Sports for the Multitude

WHEN spring appears at last on the Hanover Plain, such popular sun spots as Butterfield Beach and Topliff Terrace resemble Jones Beach on a July weekend. Bright, balmy days and a rich green setting would seem to inspire anything but exertion. But in spite of, and possibly because of, the long-awaited warmth and sunshine, the spring term is now the busiest athletic period on the Dartmouth calendar.

Not only are seven varsity and freshman sports in full swing (involving close to 400 students or 12% of the current enrollment) but the ever-growing intramural program is enjoying its most ambitious and successful term.

Intramural athletics at the College are in their 36th year, and the degree of campus participation, as well as the program's popularity, has never been greater. The need for an organized extracurricular athletic setup at Dartmouth has long been recognized (about 70% of the undergraduates participated in at least one varsity sport in high school, and over 25% were team captains); however, it was not until this past fall that the Dartmouth College Athletic Council established a permanent professional administrator for the system. The improvement, in less than nine months, is certainly noticeable.

Seaver Peters '54, former Big Green hockey captain, assumed the newly created position of Associate Director of Athletics for Physical Education and Intramural Athletics last summer and has been chiefly responsible for the resurgence of the program.

"We are concentrating on improving three main areas," explained Peters, "the organization, publicity, and officiating. We have been taking strides in each department, but we still have work to do."

Until this year, the intramural department was completely student-run and operated, with a Student Executive Manager, an organization hierarchy, and heeling competition. The rapid diversification of the program, and the necessity for greatly increased paper work and supervision, necessitated the introduction of a full-time, trained staff. The student managers are still very active and vital to the system, and Executive Manager Bob Becker '65 works closely with Mr. Peters. Also added to the staff this year was Steve Nazro '63, who assists in all phases of the organization and development, concentrating on the publicity aspects of the department.

Increased student awareness could be the most significant factor in the new intramural success. Daily announcements ill The Dartmouth and on WDCR, as well as timely roundups and highlights of league action, have boosted incentive to join the various activities. The addition of two large, official scoreboards, which maintain daily standings in both fraternity and dormitory competition, heighten interest in the "big games" and replace the old "mystery" system in which no accurate evaluation of team standings was available.

TOUCH football dominates the fall intramural picture, with over 600 men participating on the more than fifty teams that do battle every autumn on the College green. Hundreds of spectators daily flock to the sidelines, and a crowd of more than 500 saw Kappa Sigma successfully defend its College football championship. Preliminary rounds of the golf and tennis elimination tournaments are held during the fall. These conclude in the spring.

Special days are set aside annually for football and basketball skills, with dorm and fraternity members engaging in contests such as passing for distance and accuracy, punting and place-kicking in football, and foul shooting, layups and setshots in basketball. Winners in 1963-64 were: South Fayerweather and The Tabard in football skills, and Little and Alpha Theta in basketball skills.

This past fall a new event, dormitory swimming, was added to the schedule, with gratifying results. The dorm meet drew 85 contestants and 14 teams for a series of relay races. Utilizing the beautiful new pool facilities, 23 teams and 240 men recently competed in the annual fraternity swimming meet May 5 and 7. Woodward and Theta Delta Chi were the dorm and fraternity champions.

During the winter term with expanded schedules and additional events, some 1500 students participated in one phase or another of the program. Hockey and basketball leagues were active for two solid months, with dorm and house sextets meeting in four games a night, four nights a week at Davis Rink, and a dozen hoop contests a day scheduled in Alumni Gym.

Spice has been added to the basketball, squash, skiing, ping-pong, volleyball and Softball programs by the addition of a faculty-administration team to the fraternity leagues. The "profs" compete with the 24 houses and squads from the Tuck, Thayer, and Medical Schools in one of the four seven-team leagues, in meets, or in the elimination tournaments. The faculty-administration team won the squash tournament completed during the winter term.

Twenty-seven dorm teams, divided into four leagues, are active in all the traditional sports. In addition to swimming, tennis and medal golf tournaments have been added this year to the ever growing dormitory intramural spectrum.

RESULTS from some of the recent intramural activity show that Sigma Alpha Epsilon won the fraternity bowling crown as well as the fraternity basketball crown, but was upset in the College Basketball Championship game by Topliff Hall. Kappa Kappa Kappa downed the dormitory team of Woodward-Ripley-Smith for the College championship in hockey. Phi Gamma Delta repeated as fraternity wrestling winner, and South Wigwam won the dorm title. Tau Epsilon Phi won the handball championship.

One of the highlights of the winter season was the first annual Fraternity All-Star basketball game which was run in cooperation with the Interfraternity Council. The proceeds from this charity game were turned over to the College Chest Fund.

The spirit in fraternity and dorm sports is excellent," says Peters. Football, basketball, hockey, and softball are good examples of this. Alumni Gym and Davis Rink in the winter and the green in the fall and spring are seldom without many cheering groups from both the houses and the dorms.

This term single elimination tourneys are being held in chess and ping-pong. Fraternities and dormitories will have competed in softball, swimming, bridge, wrestling, volleyball, and track by the time classes end.

Over 1450 fans witnessed the finals of the intramural wrestling tournament, and at least that many each week stop by the green during these sunny days to catch a few innings of the well-played and fastpaced softball tilts.

Dartmouth Director of Athletics Robert (Red) Rolfe '31 made these observations about the improvement in the intramural program: "In the short time Mr. Peters has been in charge he has analyzed the weaknesses of our intramural program and taken steps to provide remedial action. His interest in all activities has led to a revitalization of the program and greater enthusiasm among the students, with the result that his department now has even greater meaning in Dartmouth's overall athletic picture."

Why this emphasis on intramural athletics? "As much as I love intercollegiate sports," says Peters, "the possibility for growth there is very small. But at a school like Dartmouth the scope of an intramural program is unending."

With over 600 men competing on some fifty teams, touch football dominates the fall intramural program.

Touch football can be a hard-hitting game, as this line-play closeup shows.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon's basketball champions on their way to the title.

Associate Director of Athletics Seaver.Peters '54, who is administrative headof the revitalized intramural program.

Intramural hockey leagues were in action for two months.

The faculty volleyball team playing Phi Kappa Psi. Shownare Prof. Stockmayer, Ray Buck '52, and Prof. Bower.

Wrestling finals drew the biggest crowd of the winter.

Annual fraternity swimming meet in Dartmouth's new pool.