No Real Problem
Football is a challenge for many players. But the sport is a special challenge for Brad Kliber, a 19-year-old sophomore from Missoula, Montana. Kliber was born with a right arm that ends a couple of inches below his elbow. The six-foot-three-inch, 235-pound guard and tackle dismisses his apparent disadvantage: "In fact, it offers me more of a challenge if I can beat out someone who has two arms." Kliber was a member of the 1982 Dartmouth football team that won a 13th Ivy League title for the Big Green. The squad, which lost its first four games of the season, defeated Princeton, 43-20, in the season finale. That victory at Princeton, coupled with Harvard's 45-7 triumph over Yale and league-leading Penn's 23-0 loss to Cornell in Bob Blackman's final pre-retirement coaching appearance for the Big Red, gave Dartmouth a share of the Ivy League championship. The Green, the league's defending co-champion, finished the season with a 5-2 Ivy record, as did Harvard and Penn. The Princeton victory also gave Joe Yukica his 100th collegiate coaching victory.
Kliber did not see any varsity action during the fall. He was all set to run onto the field in the waning moments of Dartmouth's 56-41 victory over Columbia at Hanover, but he could not go in when the Lions recovered an onside kick. Kliber said it was a little disappointing riding the bench this year with his fellow sophomores, but he understands the situation. "You have to pay your dues," Kliber observed. "Next year I hope it will pay off."
As a high school freshman at Hellgate High School in Missoula, Kliber was a gangling six-foot-two-inch basketball player who did not play football because of a broken collarbone. "I was a 38-seconds man," Kliber said of his limited basketball playing time. "I didn't have a clue about what to do with my body." Kliber spent his final three years of high school at Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts. He was captain of the junior varsity team during his sophomore year and a member of the preparatory school's varsity football team during his junior and senior years. Klilber also was a member of Andover's varsity swimming team for his final two years there. One-armed offensive linemen are not heavily recruited by football coaches. "There were no phone calls," said Kliber, who added that he had narrowed down his list of college choices to Stamford and Dartmouth. "I came up to the place and just fell in love with it. I applied and was accepted." Kliber was not recruited by Dartmouth. "I was a walk-on, but was in pretty good shape and won a starting position on the freshmap team. It was an excellent season last year." Kliber earned starting assignments at both offensive guard and tackle on the junior varsity team this past fall. Kliber says that playing without the use of two arms is really not a problem for an interior offensive lineman. "Sometimes it's more of a help than a hindrance. In fact I can hold and get away with it," he quipped. "There is some problem with pass blocking, though, when you need both hands out in front of you."
When he's not playing football, Kliber wears a terminal device on his right arm. The device has a hook on the end and he controls it with his right shoulder muscle. Kliber works private parties as a bartender for the Hanover Inn and was on the undergraduate council until his busy schedule forced him to resign the post. He's also an officer at the Beta fraternity house. Kliber said he is leaning strongly toward a major in government but hasn't made a final decision yet. He also participates in the Big Brother-Little Brother program. His little brother is 16-year-old Andy Lorin of Quechee, Vermont. Lorin is confined to a wheelchair and is a junior at the Hartford, Vermont, high school. Kliber's goal is to win a starting position on the Dartmouth varsity. He knows it will be a challenge. "There are some top linemen coming back and there will be some good freshmen coming up, but if I work hard and put my mind to it I should definitely see some action," Kliber said.
Brad Kliber, posing (above) and in the thick ofthings (below), likes a challenge.
