with Big Green Teams
THE Dartmouth sports scene this past month may best be summed up by a story coming out of Parkhurst Hall. For some months Frank Smallwood '51, executive assistant to President Dickey, has been carrying on a friendly, running correspondence with two classmates regarding what they consider undue emphasis at Dartmouth on the academic at the expense of the athletic. In early March, Frank penned this one-sentence letter: "Gentlemen, As you can see, our academic program is improving by leaps and bounds!" He enclosed a copy of TheDartmouth of Monday, March 3, with a double banner headline: "BIG GREEN SKIERS TAKE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS; BASKETBALL SQUAD CLINCHES IVY LEAGUE CROWN."
Almost the entire issue of The Dartmouth was given over to an account of the Dartmouth ski team's winning the National Championships over Denver, the basketball victory over Pennsylvania which clinched the Ivy League title and a bid to the NCAA Basketball Championships, and reports on the swimming team's victories over Cornell and Syracuse, a freshman swimming victory over Colgate, and a squash win over Wesleyan.
The educational advances at Dartmouth, sparked by the new curriculum, and the physical improvements now in the works or planned are being matched by a steady improvement in the play of all Dartmouth teams. The winter of 1957-58 can now be recorded as one of the best in Dartmouth athletic history.
At this writing, the Dartmouth winter teams have suspended activity except for the basketball team which is engaged at the NCAA Championships. The spring teams are into their practice sessions at the Alumni Gymnasium cage and are getting set for their annual trips southward during late March and early April.
The Big Green winter teams, for the most part, wound up their schedules early last month. However, a dual track meet with Yale, the EISL swimming championships at Annapolis, and the NCAA basketball tourney kept three Dartmouth teams going through the middle of March. Best record of the winter season was posted by the high-flying Indian basketball team which compiled an overall record of twenty wins against four defeats and an 11-3 mark in Ivy League play. Dartmouth's hockey team, improving each year, won thirteen, lost nine and tied one, with two wins, five losses and one tie in league play for fourth place. The Big Green swimmers came through with another excellent season, winning nine dual meets, while losing only three; the track team posted only one dual meet win in six contests; the squash team won five and lost six, and the Big Green wrestlers had four wins against five defeats. Dartmouth's skiers brought further honor to the College by winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in a four-event meet at Hanover to climax a winter season that saw only one carnival meet loss. Varsity results for all winter teams totaled 56 victories, 32 defeats and one tie.
On the freshman level, the basketball team had nine wins and three losses, hockey had an 11-5-1 record, track was undefeated in five meets, the squash team lost all four matches, and the freshman swimmers were undefeated in six dual meets. Dartmouth's freshman ski team showed its strength by winning all its meets to bring the freshman team totals for the winter season to 34 wins, 12 losses and one tie. Combined totals for all Dartmouth winter teams came to 80 wins, 44 defeats and two ties, certainly an encouraging showing.
Now for details on the past month's action:
Wide World Photo Dave Farnsworth (4) gets possession from Connecticut's Pipczynski (44) in Madison SquareGarden in the Big Green's first NCAA victory, 75-64. Also seen are Rudy LaRusso (35) andChuck Kaufman (21) who divided scoring honors that night with 24 points each.
