Football

Heading into the Princeton game the Big Green football team has a 5-3 record and a good chance to make it 6-3 for the season. A win will ensure Dartmouth of at least a tie for second place in the Ivy League. This is a far cry from the cellar fate which most sports writers predicted for the Indians this fall, and in a very real sense is a major triumph for Coach Blackman, his staff and, above all, the Dartmouth players.

The Big Green had reason to be discouraged. Decimated by many early season injuries, it eked out victories in the first three games, was edged by Holy Cross 9-8 in a heart-breaker, lost by a 9-6 score to Harvard, and then was stomped by Yale 29-0. Here the Indians might well have fallen apart, but instead they fought back to stop Columbia 22-6 and Cornell 20-0.

The comeback is even more impressive when, one considers some of the game statistics. In the Harvard game the Indians gained only 75 yards on the ground, and against Yale this figure sank to a mere 60 yards. In both contests the Big Green had four fumbles. The fumbles against Harvard stalled the Green attack almost completely in the first half. The first two fumbles in the Yale game were both promptly converted by the Elis into touchdowns.

Against Columbia, on the other hand, the Big Green marched 221 yards on the ground and fumbled only twice, and at Cornell it gained 121 yards rushing and had only one fumble.

Admittedly Dartmouth was outclassed this fall by both Harvard and Yale. A dogged Dartmouth defense managed to hold the Crimson attack down, but Harvard mounted a sustained 70-yard drive midway in the opening period and finally settled for a 27-yard field goal by Dave Ward when the Indian defenses tightened. Dartmouth grabbed a 6-3 lead minutes before the half ended when Dick Marrone intercepted a Crimson pass on the Dartmouth 47-yard stripe. Quarterback Jack Kinderdine took to the air, hitting Al Rozycki with a long pass and then end Carl Funke on the twoyard line. Two plays later Kinderdine sneaked around end to score just seconds before the halftime gun sounded. This was the only time during the game that Dartmouth got near the Crimson goal.

Yale's great quarterback, Tom Singleton, was even more of a thorn in the flesh of the Indians than was Harvard's Maclntyre. The Bulldogs, with an undefeated season and an Ivy League title within grasp, wasted little time. When Kinderdine fumbled early in the game on the Dartmouth 23-yard line, the alert Elis recovered and Singleton flipped a scoring pass to halfback Ken Wolfe. A few moments later the Indians bobbled the kickoff and Yale recovered again — this time on the Green 29. Singleton tried the ground route and six plays later sent fullback Bob Blanchard plunging over for the second score. After this the Elis were content to bottle up almost completely the Big Green running and passing efforts, although they added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter with the Indians thwarted and tired. There was little doubt after this game that Yale had the best team in the Ivy League.

Neither Columbia nor Cornell was of the Yale-Harvard caliber. However, the Lions had upset Cornell 44-6 the week before meeting Dartmouth and Indian fans were frankly worried over Dartmouth's chances of getting back after three straight losses. The first half was close enough to cause concern. Columbia's passing ace, quarterback Tom Vasell, was held in check by the rushing Big Green line and the fine defensive work of the Dartmouth backfield, but the Indians were unable to get much beyond the midfield stripe until near the end of the first quarter. Then a bad Columbia punt gave Dartmouth the ball on the Columbia 19-yard mark and on the first play quarterback Bill King tossed a pass to end Mike Nyquist for a Dartmouth TD. Midway in the second quarter, the Big Green really began to click as quarterback Jack Kinderdine (who completed 12 of 20 passes for 150 yards during the game) engineered a 74-yard scoring march. Halfback Al Rozycki collected 51 yards personally in this drive, the last a dazzling 34-yard scoring romp for his longest run of the season. Left halfback Dave Evans, who started the season at fullback, collected the third Dartmouth score midway in the third period when he bulled through the Columbia line and went 16 yards to tally.

Cornell, with all of its starting backfield down with injuries, was just no match for the Big Green. The Indians jumped away to an early first-period lead when Jack Kinderdine passed from the Cornell 37-yard line to end Carl Funke who went to the Cornell 12-yard line. Then, after picking up a few yards on the ground, Kinderdine passed again, this time hitting fullback Dick Marrone in the end zone for a score. In the second period, when Dick Beattie recovered a Big Red fumble, Kinderdine took to the air again. A 29-yard pass to Al Rozycki, followed by a scoring pass to end Dave Usher, put the Indians ahead 12-0. In the third quarter Kinderdine again piloted the Big Green deep into Cornell territory and this time scored himself on a three-yard run around end. At this point Blackman benched his first team for the rest of the game and there was no further scoring.

The resurgence of the Big Green against Columbia and Cornell was due to many factors. Certainly a major one was the emergence of Dave Evans as a real threat in the left halfback slot, giving the Indians a balanced backfield. This post had been a problem most of the season, but against Columbia Evans averaged six yards per carry, scored his first college touchdown and caught three passes for 49 yards. Dartmouth's end squad, riddled with injuries, has also come back to life sparked by a 6'2" sophomore named Frank Finsthwait. In his first varsity game against Yale he caught seven of nine passes thrown to him to tie an old Ivy League record for single game receptions.

While the development of newcomers has been one factor in recent successes, the most important factor has been the increasingly effective play of the veterans. At the start of the season the quarterback post was considered a problem by the coaches. Jack Kinderdine was rated a very capable field general and ball-handler but his passing was not considered strong. Yet going into the Princeton game Kinderdine has an excellent chance of breaking three Dartmouth passing records.

And this fall right halfback AL Rozycki, overshadowed somewhat last year by Jake Crouthamel, has come into his own and in the eight games to date has picked up 633 yards on 146 attempts for a 4.5-yards-per-carry average. He has scored five times and is also the team's leading pass receiver with eleven receptions for 250 yards.

Further impetus has been given the Dartmouth attack by the emergence of the fullback as a ball-carrier. On most previous teams the fullback has been chiefly a blocking back. This fall fullback Dick Marrone has toted the pigskin 31 times, gained 168 yards for a 5.4-yards-per-carry average - highest on the team.

Ends Carl Funke and Mike Nyquist along with halfback Greg Cooke have also emerged as key players in the Dartmouth lineup.

They don't keep statistics on the linemen, but certainly the play of the Big Green forward wall has made all of the statistics just mentioned possible. Captain and center Ken DeHaven has been just as outstanding as predicted, going both ways in most games. Guards Chuck Chapman and Hank Gerfen appear all over the field on almost every play, while tackles Jim McElhinney and Don McKinnon have both played well above expectations. When coupled with the veteran-like performances of reserve linemen Carter Strickland, Walt Grudi, Chuck Hegeman, Steve Lasch, Frank Palmer and others, they have served to make Dartmouth's line an outstanding one.

So, win or lose at Princeton, this 1960 team is truly a team of which Dartmouth men can be proud.

With a good day against Princeton in the season's finale, Jack Kinderdine (15) had a chance to break four Dartmouth records and at least two Ivy League marks. The senior quarterback from Miamisburg, Ohio, shown here passing against Harvard, has been one of the reasons for the Big Green's better than average record in the Ivy League this year.

Princeton 7, Dartmouth 0 A last-minute scoring pass enabled Princeton to defeat the Big Green in Palmer Stadium on November 19 and clinch second place, behind Yale, in the Ivy League. Dartmouth with a 4-3 record tied with Harvard for third place. The Indians missed a golden opportunity to score in the second period when they had first down on the one-foot line. An offside penalty nullified Kinderdine's touchdown and four more plays failed to produce another.