Well, our English Department is still better'n their English Department.
Any comparison between the Harvard and Dartmouth football teams however, had better be postponed until Saturday's game is forgotten. And Saturday's game is going to take a lot of forgetting.
The score at the end was Dartmouth 43, Harvard 0, after the Indians ran up a 35-0 lead at halftime. Dartmouth got 22 first downs to 6 for Harvard. The Indians intercepted three passes, blocked three punts, got 256 yards rushing, and 101 (plus three touchdowns) passing.
One of Those Days
It was the biggest score a Dartmouth team had ever rolled up on Harvard, but was it necessarily disastrous for a Crimson team that was losing its first Ivy League game after two victories.
"Nah," said Dartmouth's coach Bob Blackman in the locker room after the game. "You have your ups and downs; today we were way up and Harvard was way down.
"Two weeks ago we lost to Princeton by 30 points. We weren't that bad, but the score made Princeton look like a super team. But they aren't that good: I wouldn't be surprised if Harvard beat Princeton."
Yovicsin, though obviously stunned by the game, took a fatalistic attitude: "Sure, it was tough, but we've been through worse before, and I'd be kidding if I said this would be the last bad one.
"But we're no worse off in the Ivy League standings than we would be if we'd lost by a point. Look, we're in ex- actly the same position in the league as Dartmouth. Two weeks ago they were on their backs, and now they're in the thick of the race. If we come back, we'll be in the thick of it, And we'll come back."
Things started badly when Dartmouth marched 60 yards in seven plays for a touchdown the first time they got their hands on the ball. A 21-yard run by Captain Jack McLean set it up, and when the Crimson defense stiffened, quarterback Bruce Gottschall fired a third-down pass to Tom Clarke, cutting over the middle for the score.
Blitzed
But the height of sheer horror wasn't reached until a nightmarish second quarter when Dartmouth scored 28 points in 11 minutes.
The entire period was played within the Harvard 35-yard line. On the first play Jerry Mechling punted the ball into the unobtrusive back of Dartmouth guard Tony Yezer. Dartmouth took over on the Crimson 24 and Bob O'Brien and Mike Urbanic took it over in seven carries, halfback O'Brien getting the touchdown on a four-yard off-tackle jaunt.
John McCluskey got off Harvard's longest run of the period--five yards--but the Crimson had to punt. This time Mechling had to leap for John O'Brien's high center and Bill Calhoun blocked the kick.
Dartmouth took over at the Harvard 27. McLean and O'Brien took it to the 15 in four carries and Gottschall, on the third down, passed to Steve Bryan, who walked into the end zone untouched.
Mechling got his next kick off, but sophomore quarterback Mickey Beard returned it 21 yards to the Harvard 21. This time it took five plays before l'ete Klungness wandered around left end on a reverse and scored from 19 yards out.
Loss of Innocence
Harvard had had only one first down, and that had come on a penalty, so John Yovicsin decided to change his offense and give sophomore quarterback Ray Kubacki some game experience.
Kubacki's first experience came when end Jean Lumi smashed him for a seven-yard loss. His next came when a Dartmouth lineman tackled him while he was passing. The pass wandered into the hands of Lumi at the Harvard 19.
There were 18 seconds left in the half. There were 13 seconds left when Klungness crossed the goal line after taking a perfect pass from Beard. Gary Wilson's fifth conversion made it 35 to 0, Dartmouth.
After taking the second-half kickoff Dartmouth's first team marched 64 yards in 9 plays for a sixth score. O'Brien, Dartmouth's leading ground gainer of the day with 61 yards, took it in for the score from five yards out. This tire Wilson missed the kick.
Dartmouth's last score came after a roughing-the-kicker penalty on Harvard moved the ball to the 31. Four plays later reserve fullback Pete Walton scored on a seven yard gallop over right guard.
Unobstrusive Offense
Meanwhile, Harvard's offense was as nonexistent as the defense. During the second and third quarters the Crimson never got beyond its own 29; three of the team's six first downs came on a last-minute drive directed by Kubacki that carried to the Dartmouth 22 as fans on both sides of the field cheered mightily. But a pass to Justin Hughes in the end zone was broken up as the game ended.
In the locker room, Yovicsin looked shell-shocked. After he made a few comments on his team's injuries, no one asked him a question for ten minutes. Finally someone asked timidly. "Did it surprise you, John?"
Yovicsin shook his head. "Nothing that happens at Harvard surprises anyone."
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