Football Coaches Association, he has been secretary-treasurer of that organization since 1940. Tuss also served for ten years as New England representative on the all-important National Collegiate Athletic Association football rules committee. Tuss's work as secretary-treasurer of the coaches' association prompted New York Times columnist Arthur Daley to write: "Even the most insignificant coach at the most insignificant college can get prompt advice and help from Tuss McLaughry. So well has he organized it that the association is unlikely to let him escape though his active days may have ended. Dartmouth was lucky to have had a man of his caliber for so long."
McLaughry first came to Dartmouth in 1941, succeeding Earl H. "Red" Blaik. He has coached here ever since, except for two seasons - 1943 and 1944 - when he served with the United States Marines, with whom he still holds the permanent rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His Dartmouth teams during those twelve seasons won 44 games, lost 58 and tied three. Tuss's overall record as head coach for 34 seasons show 140 victories, 143 defeats and 12 tie games. But his record at Dartmouth must be evaluated in the light of the fact that his Dartmouth teams were the first to embark on an all-major nine-game schedule, meeting such opponents as Army, Navy, Notre Dame and Michigan as well as traditional Ivy foes and top Eastern teams such as Syracuse, Holy Cross and Colgate.
The three most recent seasons were losing ones. Dartmouth won seven games, lost twenty. But it was veteran Columbia coach Lou Little who put his finger on the trouble. "You just can't win games without those 'horses'," growled Little. "Even Knute Rockne had bad years when the personnel was weak. The profession needs men like Tuss," he concluded a bit sadly.
However, McLaughry has been around football long enough to realize the hazards of the profession. Born in Chicago and raised in Sharon, Pa., where his father was a Superior Court Justice, Tuss attended Westminster College and played fullback for three seasons. Upon graduation he became head football coach at his alma mater and also played professionally with the old Massillon Tigers. He served in World War I and then returned to Westminster for two more seasons. In 1922 McLaughry was named head coach at Amherst, a position currently held by his eldest son, John. Four years later he moved on to Brown University where he remained until his Dartmouth appointment.
In the final analysis, though, Tuss McLaughry will not and can not be judged on the teams he has coached, the won-lost record he has compiled, or even his long service to the profession. The McLaughry stamp on the character of hundreds of young men throughout the world is the only testament that Tuss wants and is his prime contribution. Few men have made such an important one.
The day his resignation was announced, Tuss addressed a group of all-star high school football players at Lebanon. Head high, voice firm, Tuss concluded his talk: "Remember, education comes first, football second. Over the years many of my players have gone into the world to become leaders in industry, business and the professions. They did this because they were willing to study long and hard, but," and here he grinned, "I like to think that football helped."
Bob Cooke, sports editor of the NewYork Herald Tribune, put it this way: "In addition to character, McLaughry gave Dartmouth football much more than it gave him. His players, through the years, knew him first as a friend and then as a coach."
Another columnist wrote: "He is everything a coach ought to be. The complete gentleman. Won't knock his players, doesn't run down his teams' chances before a game or alibi himself afterwards. If I had a son playing football, I'd want him to play for Tuss."
And men who know football and coaches apparently agree with this. Cleveland coach Paul Brown, Pitt athletic director Tom Hamilton and coach John Dell Isola all had sons playing under Tuss this past fall.
McLaughry is not yet lost to Dartmouth. He is now considering a position offered him by President Dickey and the Board of Trustees and expects to reach a decision early in 1955.
His first concern, however, is with the future of his assistants - line coach John Dell Isola, backfield coach Milt Piepul and end coach Elmer Lampe. Dell Isola and Piepul have been at Dartmouth for more than eleven years, Lampe for eight. A new head coach has the prerogative of selecting his own staff, so the chances are against the present assistants' remaining at Dartmouth. Tuss is currently doing all he can to help them find new posts.
Although the Dartmouth College Athletic Council disclosed no reasons for the coaching change, close observers feel that it was not due primarily to "alumni pressure," as claimed in some papers, nor was it a decision occasioned in any great measure by the won-lost record of the past three seasons. Those in touch with the athletic situation feel that the Council's action was motivated mainly by the desire to get a younger man as coach, a man who can perhaps take a more active role in enrollment work and bring a fresh approach to Dartmouth football.
The Council realizes that Tuss will be difficult to replace and a special committee, composed largely of alumni and assisted by Athletic Director Red Rolfe, will screen all candidates closely during the next month. With the field narrowed down to the most promising candidates, the final choice will be the responsibility of the Athletic Council, which is made up of faculty, student and alumni representatives.
The new coach, whoever he may be, will have no easy road ahead. But he will have the wholehearted support of the Athletic Council, the College and DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry. For Tuss's loyalty to Dartmouth, no matter what, is unbounded. And Dartmouth will never forget her obligations and gratitude to Tuss for the services performed and the contributions made to the life stream of the College.
THE job of picking Dartmouth's new football coach formally began December 20 with a meeting in New York of the 18-man "screening committee," composed mainly of alumni. It is expected that one other meeting will take place early in January.
Although the names of applicants for the Dartmouth coaching job were treated as confidential, it is understood that the screening committee had more than 100 names to consider. Press reports on those "most likely" to get the job have been pure guesswork.
The Athletic Council has indicated its strong desire to push ahead rapidly with the selection of a new coach, and the choice will probably be announced early in the new year.
After the screening committee has done its work, the DCAC will take over on the task of making a final choice. Director of Athletics "Red" Rolfe '31 is the Council's executive officer. Alumni members are Sumner D. Kilmarx '22, Charles L. Hardy '27 and Alton K. Marsters 'go; faculty members are Profs. Allen R. Foley '20, Richard H. Goddard '20 and Bruce W. Knight: and undergraduate members are Jere R. Daniell II '55, James R. Nelsen '55 and Gordon W. Russell '55.
COACH TUSS McLAUGHRY with Halfback Lou Turner '55 (left), who captained hislast Dartmouth team, and Quarterback Leo McKenna '56, who will lead the Big Greeneleven next season under the new head coach to be chosen by the Athletic Council.
AS THE YALE GAME ENDED, Coach TussMcLaughry of Dartmouth and Coach JordanOlivar of Yale met in the middle of the fieldto shake hands and express pleasure in another close and hard-fought game betweentheir teams. Yale won 25-7.
