Faces in the Crowd
QUITE a few men have earned nine varsity letters at Dartmouth. Tom Fleming will have the distinction of being the first to earn ten (three in football, three in hockey, four in track).
For all the nine- and ten-letter men, however, the honor of being Dartmouth's first 11-letter winner belongs to a lady. When she arrived at Dartmouth in 1972 with credentials in field hockey, basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, softball, and tennis from Masconomet Regional High, Sandy Helve had to rank as the most versatile athlete in Boxford, Massachusetts. She has lived the first four years of the women's intercollegiate athletic program at Dartmouth and has been a varsity participant in all but one term (she was off-campus in the spring of 1974). She lettered in field hockey as a freshman (and for three years since) and has also earned four letters in squash plus three in lacrosse. While Fleming has joined the ranks of Dartmouth's finest all-round athletes (three years as the scoring leader and two-time all-Ivy in hockey, football scoring leader, and a pro grid future with Toronto in the Canadian League), Helve has also established a mark that will be tough to duplicate.
Ken Norman's achievements in track have become equally laudable. His record-setting performances during the indoor season in the 600 and with the mile relay continued into the outdoor season, and the pace has been withering. The biggest liability of being big, strong and fast is the temptation to do it all - which Norman tried to do this spring. At the New England Meet, he ran seven times, finished second in the 440 and sixth in the 220. By the time the relay rolled around, he was washed out. Torch Coburn took the anchor lap for Norman, turned in a fine 47.4-second leg and Dartmouth added another outdoor laurel.
Norman's achievement through the indoor and outdoor seasons made him the choice for the Watson Trophy as Dartmouth's outstanding athlete of 1975-76, but his accomplishments come in a year when superlative individual performances have abounded. In track alone, the list mushrooms: Richard Nichols in the relay and the 880, Coburn in the relay and the 220, and the 1-2 punch of Rusty Gapinski and Skip Cummins in the javelin.
Rob Tesar, the tennis captain, and sophomore Pete Renner teamed in doubles for the first time during the spring vacation trip. They lost the first match, then won 17 straight en route to the New England Class A title and an invitation to the NCAA tournament.
For the fourth year in a row, Jerry Daly won a trip to the NCAA golf tournament (freshman Joe Henley also earned selection). No previous Dartmouth golfer had reached the national tourney four times, but Daly displayed the mental discipline and consistency that made his 18-hole average two strokes better than a year ago.
At six-feet three and 195 pounds, freshman Jeff Hickey is the kind of attackman Dartmouth's lacrosse team has been looking for: big and tough with good athletic sense. A promising linebacker, Hickey has become a 40-point scorer in lacrosse and a key reason why the Green came through with its most encouraging season in a decade. Unranked when the season began, Dartmouth climbed to fourth place in New England behind Brown, Massachusetts, and Harvard. Those three teams arrived at the end of the schedule and did the Green in, but two (Brown and UMass) showed their strength by joining the field of eight at the NCAA tournament.
In baseball, Dave DeMarco's bat became more important than his pitching ability. The junior, who threw a no-hitter in his first outing as a sophomore pitcher, moved to the outfield and became the only 300 hitter on a team that had fair pitching and good fielding but a frustrating inability to hit with men on base. The season ended with a disappointing 6-34 record.
The crews: the lightweight varsity reduced the margin of its loss to Harvard in the Biglin Bowl race at Hanover (four-plus seconds) to a scant two at the Eastern Sprints. (Last year the margin went from nine to three but the result was the same.) There was a difference this year: while the Crimson and Green were seeded 1-2 at the Sprints, someone forgot to tell Penn it wasn't supposed to be a factor. The Quakers, beaten by Harvard in the trials, won the lightweight title.
Dartmouth's heavies, much improved over a year ago when they failed to make the afternoon racing at the Sprints, showed what coxswain Thad Bennett called "the form we haven't had until the I.R.A. during the past two years." The Green had the fifth fastest time in the trials, had to settle for the consolation final, and then got nosed out in a photo finish. Five seconds separated the first five boats, there was less than a half-length between second and fifth, but Dartmouth got the fifth position.
Reggie Williams' day in Cincinnati was April 29. Drafted in the third round by the Bengals, Dartmouth's all-America linebacker joined Calvin Hill (Yale), Ed Marinaro (Cornell), and Charlie Gogolak (Princeton) as one of the highest picks from the Ivy by a National Football League team. In coming to terms with the Bengals in late April, Williams found himself negotiating with another Dartmouth man: Mike Brown '57, assistant general manager of the Bengals, who may have set a record of sorts for quarterbacks at Dartmouth when he scored ten touchdowns - all on runs of three yards or less.
There are 36 awards presented annually for accomplishment, dedication, and comparable attributes in various sports at Dartmouth. No award carries a definition specifically honoring the solid citizen, the guy who has been good but not great and yet still possesses all the qualities that prompt his teammates to elect him captain. In football, Tom Parnon was "the other one," the captain of the offense - Reggie Williams was the conspicuous captain. In lacrosse, Parnon also has been a co-captain, a capable defenseman. Never overwhelming, an easy style, a hard worker. The kind of guy a coach would like to have at every position. Tom Parnon.
