Record-Breaking

JEFF DUFRESNE was so awed by the Memorial Field crowd in his first varsity appearance that he lined up on the wrong side of the huddle. By the end of the season, however, the noise from 10,000 or more spirited fans no longer disconcerted the 19-year-old tailback-fullback from White Bear Lake, Minnesota. "I feel very relaxed and poised out there right now," the sophomore said midway through the season.

After that opening game against Pennsylvania, Dufresne made great strides. He rushed 190 times during the season to exceed the 1960 mark of A 1 Rozycki by 21 carries. He carried 38 times for 169 yards, the most yards ever gained by a Dartmouth sophomore, against Cornell to break the 31-carry single game mark he had established two weeks earlier against Yale. Tom Spangenberg '64 and Curt Oberg '78 had shared the previous record of 29. Dufresne, who carried 31 times for 129 yards and three touchdowns against Brown, fell 57 yards short of the season rushing record of 787 yards held by John Short '71.

Dufresne was used sparingly against Penn and Holy Cross, carrying ten times for 33 yards against the Quakers and four times for 11 yards against the Crusaders. He got a starting nod in the Boston University game, subbing for the injured Jenkins, and rushed 12 times for 28 yards. A 20-carry, 79-yard performance at Harvard was sandwiched between his record-setting efforts against Yale and Cornell. The six-foot, 200-pound speedster rushed 20 times for 121 yards, including one 39-yard run, in the Green's 37-7 thrashing of Columbia.

"I've been surprised at how much I've played and carried the ball," said Dufresne, who was the second leading ground gainer on the freshman squad last year. Dave Farley, now a defensive back, rushed for 303 yards in 1977 to beat out Dufresne by two yards. The transition from freshman team to the varsity has been a smooth one for the teenager. "The team treated me as just another guy and not as a sophomore," Dufresne said.

He played tailback as a freshman and had played fullback this season until the Cornell game when he returned to tailback. Dufresne said he really enjoyed playing on Cornell's artificial surface, grinding up the Schoellkopf Field yardage with white hightop basketball shoes. "You're really not aware you're carrying the ball that much," he pointed out. "At Cornell I knew it was a lot, but not 38 times."

Only Princeton was able to corral "the Baby Bull," as he was dubbed by trainer Paul Edson. The Tigers limited him to 46 yards in 24 carries and recovered two of his fumbles, although he did score his eighth touchdown of the season. "Jeff had to earn every inch in that game," said Yukica. The low spot in the season came in the BU game, when he fumbled what would have been the game-winning touchdown into the end zone. "That was like a nightmare," conceded Dufresne.

White Bear Lake is a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, and that's where Dufresne had played football since the fourth grade. When his high school won the state AA football championship, college coaches showed a lot of interest in his team. "We were pretty heavily recruited," he noted. "But I didn't want to play major college football. I was torn between Brown and Dartmouth. I let the school speak for itself, and something inside of me told me that Dartmouth was the place for me."

Mike Francis (92) and Byron Boston celebrate the win over Brown. Below, Gene Teevens'52, father of the Dartmouth quarterback, hugs Joe Yukica (facing camera) at Princeton.