INTRODUCING – Dartmouth's New Football Coach

DARTMOUTH'S new head football coach, 36-year old Robert L. (Bob) Blackman, is a husky, round-faced man with a serious, businesslike air that is belied only by his twinkling blue eyes and slow, soft speech. On January 26 Blackman became the sixteenth head coach in Dartmouth football history and his first Dartmouth team next fall will be the College's Diamond Jubilee (75th) eleven.

Meeting Coach Blackman for the first time, one gets the immediate impression that here is a man who knows where he is going, what he hopes to do and how he intends to accomplish it. But there is also a very friendly air about him that makes one want to know him better. You feel at home with Blackman but can sense underneath the hard core of a realist who can hold his own in a difficult profession.

The Dartmouth job presents a new and very real challenge to Blackman, but meeting challenges is not new to him. A native of DeSota, lowa, he grew up in Long Beach, California, and attended Long Beach Polytechnic High, where he played football, basketball and ran on the track team. He entered the University of Southern California in 1937 and made an outstanding record as halfback and cocaptain of the Trojan freshman football team.

Blackman's first challenge came in the middle of his freshman year when he was stricken with polio. Forced to leave college, he took a year to recuperate and returned to U.S.C. in 1939, but was unable to play football. However, he offered his services to the Trojan football staff and for three years helped out the freshman football coaching staff. He was elected student president of the School of Physical Education and in 1941 was graduated cum laude.

After one season as a high school coach, Blackman's next challenge and real opportunity came when he entered the Navy and was assigned as head football coach to the San Diego Naval Training Station. There, in 1942, he took over a team of college and professional players and developed the V-style of attack that has since become the Blackman trademark. The V-system of attack combines the deception of the T with the power of the single wing, and can be used with any number of variations, depending on available personnel. His San Diego team that year won all but one game, meeting the top service and college teams in the West.

For the next two years, Blackman coached football, basketball and baseball at the Moffat Naval Air Station and turned out the third-ranked basketball team in the nation as well as the 12th Naval District championship baseball club.

After leaving the service, Blackman picked up in rapid order three very essential items: a Master's degree from Southern California, a wife (the former Kay Wilson of Los Angeles) and a job as football coach at Monrovia High School. His three years at Monrovia brought the high school team into prominence with a first place in the conference standings and sellout crowds. It also brought Blackman a post as head coach at Pasadena City College, a position he held for four years, from 1949 to 1953. Pasadena's football fortunes, like those at Monrovia, had been at low ebb, but Blackman's touch and the V-system brought them 34 victories, three ties and only six defeats in four seasons.

With his reputation and prestige on the rise, it was natural that Denver University, whose teams had been cellar dwellers in the Skyline Conference for years, should seek his services and in 1953 he accepted the challenge at Denver. During his first season the Denver Pioneers won three games, tied two and lost five. Last year, Denver won nine and lost only one, a 23-21 game with Wyoming. Denver also captured the Skyline Conference title for the first time since 1917 and the team ranked among the first ten in the nation last year in both total offense and total defense. His six-year college record shows 46 wins, 5 ties and 12 defeats.

Blackman first came to Dartmouth's attention last December when Denver alumni wrote Red Rolfe enthusiastic letters about the youthful mentor. Contacted by Rolfe, Blackman agreed to talk with him in New York during the American Football Coaches Association meetings in early January.

"I was immediately impressed with Bob," Rolfe recalls. "He seemed to have the experience, enthusiasm, vigor and all the qualities that we were seeking in our new coach."

After he had an opportunity to review Blackman's qualifications in more detail and consult with the 17-member advisory committee, Rolfe invited him to visit Hanover. The Denver coach came to Dartmouth on the weekend of January 22-23 and, after meeting with various College officials and members of the Athletic Council, was formally offered the head coaching post.

Here was still another opportunity and certainly an even greater challenge for the young coach, but Blackman hesitated, "I thought I should talk the matter over with my Denver assistants whom I would want to bring with me to Dartmouth," Blackman later said. "It was a difficult decision for all of us. Denver had treated us well and we were settled there, but we all agreed that the Dartmouth jobs were just too good to pass up. We only hope," he added firmly, "that we can do a good job for Dartmouth."

So, Bob Blackman started a new chapter in his career and on February 13 arrived in Hanover with his wife and son Gary, 8, and daughter Julie, 5.

The new Dartmouth coach is a firm believer in Ivy League football standards, "I have followed Dartmouth teams for many years," says Blackman, "and, of course I know some of the other Ivy coaches, particularly Jordan Olivar at Yale."

Understandably the new coach is reluctant to be too specific about plans for the future. "I want to meet with the team, go over the films and talk with some of the other coaches before making plans," Blackman admits. He expects to continue to use the V-system of attack at Dartmouth, but probably with some modifications. Blackman also hopes that he and his assistants will be successful in making Dartmouth a place where good players, scholastically qualified, will want to come. "I see no reason," he says, "why we can't get as good athletes at Dartmouth as the other Ivy colleges and I certainly feel that the Dartmouth football team should be able to compete both on and off the field with its Ivy rivals."

Dartmouth's director of athletics, Red Rolfe, who directed the search for the new coach, is happy about the choice. "We screened over sixty coaches for the job," says Rolfe, "and Blackman was our number one choice. We were impressed by his personality, his ambition and his attitude toward football. I am convinced that he will he a distinct asset to the Ivy League and that his teams will always reflect credit on Dartmouth College."

Blackman's assistants at Dartmouth are, like him, all young men on the way upWilbur Volz, a chunky 190-pounder, is the new backfield coach. Volz played four years of football under Coach Don Faurot at the University of Missouri and later played professionally with the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers. He served in the Air Force during the war, was shot down over France and hidden by the underground for six months. He returned to college after the war, then coached at Clovis (New Mexico) High School before going with Blackman at Denver for the 1954 season. Volz is married and has two children.

Line coach Jack Musick has been with Blackman the longest. He also attended the University of Southern California where he won an All-Coast guard berth for two years and played in two Rose Bowl classics for the Trojans. He saw service with the Army in New Guinea, then returned to coach with Blackman for two years at Monrovia High, two years at Pasadena and two at Denver. He also coached at Hart High in California. Musick is married and has three girls in his family. He comes from a football family with five brothers—all of whom played college football.

Freshman football coach Earl Hamilton is a graduate of Wichita University where he played three seasons of varsity football under Coach Jim Trimble, now with the Philadelphia Eagles. A native of Chicago, Hamilton returned to Wichita after the war as freshman coach. He served with the Army in France and was captured by the Germans and spent some months in a prison camp. He went to Denver from Wichita two years ago. He is married and has a son and daughter.

Blackman is currently seeking the services of an end coach. He is talking with a number of candidates and expects to reach a decision within the month.

Blackman assumed his Dartmouth duties almost as soon as the appointment was announced. He flew to Chicago on the weekend of January 28-29 to speak before the Dartmouth Alumni Association there and meet with some prospective students. On February 16 he spoke at the annual dinner of the Boston Alumni Association and met with the Boston press on the same day.

His assistants also reached Hanover in mid-February and after they had all settled in, work on Dartmouth's new football program began in earnest.

Dartmouth's Diamond Jubilee football year coming up has turned out to have more significance than was at first anticipated. With the Big Green's 75th season will start another coaching regime in the long and exciting history of football at Dartmouth. The youthful coach who now takes over has a lot to offer in skill and enthusiasm and personal qualities and is a worthy successor to Tuss McLaughry and the fourteen other head coaches who have been at the Big Green helm since that first game in the fall of 1881.

Head Coach Robert L. (Bob) Blackmail

Wilbur Volz, new backfield coach

Jack Musick, new line coach

Earl Hamilton, new freshman coach