Football

After dropping the first four games of the 1955 season Dartmouth's 75th Year eleven proceeded to sharpen up and win three of the next four contests - all Ivy League encounters. A revitalized team defeated Harvard 14-9, lost to Yale 20-0, edged Columbia 14-7, and upset Cornell 7-0.

There are several reasons for this improved showing. Chief among these is the emergence, starting with the Harvard game, of a reasonably strong running attack. In the first four games Coach Blackman felt that his team had not developed a strong enough rushing offense to warrant its use. This, coupled with the fact that in Bill Beagle and ends Monte Pascoe and Ron Fraser Dartmouth had one of the finest passing combinations in the East, led Coach Blackman to reply on aerial tactics against Holy Cross, Colgate and Lafayette.

"The players deserve the credit for the development of our rushing offense," says Coach Blackman. "Halfbacks like Lou Rovero and Jack Nicolette - even quarterback Billy Beagle - have learned to follow their interference better, to pick their holes more accurately and to fight for that extra yardage. Along with this has come the development of the line, with faster and better blocking by men like center Bob Adelizzi, guards Joe Palermo and the Klapper twins, and tackle Al Gazzaniga. In fact, all the boys have come along well and I'm mighty proud of the way the entire team has been playing in these recent games."

Win or lose at Princeton, the consensus is that the 1955 Dartmouth football team has come through its season in splendid fashion, and this development coupled with an undefeated freshman team gives Dartmouth higher hopes for 1956 when the Indians move into their first formal Ivy League schedule.

But let's move on to some of the game details, taking up the contests in reverse order from Cornell through Harvard.

Dartmouth 7, Cornell o

Some 12,000 spectators including hundreds of Fall Houseparty "dates" jammed into Memorial Stadium on November 12 for the final home game of the season.The Big Green, which had lost Cornell games for the past five seasons, was once again the underdog, but when the game had ended Dartmouth had won 7-0, marking the first time since mid-1953 that Cornell had been held scoreless.

Despite the low score it was a whale of a game all the way. The Indians missed two other scoring opportunities and Cornell at least one, and there were thrills aplenty. Perhaps most important, the game marked the real emergence of Dartmouth as a team that could move the ball on the ground against a good defensive team and then hold its own defensively against a backfield rated with the best in the Ivy League.

At the very start Bob Blackman's Dartmouth team showed it was going to be tough to beat. Cornell elected to receive, but the Big Green gambled with an onside kick-off which end Monte Pascoe

grabbed on the Cornell 38-yard line and the Indians were off and running. Halfbacks Lou Rovero and Jack Nicolette carried for two first downs and quarterback Bill Beagle passed to end Ron Fraser for a third, bringing the ball to the Cornell five-yard line. Here Rovero fumbled and Cornell recovered.

Then the Big Red showed their only real offensive power of the game. With halfbacks Dick Jackson and Bob McAniff carrying and quarterback Bill DeGraaf passing and rushing, Cornell ground downfield to the Dartmouth 43-yard stripe. Then DeGraaf fired a long pass to end Gerry Knapp who made a spectacular catch at the 15-yard line and headed goalward. At this point halfback Lou Rovero put on a burst of speed to overhaul Knapp and bring him down with a shoestring tackle on the Dartmouth 5-yard line. On the next play DeGraaf tossed a pass into the end zone but Bill Beagle grabbed it for a touchback and the Indians took over on the ao-yard line.

The rest of the first half was a battle for possession, with the Indians staying largely on the ground and Cornell failing to gain much either on the ground or through the air. Dartmouth threatened late in the second period when Rovero and Nicolette combined to carry the ball to the Cornell 1-yard line, but the Big Red line tightened defensively and Cornell took over on downs.

Early in the second half Beagle, Rovero and Nicolette teamed up for the first and only score of the game. Rovero started the march by taking a handoff from Bill Beagle on the Green 34-yard line and racing 26 yards around end. On the next play the stocky junior from Putnam, Conn., stormed to the Cornell 28-yard stripe for another first down. Then Nicolette added five yards. Cornell tightened, expecting further ground advances, but Bill Beagle, faking beautifully, faded back and while Cornell men were tackling Dartmouth backs with abandon, hid the ball until he spotted Rovero at the far corner of the field. His bullet-like pass settled into Lou's arms and the Indians had the ball on the Cornell one-yard line. Then Rovero carried it over for the first touchdown of his college career. Beagle's conversion made it 7-0.

For the balance of the game a hard-hitting Dartmouth line and a fast-shifting defensive backfield held the vaunted Cornell attack to a near standstill and had no trouble protecting the lead and winning 7-0.

The game was a personal triumph for Lou Rovero who gained 128 of Dartmouth's 263 rushing yards and whose de- fensive play was equally brilliant. But Beagle's play calling and passing, Nicolette's rushing, and the blocking of fullback Bob Rex were also key factors. And the line play was magnificent. Tom Bechler, making his first starting assignment at left tackle, and center Bob Adelizzi both performed in topnotch fashion, as did guard Joe Palermo. Pascoe, Fraser and Bud Roth all did yeoman service at the end posts. In other words it was a team victory from start to finish - the kind of a game and victory Bob Blackman and his staff have been working for since those early days in September when 75 new faces showed up at Chase Field.

It was a fitting game to mark the final home appearance of ten Dartmouth players: Captain Leo McKenna who has missed the season with a broken wrist; quarterback Bill Beagle, who for three years has been one of the nation's top passers; little Jack Nicolette, one of the hardest driving halfbacks on the team; tackle stalwarts Tom Bechler and George Krosnowski; Dartmouth's veteran twin guards, Stu and Stan Klapper; and three ends - Bud Roth, Don Gray and Don Marriott.

Dartmouth 14, Columbia 7

The Big Green wallowed to its second Ivy League triumph of the season as it defeated Columbia 14-7 on rain-soaked Baker Field at New York before a crowd of 10,000. A steady drizzle added to an earlier rain left the gridiron a veritable quagmire, but the sun broke through during the second half and the Indian ground attack clicked for 232 yards and two touchdowns.

It looked as though Dartmouth would score in the first period. Taking the opening kick-off, the Indians kept possession of the ball for almost nine minutes as they ground slowly downfield with halfbacks Lou Rovero and Jack Nicolette doing the ball carrying. However, Columbia finally took over on the 19-yard line.

In the second period the Lions moved to the Green 11-yard line and then, when pass interference was called against Dartmouth, moved to the 3-yard line and a first down. The Big Green line held valiantly for three downs, but on the fourth down Columbia quarterback Claude Benham tossed to Alex Giampietro for the score and Roy Altman converted to send Columbia into a 7-0 halftime lead.

Early in the third period the Indians got rolling again and marched to the Columbia 16-yard line. Here a personal foul called against the Lions put the ball on the Columbia one-yard line and Jack Nicolette plunged over for the tally. Beagle's conversion made it a 7-7 game.

Following the kickoff, Columbia could not gain and was forced to punt. Rovero caught the ball and raced it back 42 yards, but the Indians stalled on the Columbia 16-yard line and the Lions gained possession. At this point Claude Benham attempted a first-down pass but guard Joe Palermo reached up to trap the ball and the Indians took over on the Columbia 30-yard line. Rovero, who stood out on both offense and defense, swept around right end to the Columbia two-yard line and one play later Bill Beagle knifed over for the winning score and added the extra point.

Later in the period Columbia threat- ened when Benham stole the ball from the hands of halfback Tommy Trainor on the Dartmouth 32-yard line and the Lions drove to the Dartmouth six. A backfield- in-motion penalty and the Big Green's stal- wart defense slowed the threat which ended when Penny Vann's field goal at- tempt was wide.

Yale 20, Dartmouth 0

Dartmouth's second shutout this season came on the final Saturday of October as a crowd of 32,000 watched Yale come back after a scoreless first half to whip the Indians 20-0 at the Yale Bowl.

Late in the third period, after a Dartmouth attack had fizzled on the Yale 22, the Elis ran a play from the "belly series" with quarterback Dean Loucks faking to his diving halfback Al Ward, then handing off to halfback Dennis "The Menace" McGill who cut around left end and aided by perfect blocking and a burst of speed raced 69 yards for the first Yale tally.

A few minutes later, with Beagle passing desperately, the Indians drove downfield as Bill completed four successive passes for 58 yards and then sneaked four yards for a first down on the Yale four. Then a Beagle pass was intercepted and the Elis went 91 yards on 18 plays with Al Ward carrying over from the two-yard line for Yale's second score.

Five minutes later, with the Yale reserves in action, the Elis covered 49 yards on six plays, with the third and final TD coming on a seven-yard pass from quarterback Winterbaum to end Nolan Baird.

The Indians were kept completely bottled up within their own 50-yard section throughout the entire first half. However, early in the third stanza a Dartmouth punt was scooped up by McGill on the Yale 34-yard line. Here the Klapper twins teamed up beautifully with Stan hitting McGill hard enough to make him fumble and Stu falling on the ball. Three plays later Dartmouth had a first down on the Elis' 22-yard stripe, but a pass from Beagle intended for Ron Fraser was intercepted by Ward and the Big Green's first threat of the afternoon was halted as were all the others.

There was little doubt that Yale, 1955 Ivy League favorites, deserved the game. The Elis gained 291 yards on the ground to 90 for Dartmouth and passed for 139 yards to Dartmouth's 109. Yale also had 20 first downs to only 10 for the Big Green.

Dartmouth 14, Harvard 9

A near-capacity crowd of 14,000 turned out on a gusty October afternoon to welcome the Harvard football team and the crack Harvard Band to Memorial Stadium for Dartmouth's Diamond Jubilee game. They stayed on along with thousands of CBS-TV viewers in the East to watch an injury-riddled Dartmouth team rise up after four successive defeats and topple Harvard 14-9 in a typical Ivy League thriller.

During most of the first period Dartmouth kept the Crimson deep in its own territory, but the Indians could not move the ball themselves. Near the end of the period Harvard ran and passed from its own 12-yard line to the Green 15. The Crimson quarterback Leo Daley's rushing along with a 28-yard pass from tailback John Botsford to halfback Simourian sparked the drive. However, an offside penalty and a tight Indian pass defense halted the Crimson on the 20-yard line.

The Indians took over as the second period began and seven plays later they scored. Line plays,, featuring the running of halfback Lou Rovero, brought the ball to midfield. Then Rovero whizzed around end to the Crimson 34. On the next play Bill Beagle faked to both halfbacks, bootlegged the ball beautifully and lobbed a long pass to end Monte Pascoe who took two strides into the end zone for the TD. Beagle converted to put the Indians ahead 7-0.

Harvard collected two points on a safety near the end of the first half. The Crimson had the ball on the Big Green 37-yard line when Botsford heaved a long pass downfield which Dartmouth halfback Jack Nicolette intercepted at about the two-yard line. Nicolette's backward momentum, however, carried him into the end zone where he was tackled before he could lug the ball out and the halftime score was Dartmouth 7, Harvard 2.

Tighter defensive play and Dartmouth fumbles gave the Crimson the edge in the third period. A 55-yard quick kick which put the ball out on the Dartmouth one-yard line kept the Indians, bottled up and the Crimson took over on the Big Green 40 and moved the ball to the 8. A pass from Tony Gianelli to end Don Morrison was good for a TD, which was called back, however, for an offside penalty. On the next play Botsford raced around left end for' a stand-up touchdown and Crosby's conversion sent the Crimson ahead 9-7.

Late in the third period the Indians began another scoring march from midfield. Beagle hit Lou Rovero and Ron Fraser with two passes to bring the ball to the Crimson 27-yard line as the period ended. As the final period got underway Harvard was penalized 15 yards for holding and Dartmouth had the ball on the Crimson 18. A pass from Beagle to Fraser accounted for five yards, and then Beagle smashed through the Harvard line twice, scoring on the second attempt and adding the extra point on a perfect conversion.

During the rest of the game neither team was able to gain: The Indians stuck to the ground in an attempt to control the ball while the Crimson running and passing attack was halted by the hard-hitting Indian line and the tight Dartmouth defensive backfield.

1956 Football Schedule

In the first year of formal Ivy League play, Dartmouth next fall will meet all seven of the other league teams and will play its other two games against New Hampshire and Holy Cross. The schedule:

Sept. 29 New Hampshire at Hanover

Oct. 6 Pennsylvania at Philadelphia 13 Brown at Providence 20 Holy Cross at Hanover 27 Harvard at Cambridge

Nov. 3 Yale at New Haven 10 Columbia at Hanover 17 Cornell at Ithaca 24 Princeton at Princeton

To stop Yale's scoring bid Fullback Bob Rex leaps high to intercept a pass on his goal line in the Yale Bowl. Lou Rovero (24) guarded the right flank.

Monte Pascoe scoring Dartmouth's first touchdown against Harvard after taking a 30-yard pass from quarterback Bill Beagle, who faked the play perfectly.

A portrait of Tom Dent, Dartmouth soccer and lacrosse coach for the past 30 years, has been presented to the College by his former players. Painted by Paul Sample '20, it will hang in Davis Field House.