Football

Not since Bob Blackman took over the head coaching reins at Dartmouth in 1955 has a Big Green football team been picked in pre-season polls to finish in the second division of the Ivy League, but this spring the Indians are rated a second-division club in all pre-season polls and Coach Blackman reluctantly agrees.

"We've lost more lettermen by graduation than any other Ivy team except Brown," says Blackman, "and we are not going to get too much help from our freshman team."

Blackman, who now holds the best Ivy League coaching record (23 wins, nine losses and two ties including only three league defeats since 1956), finds himself in a good spot this year with a "dark horse" team, but the realities of the situation would seem at this writing to indicate that the Big Green will have to do extremely well to just break even in their games this coming fall.

Missing are such backfield stalwarts as quarterbacks Bill Gundy and Seth Moger, All-American halfback Jake Crouthamel and fullback Bill Hibbs. Equally difficult to replace will be ends Rog Hanlon and Seth Strickland, tackles Sam Bowlby, Pete Erwin and Lowell Horschman and guards Bob Boye, Jim Graham and Phil Clark.

Seventy-five candidates are expected to report to the Dartmouth pre-season training camp which opens in Hanover on September 1. While a lot of changes and shuffling will be done during the three weeks preceding the opening game with the University of New Hampshire on September 24, the personnel situation looks like this:

At the all-important quarterback post Jack Kinderdine, who played behind Gundy and Moger last year, will probably be the starter. Kinderdine, a senior, was the top punter in the Ivy League last season, but is on the small side and not as able a ball carrier and passer as could be hoped. Dick Beattie, another senior, has seen some action on defense and will probably spell Kinderdine. Sophomore Bill King, who quarterbacked the freshman club last year, has good potential, while Mark Rutkosky is another sophomore with promise. Rutkosky did not play freshman ball due to academic problems, but he is highly regarded and could well win himself a starting berth as the season rolls along. Sophomore Tom Erickson is another likely candidate.

At left halfback it will take at least three men to step into the shoes of Jake Crouthamel who started all 27 games during his three years on the varsity. Add to this the fact that Skip Johnson, a highly regarded reserve with experience, has left school and that three left halfbacks from last year's freshman team, including starter Lee Bateman, will not report for a variety of reasons, and you have some idea of the replacement problem. Tom King, who played on offense some last year, and Dick Stillman, who played on defense, both juniors, currently have the edge for a starting berth. But Ernie Torres, last year's freshman fullback, will probably be switched to this post to compete with sophomore Mike Bisceglia and provide more depth here.

The Big Green ground attack for 1960 will probably be built around right halfback Al Rozycki who came on with a rush last fall to develop into a fine halfback. Behind Rozycki is Gary Spiess, another letterman, who plays primarily on defense and sophomore John Krumme who played well at this post on the freshman team.

Senior Dick Marrone, a veteran who played behind Hibbs last fall, looks like the starting fullback with Jim Lemen, a junior, backing him up. Sophomore Dale Evans played one game with the freshman team last fall before being sidelined with an injury, but he is highly regarded by the coaches and'could develop into a first-class fullback.

In spite of the loss of both starting ends, this position is fairly good in depth for i960. Connie Persels and Bob Marriott, both letter winners, will battle for the left end post along with John Mussman, a junior, who was laid up with an injury last year, and sophomore Mike Nyquist, captain of the freshman baseball team this spring. At right end senior John Henry, who missed most of last season due to illness, is expected to win the starting assignment, while Dave Usher, another letterman, is highly rated. Usher tore some ligaments this spring playing lacrosse, however, and this may slow him up at the start of the season. Sophomores Roger Adelman and Marshall Parsons should help on the depth. The tackle post could be a problem to Coach Blackman this fall with graduation losses heavy and Art Kola, another veteran, being unable to play. Veteran Mike Mooney looks like the starter at right tackle with Ben Urban, an experienced junior, behind him. Sophomores Frank Palmer and Bill Blumenschein, who is being switched from guard, are the other prospects at right tackle. At left tackle Jim McElhinney, a letterman who played at center last fall, is expected to win the starting berth with last year's freshman captain, George Hellick, and two junior reserves, Wally Grudi and Dick Hofmann, backing him up.

The guard posts may be slightly better off than tackle with veteran Hank Gerfen, a tremendous linebacker, starting at left guard. Behind Gerfen is Chuck Hegeman, another converted center, and sophomore Ed Boies, who has been moved over from right guard. Chuck Chapman, a senior letterman, should start at right guard with Dick Couturier, out last fall with a broken ankle, Steve Lasch, another promising reserve, and sophomore Jerry Raczka all seeing action behind Chapman.

Anchoring the middle of the Big Green line will be the 1960 team captain Ken DeHaven, an experienced center who was particularly outstanding last fall as a linebacker. Two sophomore prospects at center are Vaughn Skinner and Don McKinnon, while Carter Strickland and Bill Tragakis are juniors with some varsity seasoning.

The 1960 schedule with four home games is slightly better than last year and should help. Coach Blackman predicts the Ivy League race next fall will be the closest in years with Harvard, Yale and Penn battling down to the wire for the League title. Dartmouth and Brown are generally picked to finish in the league cellar, but we predict a better fate than this for the Indians.

As usual Coach Blackman and his staff are busy devising new plays and techniques for the fall, which will be communicated to all squad members in a series of weekly bulletins throughout the summer. More variations are expected to be added to the famed Blackman V-formation and the Big Green attack will again feature a man-in-motion most of the time. With Gundy and Moger gone, the Indian passing attack will inevitably suffer somewhat and will probably mean a more concentrated ground attack.

An informal poll of the Crosby Hall experts picks Dartmouth to win over the University of New Hampshire, Brown and Columbia, with Harvard and Penn rated even, and losses expected to Holy Cross, Cornell, Yale and Princeton. How do you pick them?