The Kind of Team It Was

Unusual poise and confidence were prime qualities of Dartmouth's 1962 football team, champions of the Ivy League and undefeated in a major nine-game schedule

THIS is the kind of team it was. It's the fourth quarter of the final game at Princeton. Minutes earlier the aroused Tigers had picked off a King pass and run it back for the score which again put them within striking distance of Dartmouth, 31-27. Now the Indians had the ball deep in their own territory - third down on the 13-yard line - with nine yards to go. From the bench Coach Bob Blackman sent in instructions: a quick kick by halfback Tom Spangenberg.

"There was quite a wind blowing against us," King recalls, "and before I even called the play Spangenberg told me he didn't like the conditions. Tom said he couldn't kick against that wind, but I called the play anyway. We had an open slot formation - that's the kind you need for a quick kick - then I decided on my way up to the line that I was going to change the play."

King's revised call, a pitchout to Spangenberg, sent the fleet halfback racing around end for a 29-yard gain to the Dartmouth 42-yard line. Minutes later Spangenberg scored to give the Big Green a safe margin and their first undefeated, untied season since 1925.

The 38-27 Princeton win brought Dartmouth's victory string to eleven straight, two at the end of the 1961 season and a perfect 9-0 record in 1962. It also brought national recognition to the Big Green as one of only three major unbeaten college teams in the country (Southern California and Mississippi are the others). Final statistics also showed the Indians ranked fifth nationally in total offense (averaging 369.4 yards per game), and sixth in total defense (allow- ing 184.9 yards per game).

The dramatic fourth-quarter call by King was typical of the confidence which the 1962 championship team displayed all season. "We were sure we could move against Princeton," King flatly declared. "Besides," added Spangenberg, "what if I had quick-kicked? A quick kick goes end-over-end and catches the wind. Maybe Princeton would have gotten the ball on our 30 or 35-yard line and been in a good position to score."

Still, the play took nerve. One week earlier against Cornell King had refused to punt, gambling on a fourth-down pass play which failed. Maybe, though, King was recalling his promise to Blackman when the Tigers had picked off his pass to score in that fourth period. As he came to the bench he told Blackman, "Don't worry, coach, the next time we get the ball we'll go down for a touchdown!"

Optimism and confidence were bred into this Big Green team early.

"Even last spring I knew we had a chance for the Ivy League championship, " King told us. "I knew Don (McKinnon) was going to have a good year and that we had men coming back who had played a lot of ball, not just the firststring, but good men for the second and third teams. But as for going undefeated, that's something else - something out of this world!"

Late last spring the Ivy League sports information directors had picked Dartmouth to win the Ivy title, but during the summer months most of the sports publications and writers tended to favor Princeton, picking either Dartmouth or Harvard for the runner-up spot.

Ernie Roberts, the Big Green publicity chief, recalls talking about the season with All-American center Don McKinnon when they traveled to the University of Maine for a pre-season scrimmage.

"I think McKinnon said that the only way we'd get national recognition was by beating Holy Cross," Roberts stated.

"I remember saying that," McKinnon admitted, "but I said it with tongue in cheek because I didn't really think we had much chance to beat Holy Cross, remembering how strong they seemed to be pre-season. But even after we got by Holy Cross there was always some doubt. You're never sure you're going to win. And after Holy Cross there was Harvard, then Yale - and you still wonder. Maybe after Cornell was the first time we thought we had something, but even in the last game we still couldn't be sure."

Captain-elect of the 1963 Dartmouth football team is end Scott Creelman of Melrose, Mass. "I can't remember what it's like to lose a game," he grinned. "I've played in 26 consecutive games without a loss - nine in high school where we were undefeated; six wins my freshmen year here; and after an ankle injury I dressed for the last two games of the 1961 season, which we won; and now nine games this year. I sure hope I can keep the string going next year."

Halfback Tom Spangenberg recalls that he was not exactly optimistic as the 1962 season got under way. "That scrimmage with Maine was tough," he remembers. "They hit about as hard as any team we met. Like Mac (Don McKinnon) says, you go into every ball game with the coach telling you — and it's true — that they've got a guy who goes great, or they've got a good offense or good passing. We went into the Browr. game thinking it might be one of the toughest. We beat them 41-0. We had no idea it would come out that way. We thought we could get by them with one or two touchdowns. But we smashed them. The league was so uncertain, the scores so confusing, that you just can't figure the games."

Spangenberg proved himself one of Dartmouth's finest halfbacks in the last two games of the 1962 season, leading rushes which broke the backs of both Cornell and Princeton. In the Princeton game Spangenberg carried 29 times for 208 yards to set an Ivy record - and his combined Cornell-Princeton-game totals show 39 carries for 349 yards, almost nine yards per try. Final Ivy statistics put the fleet halfback among the top five in total offense, rushing, pass receiving, punting and scoring. Said Coach Blackman after the season, "Tom, we don't care if you improve next year. Just keep up those averages you had against Cornell and Princeton!"

Dartmouth's Opening Play in the Princeton Game

ALL four players with whom we talked about the season - King, McKinnon, Spangenberg, and Creelman - agreed that the Holy Cross game was the turning point for the Big Green. Winning 10-0 over one of the top independent teams in the East gave the Indians added confidence for the Ivy race plus some recognition as one of the better teams in the East.

Actually the script for this game was laid out for fans who read the Dartmouth-Holy Cross football program in advance of the kick-off. A certain E. T. Wheelock Smith predicted in this program that Dartmouth would win the game 10-0 with the first score coming on a field goal and the second on an intercepted pass. Maybe the team read it also for Bill Wellstead kicked a field goal in the second period to send the Indians ahead 3-0, and in the fourth quarter Spangenberg gathered in a Crusader pass and raced 96 yards to score. The Monday morning quarterbacks soon discovered that the learned Mr. Smith was none other than Dartmouth's publicity man and program editor, Ernie Roberts.

The alert Mr. Roberts also helped save, at least temporarily, an Ivy League record for Bill King. The Dartmouth captain had a field day -during the Fall Houseparties game against Columbia as the Indians swamped the Lions 42-0. King ran and passed with abandon and soon had rolled up over 300 yards in rushing and passing, to break the Ivy League individual, single-game offense record. With the score so lopsided, Coach Blackman pulled out the first team, but King returned to hold the ball on a field goal attempt and promptly lost his yardage record when a bad pass from center forced him to run the ball and get pinned for a 12-yard loss. As the fourth quarter went along and it appeared that King would not get back into the game, Ernie Roberts sent word from the press box to Coach Blackman that King had fallen behind the Ivy record and needed eight yards to retrieve it. Seconds later King trotted onto the field, tossed one pass good for twelve yards to bring his total to a record 348 yards, then came back to the bench for the remainder of the game. This record held only until the last game of the season when Gary Wood of Cornell broke it in the Penn game.

One of the major factors in the Holy Cross win and in the season's record was Coach Blackman's use of the threeplatoon system. Except for most of the Cornell and Princeton games, Blackman used three teams, alternating them according to the situation. The first, or "Green Team," was the best all-around team and went both ways. The defensive team, known as the "Savages," was used chiefly on defense and its sterling defensive play was responsible for Dartmouth's consistently high ranking on defense and for the fact that no team scored a touchdown against the Indians until Harvard did so on a desperation 82-yard pass play in the final minutes of that game. An offensive unit - the "Tomahawks" - also saw frequent action and helped give Billy King and company a needed rest.

"They tried a three-platoon system my freshman year (1959)," King recalled, "but we didn't have much luck with it, and after we lost to Holy Cross it was dropped."

"It was an important factor against Harvard, too," observed Spangenberg. "Harvard had a good club but with the rest we got under the three-platoon system we felt more confident about moving against them."

"Boy, I was really beat after the Cornell and Princeton games," McKinnon told us. "The first team played more in those games. I don't think I could have come out even for another practice after Princeton."

Someone asked if the 1962 schedule was a tough one.

"The thing about our schedule is that you must take it in context," Don McKinnon answered quietly. "For us, as a team, it was a tough schedule both mentally and physically. It's not quite like playing Ohio State, I'll admit, but we still have to put out just as much as any other ball club to get ready for a game. And going all out in any game takes just as much out of you as if you were playing a Big Ten school."

THE weather during the fall of 1962 certainly was not at its best. It rained during the first half of the Massachusetts game and the Pennsylvania game was played in a drenching downpour. The weather at Harvard was clear but a gusty wind hampered the Indians' passing and punting. And the game in the Yale Bowl was the coldest and wettest of all.

"The weather at Yale was just awful," King reported. "I couldn't pass at all. It really made me mad. It was 0-0 at halftime, and we had no desire to go back out there. I was really scared at halftime."

"I'll never forget how you looked at halftime," McKinnon told King. "You were covered with mud and you were almost blue from the cold. I guess we all thought it would end in a 0-0 tie!"

"Speaking of the Yale game," King added, "having Wellstead on the team made a big difference. He kicked the field goal against Yale that put us ahead. He made us look like a professional club. Then in the Princeton game, I knew we'd won it after he booted that field goal."

Spangenberg broke in, "He was always there, after every touchdown. We always kicked for the extra point. It was just great!"

"Ed Boies (a guard and line-backer) also did a great job," remarked King. "He was in a tough spot for any recognition, with Don as the other line-backer, and then he was bothered with minor injuries late in the season, but he kept on working hard."

"McLean, Lawson, Parkinson - were all great," someone else observed. "And Greer!"

King summed it up best for the players: "The reason we had a great season was that everyone on the three teams was not only good enough to hold his position, but was good enough mentally to keep on going. You can't really pick out any one guy or even a group. Everyone did his job this year!"

It's difficult to pin down all the factors that go into building a championship team. Each coach and each player has his own opinion. Put them all together and you begin to get a sense of some of the important factors:

Don McKinnon: "I think it may have been the timing - playing together all season. Every week we built up so that we were like a well-oiled machine by the end."

Scott Creelman: "One of the major differences between this year's team and last year's is that when a guy did come on the first team there was no standing off. He was accepted right away as a member of the first team."

Tom Spangenberg: "Coach Blackman got the maximum this year from his players. You could count on one hand the number of guys who dropped off the squad. This year the team spirit was fantastic. Nobody quit."

McKinnon: "How do you engender spirit? It's a lot of little things. This year we avoided cliques. We stuck together and did more things as a team. We respected each other."

King: "Mac has a good point. It wasn't the fraternity cliques or anything. It was a football team! You stuck together no matter what team you were on. You could moye onto any string and there wasn't any feeling that you didn't belong."

Creeltnan: "This year you could tell the difference all season long. We had great practice sessions - every one was enjoyable. And the weather during training camp was good, not too hot, and that helped."

King: "It was a great feeling to go back into a huddle and look around at the players. No one would be excited or jumping around, just quiet and confident. Then you'd look at one of the players and say, 'Can we go off tackle?' and he'd say 'Yes' so you'd call the play and pick up ten or fifteen yards. A lot of times Tom (Spangenberg) and I would talk over plays on the way back to the huddle. We were all confident - quiet and confident."

Creelman: "A lot of people asked me if the other players were bothered by all the publicity Billy and Don were getting. I think all of us were proud of what they were accomplishing. Sometimes when I was playing Bill would make a good pass or Tom Spangenberg would get off a good run. I'd say to myself - That's what all these people have been reading about and now they can see how good they really are.' I know all the guys on the team felt this way. Whenever they got in the game it was just a chance to prove themselves again."

King: "I think the difference this year was that we were a team and every man who played knew we were a team. We weren't just a bunch of individuals. We had fun in practice kidding each other about being picked for that week's ECAC team. Next week it's your turn, we'd say to Curran or someone else. It was like that all the time. No one took the publicity seriously."

BASICALLY this was a serious and dedicated team. Even after the win over Cornell which clinched the Ivy title the Dartmouth dressing room was surprisingly quiet. "You'd almost have thought Dartmouth had lost the game," said one observer. Many sports writers, during the season, commented on the quiet confidence and poise of the team. But there was always fun on the trips and during the practice sessions.

One player recalled the afternoon that Coach Blackman called Frank Finsthwait off the bench to go in for a play. Finsthwait always mimicked Blackman's phrase "ho ho" before everything he said. This day he came running up to Blackman, but forgot to bring his helmet.

"Ho, ho, Frank," said Blackman, "where's your helmet?"

"I guess I left it under the bench," answered Finsthwait.

"Ho, ho, Frank," answered Blackman, "you know you can't play without your helmet. Now go back and sit down!"

And Finsthwait never got into the game that day!

Blackman usually sent in about half a dozen plays per game, according to King. "Some games he might send in a dozen or more, but usually it was less." A few times King did not obey instructions, because the opposing team had shifted defenses, but Blackman seldom said anything to him.

SUPPORT of the team by students and alumni was an important factor in this year's success, most of the players felt.

"You're supposed to have a big rally in front of the Hanover Inn," remarked one a little sourly, "and fifteen people and Tanzi show up."

But the other players differed. "You don't expect to have many people at a rally," King said. "It's not a question of how many people come out when you leave on the bus. It's a question of the feeling about the team around the campus. You can sense it all the time. You walk down the street and someone says, 'Hope you have a good game,' and then after the game, as you go around to the houses, everyone asks questions, everyone is interested."

The players talked about alumni reaction and how it felt to see the Dartmouth men in the stands cheering them on.

"As we went in and out of the tunnel at Yale," McKinnon said, "alumni kept reaching over to shake hands, pat us on the back and yell encouragement. It's great to look up and see those friendly faces. And to think they came out in all that rain and sat through the whole game. It was tremendous."

"And the telegrams and letters," added King. "They really help. You know Carter Strickland '29, the president of the Alumni Council, sent us a telegram before almost every game, and I think he came to most of them. Channing Cox (Class of 1901), who used to be Governor of Massachusetts, wrote the team three letters, and the 1904 class secretary, Harry Johnson, also wrote - and George Tully '26, who played on the 1925 undefeated team, sent several telegrams, and there were many others who wrote or wired. The fellows on the team really appreciate this kind of alumni support."

Certain local fans also rate highly in the players' esteem. Ford Whelden '25 and his wife, Gertie, regularly attend practice and each fall entertain the squad at a cookout. "And you know," said Creelman with amazement, "Mrs. Whelden memorized the number and name of each player so she would know us individually."

"President Dickey wrote a personal letter to every senior on the team," said King. "How many colleges do you think there are in the whole country where the President would do that? And then he takes time to come out and watch us practice. He takes a good half hour or more on many afternoons to be there at practice. Believe me, that's one heck of a big factor in a team's morale when you know the President is there watching you practice."

Of the four players we were talking with, two - King and McKinnon - graduate in June. Both want to study law, both may be interested in playing professional football. McKinnon, already a draft choice of the New York Giants and Boston Patriots, may be able to combine studies and pro football. Bill King has had an offer from a Canadian team, and has been drafted by the New York Titans. Next year, of course, Creelman returns to captain the 1963 team and Tom Spangenberg will be back at halfback.

"I'll say one thing about next year's team," drawled King. "The real nucleus of this year's team came from the junior class. That class really has the athletes and their guys have played a lot of football. The spirit from this year's team should carry right over."

What about the absence of two players named McKinnon and King, Spangenberg ventured.

"You guys will do as well next year," McKinnon said. "So what if you don't have quite as good a quarterback. The offense will be shifted a bit. Maybe there won't be as many passes, so Spangenberg and Lawson will just run more."

Captain Scott Creelman expressed his agreement. "Next year I don't think it will be quite so necessary to fashion the offense around one or two individuals. We've got some good halfbacks and fullbacks returning. We've also got some pretty good quarterbacks, although not of Billy's caliber. We're not losing too much defensively, although we will lose out a bit on offense."

What did an undefeated season mean to the players?

"This is something we'll never forget," Tom Spangenberg responded. "You think how important this may be in your later life. If you ever get to where you begin to doubt yourself, you can always look back at this."

"I keep thinking about Sunday night after Princeton," muttered King. "What if we'd lost. I just couldn't imagine coming back to Hanover!"

"I'm still undefeated in 26 games," grinned Creelman, "and I hope we can keep it that way next year!"

The session ended on that optimistic note. The four players hurried oS from the Field House through the Hanover dusk towards dinner. Downstairs the Big Green basketball players were hitting the showers after a rugged afternoon's workout. The 1962 football season was over.

That's the way it was.

King (14) gets ball from center on favoriteollout play. Fullback Parkinson (49) is behim; halfback Spangenberg is just out ofure; halfback McLean is flanked wide left.

2 King starts left behind Parkinson (49) andSpangenberg (23). Curran (69) and Runge (70)pull out of right side; Greer (81) and Blumenschein (79) block out the Princeton tackle.

3 Spangenberg blocks Tiger end and Currantakes care of linebacker, allowing King toturn downfield with Parkinson (49) still aheadof him and Runge (70) cutting through.

King swivels through hole made by Curranand Spangenberg blocks. Parkinson (49)Runge (70) are moving into the secondary.

5 Key blocks at top right thrown by McLeanand McKinnon as King finds running room.Greer (81) and Boies (61) shown at the bottom.

6 King sidesteps Princeton player blocked byMcKinnon as Runge (70) heads for manslowed by McLean (S3). Creelman (88) at right.

Parkinson (49) races in front of King tohelp Runge on block. King swings aroundin to the left and could go all the way.

8 It's now King and Creelman against Princeton'sHeinrich (24) and McKay (40), Creelman, notseeing 40 behind him, peels back to block 24.

9 McKay (40), the last defender, finally stopsKing at the Princeton 43. The 29-yard gainwas a big part of the Green touchdown march.

The picture that goes into the official record book: Dartmouth's 1962 football lettermen, Captain Bill King front and center with the Ivy League Championship trophy.