Highlights

If the highlights of 1974's 3-6 football season hardly reached the altitude of other seasons of the recent past, Dartmouth fans may be forgiven an understandable nostalgia in preferring to relive some of the glory days.

And now, with extra prints of the highlight films of the years 1960 through 1972 available for purchase, they have the opportunity of reviewing to their hearts' content such spectacular seasons as 1962, 1965, and 1970, when the Big Green was undefeated and untied. With the whole repertoire of 13 years, they could go back and watch Dartmouth win 92 games of the 117 played, scoring 2,956 points to the opponents' 1,402. They're all there on film, from 1968 on in living Green — and red and crimson and orange, and varying shades of blue.

Even if there weren't too many highlights during the 1974 season, that wasn't about to stop J. Blair Watson from doing his job. After all, he's been doing it ever since he came to Dartmouth some 30 years ago, and he's done it during the good times and the bad.

Watson is the College's director of films, and what he did last fall was to produce, package, and circulate "Dartmouth Football Highlights of 1974," the latest in a series of movies making the rounds of alumni groups around the country.

How has the disappointing season affected Watson's enterprise, kept booming during recent times by five consecutive Big Green Ivy championship teams? "The demand for prints is not the same, naturally," says Watson. "We only made six prints instead of the usual eight. We considered making even less."

Requests for the film from alumni groups has held up pretty well, however. That's because Watson and his collaborators, Jack DeGange, director of sports information, and Ned Martin, a Boston sports announcer, do a speedy and professional job in getting the film ready for distribution just before the Christmas season. Many clubs and associations hold meetings around that time, and the football film remains a strong tradition at these gatherings.

Today's slick color production is a far cry from earlier versions of the "Highlights." In the late 19405, Watson would pick out the high points of the games from the official game films (black and white, of course), splice them together and add a few titles. "When Coach Bob Blackman came along," recalls Watson, "he was so happy we were doing highlights that he decided to select the plays himself." Later, sound was introduced and in 1968 the first color version of "Highlights" appeared.

In addition to entertaining alumni groups, the football films are used by coaches in their recruiting efforts. Total production costs for the Highlights which are split 50-50 between the Alumni Office and the Athletic Council - are around $8,000 a year.

The number of extra prints available varies from one to four or five, each 16 mm. film runs between 30 and 45 minutes, and the price for black-and-white highlights of the 1960 through 1967 seasons is $25; for the color prints of the 1968 through 1972 seasons, $50. Opportunities for roaring raucous old cheers as the backs go tearing by in one's basement projection room appear almost limitless.