Football Staff Is Completed
Since he succeeded Bob Blackman as Dartmouth's head football coach more than a month ago, Jake Crouthamel has brought together seven men who will be his staff of assistants. Here is a capsule summary of their respective backgrounds:
John Curtis—Offensive Backfield. Will work primarily with quarterbacks and fullbacks after coaching Dartmouth freshmen to a record of 23-7 during the past five years. Curtis never had a losing record with Dartmouth's frosh and produced an undefeated season (7-0) in 1969. He attended Ohio State and graduated from the University of Toledo. A native of Toledo, Ohio, he was a quarterback at Toledo and coached for six years at Springfield High in Holland, Ohio, before coming to Dartmouth. His record at Springfield High was 38-12-1.
Drew Tallman - Offensive Line. Came to Dartmouth from Kings Point where he was head coach for two years and led Mariners to 7-2 record and Lambert Bowl in 1969. He had a two- year record of 13-5 at Kings Point after serving as assistant coach there for two years. A native of Oradell, N.J., Tallman played and coached at Spring- field College before graduating in 1965. He was freshman .coach (posting a 7-0 record) at Indiana (Pa.) State while studying for his master's degree.
William (Dub) Fesperman Defensive Line. Joins Dartmouth staff after three years as defensive coordinator at University of Massachusetts. A native of Winston-Salem, N.C., he graduated from Duke in 1956 after playing on winning Orange Bowl team in 1955 and gaining all-conference honors as a second baseman in baseball in 1956. Fesperman's coaching career includes three-year stints at Wake Forest, Tulane, and Georgia Tech prior to going to Massachusetts. He was chief defensive coach at Georgia Tech in 1966 when Engineers had 9-1 record and played in Orange Bowl. He will be Crouthamel's chief defensive aide.
Charles (Rick) Taylor—Defensive Linebackers. A 1964 graduate of Gettysburg where he was a three-year standout at halfback, Taylor coached the defensive secondary at Lehigh for three years before coming to Dartmouth. He was a graduate assistant at Montclair (N.J.) State in 1965 and then was an assistant coach at Hofstra for two years before moving to Lafayette.
Tom Kopp—Defensive Backfield. Kopp fills the position held for past five years at Dartmouth by Crouthamel. He joins Dartmouth staff after five years in similar position at University of Connecticut. Kopp, a native of Naugatuck, Conn., was a quarterback-halfback on three Yankee Conference championship teams at Connecticut from 1958 to 1960. He was co-captain in 1960 and also was a catcher on UConn's baseball team. He played for two years in the Minnesota Twins' farm system and then coached football (18-4) and baseball (33-13) for three years at Avon (Conn.) High before joining the UConn coaching staff.
Jerry Berndt - Head Freshman Coach. Rebuilt football program at Streetsboro (Ohio) High for past two years, posting 4-5-1 record in 1970 and losing three games by total of four points. He also will be Dartmouth's head wrestling coach. A graduate of Bowling Green, Berndt was a high school teammate of John Curtis in Toledo. He was a standout quarterback. He was a football and wrestling coach at Libbey High in Toledo and in Temperance, Mich., before completing graduate studies at University of Toledo where he was defensive coordinator of freshman team.
Dennis Brown—Freshman Backfield. A 1969 graduate of the University of Michigan, Brown was the All-Big Ten quarterback for the Wolverines in 1968. He started at Michigan for two years and led the Wolverines to an 8-2 record and second place in the Big Ten in 1968. He played in the Shrine Game at San Francisco and in the Hula Bowl Game at Honolulu in 1969. During the past year, Brown has been freshman backfield coach at Michigan while completing graduate studies and holding a teaching fellowship in the speech department.
Jake Crouthamel '60 (seated center), Dartmouth's new head football coach, issurrounded by his staff of assistants, completed last month. Seated are John Curtis,offensive backfield coach, and Drew Tallman, offensive line. Standing from left:Tom Kopp, defensive backfield; William (Dub) Fesperman, defensive line; RickTaylor, linebackers; Jerry Berndt, head freshman coach, and Dennis Brown,freshman backfield.
