1994

O.K., here is a story that I have been saving for this special column on Dartmouth athletics. It came to me indirectly from a letter that Jack DeGange, former director of development publications, passed on to some of my Alumni Mag sources. It is a tribute to a very special legacy of athletic contribution to Dartmouth football that includes a coach, a player, and a team manager, or more specifically, a father, a son, and a granddaughter. Missy Blackman was manager of Dartmouth's 1996 undefeated football team, the first since 1970, when her grandfather, Bob Blackman, coached Dartmouth to its third undefeated season during his 16 years in Hanover. Bob Blackman earned his election to the College Football Hall of Fame largely on his achievements as football coach at Dartmouth from 1955-1970. During 16 seasons his teams had a record of 104-37-3, produced three undefeated-untied teams (1962, 1965, 1970) and won or shared seven Ivy League championships. His 1965 and 1970 teams were the only Ivy League teams to win the Lambert Trophy. After the 1970 season, Bob left Dartmouth to coach Illinois and then Cornell before retiring. Gary Blackman was a member of his father's football team at Dartmouth before graduating in 1968. He went on to a career as a secondary school coach and athletic administrator.

Missy followed the family footsteps to Dartmouth in 1990, and continued the legacy by managing the freshman football team and assisting the varsity team that shared the Ivy title with Cornell. She was the varsity manager as Dartmouth repeated as Ivy champion in '9l and co-champion with Princeton in '92. In 1993 Missy took a leave of absence to be with her family and help care for her father, who was battling cancer. Gary Blackman passed away in November 1995. Both Missy and her mother, Wendy Blackman, moved to the Dartmouth area after Gary's death. Missy returned to Dartmouth in the spring of 1996, where she completed her degree, and also resumed her football managerial duties, with a team that produced Dartmouth's first 10-0 season (her grandfather's three teams were all 9-0).

Now that Missy's Dartmouth career is over, we anxiously await the next generation of Blackmans to find their own place somewhere in the sidelines of Dartmouth football history. They are certainly big shoes to fill, but as the dedication of the past three generations seems to prove, the Blackman family seems to have both football and success built in their genes!

Well, you can't read about Dartmouth football in a '94 article without wondering what our favorite quarterback, Jay Fiedler, is doing these days. My last info source is from this past spring, when Jay signed on with the Amsterdam Admirals of the World League of American Football. I don't know how things went for him out there, but I do know that Roger Hughes, Dartmouth quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, has every hope and confidence in the 1992 Ivy League Player of the Year, as he confirmed to the Valley News in April that "they can't find a better leader or a better competitor" than Jay.

Also be sure to watch for Gretchen Ulion in the Olympics this February, as she is one of the 25 women selected to form the core of the U.S. national women's hockey team that will compete in this year's Winter Olympics.

As for my own athletic achievements, I have managed to go almost a full year without falling down or tripping over myself, probably the first since I learned how to walk back in '72. It's been a banner year for me so far, but I've still got all the slippery months of winter to go before I can claim an undefeated season. Wish me luck. And please write.

3 Whittier Road, Milford MA 01757;

Football maestro Jay Fiedler '94, p. 32

llsa Webeck '94 stands tall, p. 48