Big Green Teams
The Ivy League is fast becoming recognized as the most competitive collection of college football teams in the nation. After watching Harvard and Brown scramble around and collectively put 67 points on the scoreboard (Harvard had the majority, 35) ABC-TV's Forest Evashevski observed, "If this is Ivy League football, I want to see more of it."
It's been that kind of a season. Dartmouth, all but written off after three weeks and as many losses in early October, is back at the top. Jake Crouthamel, who often matches the old Cornellian, Gil Dobie, as a picture of abject pessimism, still can't admit that it's really happened. Given the rebuilding job that faced him as the season began, Crouthamel would have been pleased with a winning record.
Dartmouth had that much in the barn as it prepared for the finale at Princeton. How the Green got there is another story, one that's typical of the harum-scarum Ivy League.
When the season began, Dartmouth was picked for not much more than fourth place, maybe less. Harvard was also supposed to be in the depths, while Penn, Cornell and Yale waged a three-cornered war for the bauble that has belonged to Dartmouth so often, including the last four seasons.
The Ivy has become an oddsmaker's nightmare, and Dartmouth has contributed in grand fashion to that nightmare. For the first time since the days of the Iron Men, Brown was picked to beat Dartmouth this fall. So were Harvard and Yale. Everyone got the message except Dartmouth. After three weeks, the word Has out: "This is the year to get Dart- mouth.' Well, Penn was the last team to "get Dartmouth" and that was by a whisker.
"We always had confidence in the defense and we knew the offense would come along. said Rick Gerardi, the mustachioed rover back who is one of the free spirits among the band of seniors who this team together during the early going "Jake feels the Brown game was the turning point, but I think we began to see it in the Penn game. Once the offense started to put things together we knew we'd begin to win."
The frustration and anxiety of the first three weeks made what happened during the next five all the sweeter. The win at Brown, 28-16, was the first of three come-from-behind victories.
At Harvard, Dartmouth played the role of underdog for the first time since 1968 (which is the last time the Green lost at Cambridge), but whomped up a 24-18 victory. Yale was supposed to end the comeback, but Dartmouth still wasn't ready to roll over and won, 24-13.
After what had to be termed "emotional" games, the Green went on the road again to New York, facing a Columbia team that learned earlier in the week that its coach, Frank Navarro, had resigned. It turned out to be what fullback Ellis Rowe called "a business trip." Dartmouth won easily, 24-6, in a game that was memorable only because Columbia managed to be at a lower emotional level than Dartmouth.
The win over Yale pulled Dartmouth even with Harvard and Penn at the top of the heap. When Harvard won a frantic 34-30 victory over Penn on the same day that Dartmouth rolled in and out of New York, it became a two-team affair with everyone else relying on hope, breaks and whatever else might help even things up again.
It stayed that way into the eighth week of the season as Cornell's star-crossed forces came to Hanover. While Brown came to the brink of catching Harvard, Dartmouth used its now-renowned defense plus Ithaca-bred Tom Snickenberger to beat Cornell, 17-0. It provided Crouthamel with his first shutout as a head coach and Dartmouth's first since the finale of the perfect season of 1970 when Penn was a 28-0 victim.
There are all sorts of reasons for the comeback that will make this a gratifying season for all concerned. The defensive performance is obvious. The goal line stands have been worth a million dollars in thrills (for Dartmouth) and frustration (for the other guys). The offensive line, a question mark in the early action, has matured. Tom Fleming has provided the exciting speed factor to break things open and Rick Klupchak has returned from his opening game shoulder separation to provide the running threat that was missing.
And Tom Snickenberger came of age. Snickenberger doesn't talk about himself. He's a quiet sort of guy and for a while this was one of his problems. "I thought I'd have to have a special session with him and teach him to swear a little and get mad in the huddle," said Crouthamel. (He didn't have to go quite that far). "Tom has become a better field leader with every game. As he's gained maturity and confidence in himself, the team has gained equal confidence in Tom."
The player who probably knows Snickenberger best is his roommate, Mark McAleenan, the split end from Grand Rapids, Mich. "There didn't seem to be any question in Jake's mind during preseason practice that Tom was the first team quarterback," said McAleenan, "but Tom didn't seem to feel the same way. He wasn't sure of himself, but he began to come around in the Brown game. He really did a job against Cornell. He's become more assertive in the huddle and has really taken control of the team."
Snickenberger hasn't thrown the ball that often (completing 44 of 86 for 486 yards and five touchdowns through eight games) but McAleenan, who has caught five of the tosses, feels his passing has also improved. "He doesn't have to look for the second or third receivers because we usually get the primary receiver open." His completion percentage soared against Yale when he hit nine of 11 passes for 93 yards. Three of the passes resulted in all of Dartmouth's touchdowns against the Elis.
As Snickenberger came into his own, so too did the rest of the offense. "We matured together," said McAleenan. "It took a while for people to get used to playing together. After the Penn game, we took a good look at ourselves and started to believe we could do things. We realized our potential against Harvard and Yale."
While Crouthamel had his mind made up during preseason practice that Snickenberger was number one, his feelings began to waver after the Penn game. He had just about decided to make a switch to sophomore Mike Brait for the Brown game. But three days before the trip to Providence, Brait broke his right thumb in a freak mishap (as he threw the ball, a lineman crossed in front of him and hit Brait's thumb with his helmet).
For Snickenberger, it was a fortunate reprieve. He capitalized on the opportunity by completing seven of nine passes at Brown, scrambling on an option swing around left end for 13 yards and the touchdown that put Dartmouth ahead, 14-10, at halftime, and generally looking like he belonged.
Lind and another halfback, John Souba, scored against Brown on runs of seven and four yards, but the game-breaker was Fleming, the fleet sophomore from Brookline, Mass., who punctuated football and studying with quick dashes to Davis Rink for a tour on skates that will prepare him to be equally crowd-pleasing in hockey this winter. Fleming has been ranked nationally in punt and kickoff returns all season. He nearly broke a 75-yard punt runback against Penn and finally went all the way against Brown with a 73-yard dazzler that left the Bruins in shock.
No one, least of all Crouthamel, would have predicted that Dartmouth could lead Harvard 24-3 at halftime. But that's the way it was a week later as the Green turned the wind-swept stadium in Cambridge into a madhouse with a spectular turnaround against the Crimson who came into the game with a 4-0 record.
Things started miserably. On Dartmouth's second play, Snickenberger's pitchout to Lind was blown behind him by a 30-mile-per-hour gust. Harvard recovered at Dartmouth's 11, but the defense launched a long afternoon of back-to-the-wall performances by forcing the Crimson to settle for a field goal.
The Green erupted from there. On second down, Snickenberger optioned left, cut behind end Alex Kandabarow's block and headed upfield from the Dartmouth 23. Near midfield he lateraled to Souba who proceeded to the Harvard four. Snickenberger wedged across two plays later.
He passed to Lind for a seven-yard touchdown and scrambled 20 yards to set up Souba's six-yard score. Ted Perry added a 33-yard field goal in the 17-point se cond period, and then Dartmouth's ma jestic defense took over.
After Harvard marched to a too-easy score from the second half kickoff. the Green was unbending. The Crimson spent most of the second half deep in Danmouth territory. They reached Dartmouth's one-yard line twice and the eight during another drive. With Gerardi, Reggie Williams, Tom Csatari, Brian Wroczynski, Kim Wehrenberg, Don Smith and Rocky Whitaker (they're the linebackers, end, tackles and deep backs) leading the way, Harvard was turned back every time.
It was a spectacular performance. Two days later, the New England football writers presented their weekly Gold Helmet Award for outstanding performance (normally it goes to one player) to Dartmouth's entire defensive squad. Crouthamel called it "one of the greatest wins in Dartmouth football history." One Boston writer observed, " ... no Ivy League team should be a 13-point underdog except Columbia - never Dartmouth."
The defense established the tempo a week later against Yale. They forced Yale to settle for a field goal after reaching Dartmouth's one as the second period began.
Snickenberger fired a 17-yard TD pass to Lind to put Dartmouth on the board minutes later and on the ensuing kickoff. Don Smith popped Yale's Rod Gordon, jarring the ball loose. Frank Turner recovered for the Green, and two plays later Snickenberger found Kandabarow for another touchdown.
Yale made it 14-13 early in the third period, but the Elis gambled on a fourth-and-one near midfield early in the final period - and didn't make it. From there, the Green moved to another Perry field goal. It was the defense that also set up Dartmouth's third touchdown when Csatari rocked the ball from last year's nemesis, quarterback Tom Doyle, and set up a 27-yard drive that ended with a fiveyard TD pitch from Snickenberger to tight end Bill Carpenter.
Then came the business trip to New York, and it was over almost before it began. Fleming took the opening kickoff, started left, cut across the field and simply outran everyone for a 98-yard touchdown run that is the longest jaunt with a kickoff run Dartmouth history.
The rest was routine. Snickenberger rolled five yards for one touchdown, passed to Lind to set up another that Lind scored from the three, and took advantage of Whitaker's interception (one of four Darthouth made at Baker Field) to set up Perry's field goal.
Cornell, assuming the spoiler role, discovered quickly that its vaunted defense would take a back seat to the Green D in the home finale. Given a fumble opportunity at Dartmouth's 30 on the opening play, Cornell settled for minus-seven yards and missed a field goal. Snickenberger, playing against the hometown gang, directed an 80-yard drive to a Perry field goal. (Klupchak's 50-yard dash set it up). In the second period. Snickenberger engineered Dartmouth's longest drive of the season, 92 yards. He gained 44 yards himself, passed to Fleming for 29 more in the drive, and scored the touchdown on a 17-yard option left.
Mark Allen, Cornell's able quarterback, knew nothing but misery in the face of the Dartmouth defense. He was sacked six times and when sophomore end Dan Murphy separated him from the ball early in the fourth period, Csatari recovered at the Cornell 27 and in nine plays - in- cluding a fourth down field goal faker that had Fleming take a reverse course for 10 vital yards - Dartmouth scored again on Snickenberger's 11-yard tour to the right.
And so it goes with this band of underdogs who forgot their place and played their way to the doorstep of the ultimate goa| _ another Ivy title. It's a season that guys like Simon Etzel and Pat Stone, Tom Csatari and Herb Hopkins and all the other seniors will long remember. They'll remember it with the ring of Hopkins' post-Harvard words in their ears: "This is a championship team. When championship teams have to perform, they perform."
SOCCER
In the November edition, this department displayed contrasting photos of a dour Jake Crouthamel and a jubilant George Beim. At that point, Crouthamel's team was 0-3. Beim's soccer team had just pulled a stunning upset against nationally ranked Penn, the defending Ivy soccer champ.
That was the obvious apogee for the Green soccer team that took a 2-8-2 record into the finale at Princeton, a group that Beim feels "... may be the best 2-8-1 soccer team in the world." Since that win over Penn in early October, little has gone right except the performance of Dartmouth's soccer superman, Frank Gallo, who spent most of the season as the Ivy League's leading scorer.
The Penn game looked like the start of something big. It wasn't. On successive weeks, the Green fell to Brown (4-2), Harvard (4-2, in a game that saw Dartmouth leading 2-0 at halftime) and Yale (3-2) before getting out of the side of the ledger with a 2-0 win at Columbia. A 1-0 setback at New Hampshire added to the misery, and Cornell came to Hanover and overtook the Green, 2-1, on the next to last weekend of the season.
Gallo and sophomore Bruce Bokor have provided most of the scoring punch in an attack that has had more frustrating games than Beim cares to admit. It's a team with only two seniors - Capt. Jeff Badmington and Mike Brayton. Things should get better.
CROSS COUNTRY
It looked like this would be the year. It wasn't. Dartmouth's cross country team took a 4-0 record into the dual meet finale with Harvard at Hanover Country Club. The Crimson had been beaten by Columbia (a team that fell to Dartmouth) and the makings for the Green's first win over Harvard since 1959 seemed within grasp.
The fact that Dartmouth produced its best times of the season and still lost to Harvard, 19-36, shows what comparative scores prove. Nothing. "If the race ended after four miles, we would have won," said Coach Ken Weinbel. Unfortunately, there was another mile to be run and that's where the Crimson turned it on. "Harvard finished strong and we couldn't hold on," said Weinbel. The Crimson ace, Ricardo Rojas, led Dartmouth's Chris Peisch across the line by 34 seconds. After Peisch came four more Harvard runners and it was all over.
A slow start cost Dartmouth a shot at the top five places in the Heptagonal Meet the following week in New York. "We normally start strong and run a fast first mile," said Weinbel. "We didn't and it cost us. We kept looking for someone to take off. No one did." Peisch had a slow start and -burned himself out trying to catch up. While all of Dartmouth's top five men finished within 31 seconds of each other, the Green leader, freshman Rich Axtell, managed only 22nd place.
Peisch set the Green pace at the New England meet, taking 15th place as Dartmouth finished fourth. A week later at the IC4A meet in New York, Peisch was spiked as the race began and had to drop out. Axtell was the Dartmouth leader as he took 57th place.
"We're a young team," said Weinbel, "and you can see improvement with every big meet." As with soccer, it's on to next year.
FIELD HOCKEY
Sandy Helve is the leading performer on Dartmouth's field hockey team. Coach Aggie Bixler obviously wanted her around when Yale came to play on Chase Field. There was one problem: Sandy was supposed posed to be at a wedding in upstate New York later that day.
Bixler went to work. She negotiated a private pilot to ferry Helve to the wedding immediately after the game. It paid dividends as Helve scored half of Dart- mouth's goals in a 4-2 victory that closed the team's season with a 5-4 record.
The Rhode Island tournament a week earlier was the turning point of the season. The Green avenged an earlier loss to Colby (N.H.), and also took decisions from Western Connecticut and Bridgeport.
FRESHMAN SPORTS
The freshman football team looked to a variety of players for its success - and it paid off. The frosh finished with a 4-1-1 record, missing an unbeaten season on the final day when the Boston College jayvees took a 34-21 win at Chestnut Hill.
"We had a lot of different people who did a lot of things for us," said Coach Jerry Berndt. The frosh season featured wins over Brown (26-7) and Harvard (33-6) as well as Maine (3-0) and the New Hampshire jayvees (27-19). The tie was with Yale's frosh (20-20).
The freshman soccer team posted a 7-3 record with Charlie Krupansky of Winona, Ont., leading the scorers with five goals and four assists. The frosh booters put 11 men in the scoring column as they out-gunned their opponents, 22-14. Goalies Rick Eifler (Bethesda, Md.) and Guy Beckles (Port of Spain, Trinidad) combined to produce four shutouts and a 1.4 goals-against average.
The Dartmouth defense, exemplified by sophomore linebacker Reggie Williams' soaringeffort to block a Yale field goal, stood ten-feet tall all season long.
Snickenberger, convoyed by guard LenNichols, sets up to pass against Yale.
Win Over Princeton, 42-24, For a Fifth Straight Title
