Big Green Teams
There was close to a turnaway crowd in Alumni Hall for the final football quarterback luncheon on November 27. These citizens were on hand to salute Dartmouth's football team that had just completed one of the best "little miracles" in sports since the New York Giants came from 13 games back to catch the Dodgers and win the National League pennant in 1951.
As he looked out at the gathering that included many of the seniors who had been a part of Dartmouth's comeback, a journey capped the weekend before by a 42-24 win at Princeton that brought the Big Green its fifth straight Ivy League championship, John Kemeny made a confession.
"The last time that I spoke to you," said Kemeny, addressing himself to the seniors, "was on Dartmouth Night [the eve of the Penn game in early October], At that time the record was 0-2 and many people had already counted the team out. I said that evening that the team was the bearer of a very proud tradition and I was sure that the team was going to live up to that tradition. I now have a terrible confession to make: Although I was optimistic that the team would come back, I did not have enough faith to believe that this team in this season could be the undisputed champions of the Ivy League.
"They have certainly lived up to the very proudest tradition that Dartmouth has known."
Shortly before the Princeton game, kemeny took another step to help Dartmouth on its way. He sent a telegram to Kingman Brewster in New Haven advising "that all of Dartmouth is rooting for Yale to at least beat Harvard for us. I received a phone call from him on Monday morning, in which he first very handsomely congratulated Dartmouth for winning the championship and noted 'that I took care what you wanted us to do.'
He actually sounded pretty happy, although I suspect he was somewhat disappointed that he couldn't have a share of the title. suppose if you're president of Yale and can't win the Ivy championship, beating Harvard 35-0 is the next best thing that can happen to you."
Entering the final weekend it was still possible for a four-way tie for the championship to develop. All it would have taken was a Yale victory over Harvard (that happened) as well as a Pennsylvania win over Cornell (that happened, too, 31- 22). It would also have required a Princeton upset of Dartmouth - but that didn't happen, although for a while it was distinctly possible.
Dartmouth's sixth straight victory after three opening losses in the Dark Ages of this football season left the Green with a final record in the League of 6-1. Yale, Harvard and Penn finished at 5-2. Then came Brown, the season's surprise (to some but not all). The Bruins had a 4-3 record (their first winning performance since 1964).
Cornell, a team that was supposed to win as the season began, slumped to a dismal 2-5 as injuries took their toll. Columbia posted a 1-6 record, and Princeton closed with its worst record (1-8) since the Tigers began playing the game in 1869.
And that's how a most improbable Ivy League race finished. Jake Crouthamel followed John Kemeny to the quarterback luncheon microphone and picked up the President's point on "believing."
"Reggie Williams came into the office on Monday and said, 'Well, it worked out just like we all knew it was going to work out. It's just another episode in Dartmouth football history.' And he's just right," said Crouthamel. "It's the typical ending of another football year. President Kemeny made a good point. Everyone was saying, 'You can do it, you can do it, you can do it,' but deep down inside it was another situation.
"There were only 89 people in the whole world who really felt they could do it - and they did it - the players."
Dartmouth's tenth championship season in 18 years of formal Ivy League football combat was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Green. Back in September, the sophomores dominated the conversation and speculation. They were to be the hope of the future. Overlooked through most of this period were the seniors and Crouthamel was quick to point to these 18 men as the primary reason for the comeback.
"When we were down and counted out, these guys believed," he said. "They believed in themselves and they made the rest of the team believe in themselves. It would have been so easy for this season to go down the drain and for the team to simply give up. But they didn't, and the seniors are the reason we came back.
The defense demonstrated its potential from the outset, but it wasn't until the final two weeks that the offense came completely alive. At Princeton, the Green scored the first two times it had the ball - first on a 50-yard all-on-the-ground drive (Doug Lind scored from 15 yards out), then on a 53-yard pass from Tom Snickenberger to Tom Fleming.
Princeton made it 14-11 at halftime and then the roof fell in on the Tigers. Two Princeton mistakes gave Dartmouth the ball at the Tiger four and eight yard lines, and Rick Klupchak got his first touchdowns of the season from there.
Klupchak added a third touchdown and fullback Ellis Rowe got his first of the season to wrap things up. Klupchak had a 154-yard rushing effort for the day and, despite missing three games with a shoulder injury, passed Crouthamel as Dartmouth's all-time career rushing leader with 1,788 yards, 25 yards more than Jake collected.
Crouthamel left him in long enough to get the record. "Hell, if he hadn't been hurt, he'd have got it five weeks ago," said the coach, not at all disappointed to see his name leave the record book.
Rowe finished as the season rushing leader (445 yards) and Klupchak had an even 400. Klupchak's three-year average per carry of 6.06 yards is also a record. Snickenberger, the quarterback who joins defensive tackle Brian Wroczynski as cocaptain of the 1974 defending champions, was the total offense leader. He passed for 581 yards (48 of 97 with six touchdowns) and ran for 167 yards and six TDs. Fleming, a sophomore who already is in the midst of the hockey season as a fleet wing, was the top receiver and was ranked nationally in punt and kickoff returns. Ted Perry was again the top scorer with 40 points and closed with a career record of 135 points scored by kicking.
Post-season honors: The most honored player on the squad was Tom Csatari, the co-captain and defensive end from South River, N.J., who was named to the Coaches' All-Ivy team for the third straight year. He also made The Associated Press All-America third team, AP's All-East and All-Ivy, and won the Harry Agganis Trophy as the outstanding senior in New England in 1973.
Center Bob Funk was an All-Ivy first team repeater along with Klupchak and Csatari, while Rick Gerardi, senior from Farmingdale, N.Y., and sophomore Reggie Williams from Flint, Mich., made it as linebackers. Defensive back Don Smith, Ted Perry, offensive tackle Jim Gleason and guard Herb Hopkins made the Coaches' second team. Hopkins, the co-captain, was named to two All-New England first teams.
In a column that followed the Princeton game, The Boston Globe's Joe Concannon wrote, "Crouthamel, too, deserves a great amount of credit for moulding this team in the Dartmouth tradition. It was his third year as head coach and even though he had a 15-2-1 record for his previous experience, the detractors said he was doing it with players Bob Blackman brought in and now it would be different.
"It was different, yes, because any time a superior class is graduated, its absence is bound to be felt. It was different, though, for only three weeks and then the resurgence began and Crouthamel, operating with a lot of players who had never met Bob Blackman, proved he could, indeed, coach. He is, as a coach, an intense competitor and this season he was able to inject that intensity into his team. He should be, without question, the Coach of the Year in New England."
Which he is: The New England Football Writers Association as well as United Press International bestowed that honor on Crouthamel. With a 21-5-1 record for three seasons, there is no current head coach in New England who can come close to equalling Dartmouth's performance under Crouthamel.
WINTER SEASON
Within 48 hours of the football finale, the winter sports season was under way. The hot news in the early going is the hockey team which came through with wins over Boston University and Harvard (4-3 and 5-4). It's the first time since 1959 that Dartmouth has beaten both of these perennial Eastern hockey powers in the same season.
The win over BU was stirring because the Green fell behind 3-0 in the first period and came back with goals by four sophomores. Greg Cronin, with assists by Gordie Miles and footballer Fleming. got the winning goal with 10 seconds left in the game.
At Harvard, Dartmouth jumped to a 3-0 lead and then fell behind 4-3 after two periods. Peter Quinn's second goal of the night came midway into the third period and decided a game that featured the second straight super goal-tending performance by Chuck Walker. The senior from Riverside, Conn., is a story in himself. He played behind Peter Proulx for two years and never owned a set of goalie skates before coming to Dartmouth. He's worked and worked for three years and now, with his chance in hand, has made the most of it.
Combined with the assortment of sophomores and veterans like Capt. Paul Dixon, Walker gives Coach Grant Standbrook the elements that should make for a thoroughly interesting season.
In basketball, Dartmouth also is relying on sophomores and it will take a while for things to fall into place. The Green lost its opener at Holy Cross (81-70) and then fell to Harvard (65-64). The game with Harvard was decided at the buzzer when a Dartmouth player called time out. Dartmouth had already used its five permitted breaks and was charged with a technical foul. The ensuing shot was taken with no time showing on the clock. "Things like that happen," said Coach Tom O'Connor, whose team had rallied from a 12-point deficit. "It's happened before and it will happen again, although I hope it won't happen to us again."
Harvard's swimming team is also loaded this season and relied on a bevy of freshmen (they accounted for 39 points) to churn past Dartmouth in the opening meet, 80-33. "We had 16 better individual performances against Harvard this year than in our meet at Cambridge last year, said Coach Ron Keenhold. "We have a good team this winter, but the score shows how strong Harvard really is." The Green bounced back with a 71-42 romp against Williams.
In squash, Dartmouth jumped away with a pair of 8-1 victories over M.I.T. and Williams. In gymnastics, Dartmouth too a 3-0 record into the holiday break downing Plymouth State, Princeton and Pennsylvania.
Herb Hopkins, co-captain and offensiveguard, savors the championship season.
Senior halfback Doug Lind stretches for the first touchdown against Princeton.
