Key to Success: Dartmouth's Athletic Sponsor Program

Brian Mason says the hockey team couldn't survive without it. Joe Yukica considers it one of the most vital recruiting tools the football program has at its disposal. Jackie Hullah is convinced that it will help keep women's basketball on top of the Ivy heap. Mike Walsh believes it will help make the baseball program into a contender. Paul Cormier thinks it's going to be a key to a successful recruiting year for the men's basketball program.

These coaches can only be talking about one thing the Dartmouth College Athletic Sponsor Program. For 30 years, the Sponsor Program has been playing an important role in Dartmouth athletics.

On almost any weekend from September to April, the Sponsor Program can be seen at work as secondary school student-athletes from across the country visit Hanover. The money that enables them to visit the campus comes from the Sponsors a group of about 325 generous alumni and others who support the Dartmouth athletic program. Their donations will underwrite the expense of flying in more than 160 prospective Dartmouth athletes this year to get a first-hand look at the campus and community.

Associate athletics director Whitey Burnham '46 a heads up the Sponsor Program and Don Radasch '35 of New London, N.H., is the alumni coordinator.

They have both seen what the Sponsor Program can do for Dartmouth athletics. "Every school has bricks and mortar— they've all got a library, a gym, and a cafeteria," says Burnham. "But there's a uniqueness to Dartmouth that has to be seen to be appreciated. We feel if we can get a kid here, we can make the sale."

Burnham doesn't have to sell the coaches on the Sponsor Program's value. Mason, Hullah, and Cormier have been at Dartmouth for less than a year and they are already convinced the Sponsor Program is a key to the future of their programs. "The biggest thing about Dartmouth is that the school sells itself," says Mason. "It's important that the kids get to see the campus and the rink, which is one of the nicest hockey facilities in the country. Without the Sponsor Program, we could never get them here to see everything we have to offer."

scholar/athAs women's hoop coach Hullah put it, "The effectiveness of the Sponsor Program is already evident in this year's recruiting. We landed three letes from Ohio, Michigan, and Montana who turned down full athletic scholarships to come to Dartmouth. Our success in recruiting these women would have been impossible without the Sponsor Program."

Cormier, who took over men's basketball last June, agrees. "We can sit in a kid's living room all we want and tell him and his parents why he should come to Dartmouth," Cormier says. "But if he doesn't visit the campus, it won't do much good. Once we get a recruit to visit our campus, we can compete with any school in the country."

Walsh is in his fourth season as coach of the baseball team. He looks at the Sponsor Program as a two-way street. "It's very helpful because it allows prospective students to see the campus and gives them a chance to get to know Dartmouth," Walsh says. "It also gives us a chance to get to know them."

As far as Joe Yukica is concerned, seeing is also believing. "It's really important that we be able to tell a recruit the story of Dartmouth," he says. "We can't do that unless he visits the campus. There are many things that make us different from any other school in the country and you have to visit here to see it."

When the student-athletes Dartmouth coaches are recruiting come to Hanover for a weekend, they see more than the gym, athletic fields, and weight room. "We want to expose a recruit to everything here," Yukica says. "When a kid walks into a dorm room and sees three Macintosh computers, he knows what we mean when we tell him we're offering him a quality education."

While cm campus, Yukica also has the recruits meet with professors and, on occasion, President McLaughlin '54, who was a standout athlete as an undergraduate. Yukica even includes a tour of the Dartmouth Skiway in the recruits' weekend activities. "We encourage them to take advantage of winter activities when they're here."

The Sponsor Program's umbrella covers 15 varsity athletic programs at the College men's and women's and Sponsors may indicate which sport they would like their donation to assist. Football continues to be the area where the program is most visible. The NCAA allows colleges to fly in 95 football recruits per year for paid visits. And the only reason Yukica and his staff are able to fly in the NCAA maximum is because of the money available through the Sponsor Program.

"The sponsors deserve a lot of credit," says Yukica. "They're the ones who make it possible for us to show Dartmouth to these kids."

In his seven years at Dartmouth, Yukica has brought in recruits from every state but Alaska for paid visits compliments of the Sponsor Program. The prospects come almost every weekend in January, February, and March in groups of about 15 at a time. "If you bring in 95 and get 50 percent of those people, you've got the freshman team," Yukica says.

The basketball and hockey teams will each bring in about 15 recruits for paid visits this year. NCAA rules allow for each high school or prep school prospect to make only one paid visit to a particular college, with five paid visits the limit. In the Ivy League, the money to bring athletes on paid visits cannot come out of a school's athletic budget.

That's where the Sponsor Program which began in 1955 comes in. Some years back, Orton Hicks '21 was working for the motion picture industry in New York City and one day his secretary told him about her nephew an all-state high school quarterback from Ohio. The secretary said her nephew was being flown to New Jersey by Princeton for a visit the next weekend.

Ort Hicks started thinking. He was making a trip to Hanover and asked his secretary if she and her nephew would like to come along. After checking with coach Bob Blackman, they picked up her nephew at Princeton and the three of them headed for Hanover.

The youngster later became Dartmouth's starting quarterback. It worked out so well that Blackman wanted to make it a regular part of his program. As Hicks recalled, Coach Blackman figured that if he could show the College to the prospects, he could sell about three out. of every five boys flown in on coming to Dartmouth. At Blackman's request, the tireless Hicks started the Sponsor Program with the help of two or three of his. friends. Hicks became the College's vice president for development in 1958 and by that time, the Sponsor Program was in full gear. By the early 19605, it had grown to include about 30 alumni.

After overseeing the Sponsor Program for five years, Hicks turned the reins over in 1963 to Larry Leavitt '25. That year there were 31 Sponsors and they paid for 21 football players to visit Dartmouth. "I'm very proud of what the Sponsor Program has grown into, but Larry Leavitt deserves a lot of the credit," says Hicks.

For the. next 22 years, Leavitt ran and expanded the program. In 1969, the program was opened up to include sports other than football. In 1982, women came under the aegis of the NCAA and were finally allowed to recruit. Last September, the Sponsor Program entered another new phase. The number of Sponsors had been hovering for a period of time at about 250 members, and Burnham and Radasch decided to initiate a membership drive. Since last September they've signed up about 80 new Sponsors. Burnham says that 30 to 40 of the 325 Sponsors are not alumni. Bob Blackman, for example, has been an active Sponsor for several years.

Some current undergraduates who visited the campus through the generosity of sponsors include all-America distance runner Jim Sapienza 85 of Louisville, Ky.; football co-captain Don Pomeroy '85 of Bozeman, Mont.; and hockey captain Todd Soutor '85 of St. Paul, Minn.

A total of 132 prospects visited the campus through the Program last year alone. The cost for bringing those athletes here was about $45,000.

Alumni coordinator Radasch first became a Sponsor in 1979. He says the Sponsors are a "great, enthusiastic group. They're very interested in Dartmouth athletics and want to see that we remain competitive with the rest of the league."

Contributions, which are tax-deductible, range from $100 to $1,500. Burnham says the average contribution is $250. Radasch likes to look at the program philosophically. "The person is investing in the College's future and the young people who come here," he says.

Sponsors are given the name or names of the athletes they underwrite for trips to Hanover so they can follow their careers. Earlier this year, a dinner was held in Hanover for a group of Sponsors and the recruits they were underwriting. "It was a worthwhile experience for everyone," says Burnham.

With the membership drive underway, Burnham and Radasch decided to form an advisory board last fall to help with organizational and administrative duties. The seven-member board consists of Leavitt '25, Dick Black '29, Les Godwin '30, Bob Fernald '36, Young Dawkins '38, Bill Craig '44, and Dune Fitchet '46.

The short-term goal of the Program calls for 500 Sponsors by 1987 with a $125,000 fund to work from.

The two classes with the most Sponsors as of mid-February were the Class of 1926 and the Class of 1932 with 16 members each. The Class of 1936 is close behind with 13 Sponsors.

The youngest Sponsor is Kathleen Marshall '84 of Boston, who ran crosscountry while she was at Dartmouth. "We are very eager to have young alumni participate," says Radasch.

But no matter what their class or the size of their donation, Burnham says, the Sponsors are all working toward the same goal. "Our charge has always been to be competitive in the Ivy League. The Sponsor Program is vital if we want to do that and put Dartmouth back in the front rank, where we belong."

Alumni coordinator. Don Radasch '35

Sponsor Program head Whitey Burnham '46a

Future L.A. Rams qb Jeff Kemp '81 (above) came to Hanover via the Sponsors, as did

Kemp's classmate, Jeff Dufresne, above, a star running back from White Bear Lake, Minn

Linebacker Reggie Williams ' 76, another beneficiary of the Sponsor Program, puts the collaron Harvard's Pat Maclnally. They are now NFL teammates on the Cincinnati Bengals.

All-America AlRozycki '61 now makes roundsat Mary Hitchcock, where he's an M.D.

Ml-American Jim Sapienza '85, above, cameto Dartmouth from Louisville, while

Dave Shula '81, who played pro ball in theNFL, now coaches with the Dolphins.