With the Big Green Teams

FIFTY years from now, someone with an historic sense will rummage through the Dark Ages of Dartmouth football (i.e., 1969) and ponder the record of this band of Indians. He'll look at the list of imposing scores - 31-0, 38-6, 41-0, 38-13, 24-10, 42-21, 37-7, 24-7. Then he'll come to the last one Princeton 35, Dartmouth 7. And he'll say, "Now, how in hell did that ever happen?"

It's like taking a moment today to look back to 1901 when Dartmouth had a 9-1 record and trying to figure out what happened when the Indians lost to Harvard after scoring shutouts in six games. Or, like 1903, when Fred Folsom's forces were also 9-1 and shut out seven opponents and scored 242 points - but lost to Princeton.

There may be some consolation for this year's remarkable Dartmouth team in knowing that they weren't the first Dartmouth football squad to be done out of a perfect season by the Princetons. Some, but not much. It happened in 1903, 1914, and 1915. Bob Blackman had hurdled the Tigers twice - in 1962 and 1965 — to give the Green perfect seasons but it wasn't to be in 1969.

The strange thing about all this is that when the season began no one realistically expected the Indians to be 8-1. Then, all of a sudden, they were on the threshold of perfection and when it fizzled in the twilight of Palmer Stadium you'd think they'd finished 1-8. As it stands, Dartmouth will share the Ivy League title with Princeton and Yale. Each finished with records of 6-1 in the league but Dartmouth's overall-record was the best. Yale, like Dartmouth, was expected to be in the mid- dle of the pack this season but the Elis came on to finish 7-2 (they lost their opener to Connecticut and were clearly beaten by the Indians, 42-21, in what was perhaps the best overall display by this team).

Princeton, making steady progress after junking the single wing for a multiple offense, put it all together on the final day to make a big thing out of a 6-3 season.

Now that it's all done, it's fair to say that few Dartmouth teams have provided more excitment than this one. It scored touchdowns in spectacular style and played defense with deadly dedication. It was a versatile team - six of the running backs gained more than 200 yards, and Jim Chasey, the junior quarterback who has become the latest in a fine line of Dartmouth signal-callers, made everything work with his versatile play-calling, magical ballhandling and faking, and fluid ability to make the right decision in that split-instant when he was confronted by an imposing defensive end or tackle.

When it was done, Chasey had passed for 892 yards and run for 332 more. His All-Ivy credentials have been estab and the problem of a shoulder separation suffered during the final period at Palmer Stadium seems to be well under control. He should be back at the helm at full strength when it all begins again next fall.

The 1969 road has been gaudy. In Harvard's stadium, it was the defense that turned the trick in a 24-10 victory that found the Indians ahead 24-0 before the game was 20 minutes old, thanks almost exclusively to a boodle of defensive exploits that had folks thinking it would be a duplicate of the 48-0 rout in 1964 before things settled down.

Then, at Yale, there was a frightening moment when the Blues scored first and then again after Dartmouth had tied the game. Before the first half was over, however, the Green was on top and in command and then made the most of its opportunities to make some amends for the harrowing experiences that have haunted Dartmouth for the past two seasons.

For the fourth week in a row, it was a road show (Brown, Harvard, Yale) as Blackman took the team to Baker Field to meet Columbia. In a "sluggish" display, the Indians won 37-7, gaining 508 yards of total offense despite the fact that they lost two fumbles and had two passes intercepted.

It seemed like an eternity from the 41-0 defeat of Penn on October 11 until the Indians finally returned to Memorial Field on November 15 to meet Cornell. By then the record stood at 7-0 and the dreams of glory were beginning. The 24-7 win over Jack Musick's Ithacans was due to Chasey's brilliance. He threw three touchdown passes and, at Blackman's command, put the ball in the air more often than he had in any previous game. He completed 12 of 20 passes and more than offset the crunching running of Ed Marinaro, the Cornell sophomore who is the nation's leading rusher.

The win over Cornell clinched at least a tie for the Ivy title as Yale upset Princeton 17-14. A win or a tie at Princeton would have meant Dart- mouth's fourth outright Ivy crown. As it turned out, the Green netted a share (for the third time) but still retained its position as the winningest team in the 14 years of official Ivy competition.

Much of Dartmouth's success this fall can be attributed to the team's ability to force the foe into mistakes and then make the most of them. At Princeton, it was the Green's fate to become the victim of their own miscues.

A squibbed quick kick opened the door to Princeton's first touchdown. An interception led to the second and when Chasey was overwhelmed by the Tigers' defensive ends as he dropped back to pass (a fate that had not befallen him until that afternoon), he lost the ball, Princeton recovered within 13 yards of the Dartmouth goal and had a 21-0 lead at the half.

That was the game as Princeton turned a sophomore halfback named Hank Bjorklund (his father is John Bjorklund '41) loose to score three touchdowns before it was over.

There have been many heroes for the Indians this fall. If there is a "spirit" on the team it must be Tom Quinn, the senior halfback from Massapequa, N. Y., who turned Harvard, Yale and Columbia upside down by taking punts and running 62, 54 and 68 yards for touchdowns on successive Saturdays. Against Cornell, he did it again, going 72 yards with a punt to score but the play was nullified by a penalty.

John Short, the junior from Glendale, Ariz., who took over in the backfield when Clark Beier was injured against Holy Cross, finished as Dartmouth's leading rusher. His total of 707 yards for the season (he also caught 11 passes for 155 yards) puts him behind only Al Rozycki (725 in 1960) and Jake Crouthamel (722 in 1958) as the leading single-season rusher.

There was a time, early in the season, when Blackman had a definite problem of halfback depth. By the Cornell game, however, Beier had returned to the lineup and Blackman had his choice of that pair plus Bob Mlakar, Quinn, and sophomore Brendan O'Neill. He used Beier, Short, and Mlakar interchangeably during the last two weeks of the season and each ran effectively. Short, the top returning back for 1970, averaged more than six yards per carry. He and Mlakar each scored seven touchdowns to share second place in the individual scoring statistics behind kicking standout Pete Donovan who wrapped up his career with 116 points, including 53 this season. Donovan in three varsity seasons made 80 of 87 conversion attempts and 12 of 19 field goals, including a 43-yarder at Harvard this fall. He holds every Dartmouth record for scoring by kicking.

There are two members of the offensive backfield who have gained little acclaim this year. One is sophomore fullback Stu Simms. In Blackman's style of attack, the fullback is usually the lead man in the phalanx of blockers who swarm ahead of Chasey and the halfbacks. There haven't been many sophomore fullbacks in Dartmouth's lineup ever - but Stu Simms has already demonstrated that he's destined to be one of the Green's finest.

The other guy is Bill Koenig, the senior quarterback who spent most of the last two seasons in the starting lineup and then lost his job to Chasey this fall. It's doubtful that there was a player on the team who felt greater disappointment and still gave the ultimate effort through the long hours of practice.

The offensive line was loaded with luminaries. John Ritchie, the co-captain and tackle, and guard Dave Mills seem certain to make every All-Ivy team. This pair, operating on opposite sides of the line, opened some gaping holes, usually against defenders who have held a substantial size advantage.

When Jack Wimsatt, the hard-luck senior, was felled with a back injury at Yale, the mantle of Dartmouth's top end was shifted to Bob Brown, a junior from Quinn's town of Massapequa, who has consorted with another junior, Barrel Gavle, to provide Chasey with imposing targets and reliable blockers at either end of the line.

Diversity has been a byword at Dartmouth this fall. Using any number of operatives from an assortment of angles, the Indians swept past the total offense record held by the '66 team with 3728 yards (compared to 3499) and also rambled for 2654 yards rushing to leave the '66 team's 2298-yard record in the dust. Through the entire season, the Green has ranked nationally in both of these categories.

Defensively, it's been the same tale. In total defense and pass defense, Dartmouth has been among the top three throughout the fall. The Green's scoring average of 31.3 points compares to an average yield of 11 to the nine opponents.

Murry Bowden, the reckless rover from Texas, has played the bulk of the season with a shoulder that is as loose as a piece of spaghetti. He and another Texan, halfback Joe Adams, have been inspirations to watch. Both are devastating tacklers and Adams pulled down four of the 19 passes the Indians intercepted.

This Texas tandem hasn't done it alone, though. Middle guard Rick Lease, the defensive signal-caller, rounded out three seasons as a starter with reliable efficiency and Barry Brink, the 6-3, 235-pound junior who is adept at either tennis or tackle, came out of the jayvee ranks to lay solid claim to the title of most consistent performer in the crunching world of interior linemen.

So, whatever you do, shed no tears for this Dartmouth team that just missed immortality. They lose some talented manpower but have a covey of returning players who give every impression of being just as tough next year. As one of Blackman's assistants replied when asked if he would have figured the Indians to be heading to Princeton with an 8-0 record, "Heck, no. I didn't think we'd have a chance at that until next year."

Halfback Bob Mlakar (31) takes handoff from Jim Chasey in the Harvard game.Fullback Stu Simms (47) blocks and guard Bob Cordy (60) leads interference.

Tom Quinn (24), who has been brilliant on punt and kickoff returns, gets achance as offensive back against Yale. Guard Dave Mills (69) is also shown.