Two Familiar Names

Not a huge fan of Bleacher Report because the quality of the work posted by non-professional writers can be uneven, but this one (link) is well done and fun for a couple of reasons.

First, the list of top-25 all-time Cincinnati Bengals includes – not surprisingly – Dartmouth grad Reggie Williams '76.

Given the profile the writer paints of Williams, I might quibble about him being pegged at No. 20, but I'll venture a guess for why he's that low.

Why? Avoiding the appearance of favoritism.

The BR writer who pulled together the feature that includes Williams happens to be Kyle Battle '11. Battle, you may remember, is a former Dartmouth wide receiver who walked onto the team only to see an injury end his career just when it appeared he was headed for a breakthrough.

Among the nuggets Battle shares about Williams:

• He's No. 1 in team history for fumble recoveries
• He's No. 2 all-time in sacks
• He's No. 2 all-time in games played
• He's No. 3 all-time in consecutive games played

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Kudos to the Dartmouth women's sailing team for winning its third national championship Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Big Green also won titles in 1992 and 2000. (link)

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Speaking of national champions, Dartmouth junior Abbey D'Agostino begins the chase for another 5,000-meter title tonight at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships East Preliminary Round in Greensboro, N.C. For the list of Dartmouth women competing in Greensboro, click here. For the list of Dartmouth men competing, click here.

D'Agostino, who won the 5,000 last spring and the 3,000 and 5,000 national titles this winter indoors, runs at 8:05. Live results from D'Agostino's run can be found here.

Worth noting:

• 15:07.64 – Fastest college 5,000 (2009)
• 15:11.35 – D'Agostino's time in the Mt. Sac Relays in April
• 15:15.08 – Fastest time in the NCAA Meet (2008)

Relatively Speaking II

On Monday BGA took a look at which incoming freshmen had relatives who were pro athletes. (link) Today: A look at which players returning next fall have relatives who at some point were paid to play:

• Defensive back Mike Banaciscki's dad, Joe, signed with the Philadelphia Eagles
• Offensive lineman/tight end Pat Hand's father Rich played in the Oakland A's organization
• Defensive back Chai Reece's cousin Marcel Reece is a fullback for the Oakland Raiders.
• Linebacker Tyler Stout's cousin (Wild) Willie Trognitz played with the Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association.
• Linebacker Eric Wickham's father André was in camp with the Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers.
• Wide receiver KJ Booze is a second cousin of former Chicago Bear quarterback Henry Burris.
• Defensive back Paddy Clancy's great uncle, Jack Clancy, was a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers.
• Tight end Sam Laptad's brother, Jake, was signed as a long snapper by the Chicago Bears.
• A.J. Zuttah's brother Jeremy is an offensive lineman with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

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With the Class of '17 set, Ivy League coaches are hard at work identifying the Class of '18. One name that has draw attention – and offers – is Adarius Pickett, a corner from El Cerrito, Calif. From the Cal Golden Blogs:

Another local recruit who is starting to make big waves nationally. Great athleticism and ball skills, watch the tape and you can see why he is starting to get offers from schools across the country. 

Cal is high on his list as of now, and I'm guessing the proximity factor is helping in this situation. Looks like he can also get it done in the classroom, as he has a Yale offer that he is apparently taking very seriously, same deal with Dartmouth.

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After going quiet for a couple of weeks, the Columbia football page has resumed postings with a brief note that includes this, presumably from coach Pete Mangurian:

While the issues of the last two weeks will continue to be a major focus throughout the summer and into next season, we will continue to build and prepare Team #123. We remain committed to the complete development of the men in this program. 

A small number of our players fell far short of our expectations and standards. I see this as an opportunity to grow and improve as a team and as individuals. Our actions from this point determine our success in defining this team. We have a large number of players staying in New York for the summer in order to work and prepare together for next season. We have a plan. We are moving forward.

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Just finished reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Seabiscuit author Lauren Hillenbrand's recounting of Olympian-turned-POW Louis Zamperini's inspiring story will keep you turning the pages.

Recruiting News

The Dartmouth takes a look at the incoming class of freshman football players under the headline, Football team announces 35 recruits in the Class of 2017.

To be accurate, there are 29 recruits and six incoming freshmen who have expressed an interest in playing football.

Editor's Note: I've compiled the first list for the last eight incoming classes and each time coach Buddy Teevens has debated whether to include high school players who may – or may not – join the team as walk-ons. Because he usually has very little information on those potential players I frequently have to dig and dig to learn something/anything about the walk-ons for the bios I write. Each year, it seems, there are at least one or two who end up not playing but because they will be given a chance if they play, Teevens does not want to leave them out.

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One incoming freshman who will be joining the team just received some great news. Mike Langman, a 6-foot-4, 265-pound offensive lineman from Naperville, Ill., and Naperville North High School, is the winner of the Rob Koranda Scholarship that honors the memory of 2002 Princeton graduate Rob Koranda, who turned to rugby after an injury ended his football career. The scholarship is "awarded to a senior girl and senior boy who best exemplify Rob's spirit full of community, athleticism, leadership, academics, friendship and family."

Rob Koranda's brother, John, came to Dartmouth as a football player and graduated in 2003.

Langman was selected for the Koranda Scholarship from a list of 150 Naperville North students nominated by teachers, coaches and administrators. The semifinalists and finalists each went through a battery of interviews before the winners were chosen.

More about the scholarship:

The purpose of this award is to perpetuate the goodness, leadership, and 
community spirit as exemplified daily by Rob Koranda and inspire positive 
social change through the attributes of the individual.

From Langman's bio:

Unanimous DuPage Valley Conference 8A selection who was honored as the conference lineman of the year… Illinois High School Football Coaches Association and News-Gazette first-team all-state…North team captain as a senior…offered a scholarship by Syracuse…offered by Yale, North Dakota and South Dakota and was courted by Vanderbilt and Cincinnati.

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Speaking of recruits, Cornell is the latest Ivy League school to post information on its incoming class. link

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The Dartmouth has a story about the dual-sport participation of wide receiver/outfielder Bo Patterson. The sophomore offers this insight:

“One sport is passive, the other I play is very aggressive, so it’s cool to get to interact with those two types of players and people."

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The Sports Network rates FCS conferences this way:
1. Missouri Valley
2. Big Sky
3. Southern
4. CAA
5. Southland
6. Ohio Valley
7. Patriot
8. Ivy
9. Mid-Eastern
10. Big South
11. Northeast
12. Southwest
13. Pioneer

Of the Ivy League it has this to say:

It's still Penn and Harvard, Harvard and Penn, with a little Brown sprinkled into some title races. Princeton hopes to finally be putting it together, and Cornell has quarterback Jeff Mathews at the controls again. What can't be overlooked is a lot of players in this non-scholarship league could be playing elsewhere on scholarship. It's a quality league.

Editor's Note: Not to be picky, but it's interesting that Princeton and Cornell get a mention and Dartmouth doesn't. Princeton has gone 0-7, 1-6 and 4-3 in the Ivies the last three years, losing to the Big Green each time. Cornell has gone 1-6, 3-4 and 2-5, losing to Dartmouth each time. Dartmouth, meanwhile has gone 3-4, 4-3 and 4-3.

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A terrific honor for an Ivy Leaguer, the conference and a beleaguered sport: Cornell wrestler Kyle Dake has been named Sports Illustrated's male College Athlete of the Year. Dake, of course, won its fourth NCAA championship – at a fourth different weight class – this winter.

The Ivies (and Cornell) could be in line for another huge award with Princeton's Tom Schreiber and Cornell's Rob Pannell among the five finalists for the Tewaaraton Trophy as the outstanding player in men's college lacrosse. link

Gellin' With Kellen

Lineman Jacob Flores poses with NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow.

NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow was on campus yesterday to talk about wellness in a college environment. Quoted in a story in The Dartmouth about Winslow's talk was Big Green freshman quarterback Ernest Evans, who had this to say:

“As I listened to him, I thought of our Peak Performance program. We have an academic advisor, a person to help out with finances and many other people that are able to hold us accountable and responsible to be as well as possible. I think we are way ahead of the curve compared to other schools and I think this pays dividends to the athletes who graduate from this school."

I was surprised that neither the story in today's Dartmouth nor the piece in our local daily had any mention of Winslow's thoughts about concussions in sports. Clearly that wasn't central to his appearance but it was a terrific opportunity for a journalist to ask someone who played the game at the highest level – and sent a son on to the NFL – about a subject he hasn't been afraid to address. From a story in the Fayetteville Observer last year:

Like many players, Winslow has concerns about the issue of concussions that is a hot topic of concern in the NFL. 

He compares the concussion debate to the old legal battles over tobacco. 

"There was knowledge of a defective product or effects of a certain activity that was held back from the general public so they could not make a good decision as far as health was concerned,'' he said. "Big tobacco was accused of having evidence that tobacco caused cancer back in the 1930s and 1940s but they hid that evidence.'' 

To be fair, Winslow said any study of concussions must include all concussions a player has suffered, dating back to the start of his career before pro football. "That's a hard nut to crack,'' he said.

Editor's Note: If that Gellin' With Kellen headline got you smiling, click here.

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Speaking of concussions, the Ivy League has followed last year's rules about concussions and football  with rules about concussions and ice hockey.

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In a column pointing out that there are 100 days until the first college football game of the 2013 season, various notes involving the number 100 are included. One involves a Dartmouth football game against Yale that was one for the books. The history books.

Editor's Note: There are 122 days until the Ivy League season begins. Dartmouth kicks off at Butler on Sept. 21, four months from yesterday.

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Venerable Franklin Field is getting a new SPRINTTURF surface for next season as noted on the Penn football web page. Although the story isn't completely clear, it seems to suggest that the old surface was in use for 10 years.

That got me thinking about Dartmouth's FieldTurf surface on Memorial Field. A FieldTurf website says  that "based on 80,000 square foot fields and average costs and usage rates across North America," a FieldTurf field should last 8-10 years.

Dartmouth installed its FieldTurf on Memorial Field in 2006 and while I'm hardly an expert, it seems to be holding up well. Proper maintenance of the field has surely helped.

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A local writer gives the "new" Hanover Inn a thumb's up on the Forbes magazine blog. He writes:

Hanover, New Hampshire is home to Dartmouth College and by far the smallest and quaintest of the college towns in the elite Ivy League, with its original white buildings dating to the mid-18th century and its prominent library tower surrounding a classic open New England town green. Its Main Street is lined with shops, Hanover sits smack on the famous Appalachian Trail footpath, and the entire place oozes atmospheric New England flavor. 

But for as long as I have lived in the Hanover area, which is over two decades, the town has lacked something: good lodging. Fortunately for students, parents and visitors, that has changed.

While the writer goes on to laud the new restaurant at the Inn, reviews I've heard on the whole of the Hanover Inn renovation project have been decidedly mixed. To each his or her own ;-)

Award Winners

Two Dartmouth football players were presented with awards at the College's annual Celebration of Athletic Excellence at Leede Arena.
Honored were junior linebacker Michael Runger and senior linebacker Garrett Wymore.
Runger was presented with the Class of 1948 Scholar-Athlete Award, given "to one male and one female of the junior class, who have combined outstanding performance in athletics and significant achievement in academics." From the release:

Michael Runger

Runger earned the men’s Class of 1948 award after maintaining a 3.75 GPA as an economics major. He has been an Academic All-District selection and FCS Athletics Directors Academic All-Star. On the field, Runger led the Big Green’s defensive efforts with a league-best 98 tackles, making at least double-digit stops in six of the 10 games, helping him earn a spot on the All-Ivy First Team. And in the season finale at Princeton, he recorded 17 tackles, the most by an Ivy player all year.

Wymore was given the Timothy Ellis Award for ""extracurricular and scholastic drive, spirit, loyalty and amiability which made Tim such a well-known member of the community." From the release:

Garrett Wymore

Wymore is an exceptional student as a double major in economics and neuroscience while maintaining a 3.90 grade-point average. In 2012, he was named Academic All-District, Academic All-Ivy, an Athletics Directors Association Academic All-Star and to the NFF Hampshire Honor Society. A Rhodes Scholar applicant, he started eight of the 10 games this past fall on the gridiron and was second on the squad with four tackles for a loss of a team-high 47 yards. In his career, he recorded 131 tackles, broke up six passes and forced a fumble.

The Outstanding Male Athlete was junior Nejc Zupan, the Ivy League Swimmer of the Meet who became the first Dartmouth swimmer to qualify for the NCAAs in 30 years. Hardly a surprise as the winner of the Class of 1976 Award as the outstanding female athlete was junior track All-American Abbey D'Agostino, the only American collegiate woman ever to win both the 3000 and 5000 meters in a career – something she accomplished in two days. D'Agostino has won the Class of 1976 Award two years in a row (and will win it again next year barring injury ;-).

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Finally found the CFPA Wide Receivers Watch List on the Old Dominion University football page. Go figure. Here's the list (with the Ivy League members italicized):

• Greg Hardin - North Dakota
• Andrew Peacock - Appalachian State
• Sean Price - Appalachian State
• Jordan Harris - Bryant
• Willie Tucker - Cal Poly
• Matt Hazel - Coastal Carolina
• Grant Gellatly - Cornell
• Nick Rosa - Drake
• Gianni Carter - Duquesne
• Erik Lora - Eastern Illinois
• Ashton Clark - Eastern Washington
• Kierre Brown - Elon
• Brian Wetzel - Fordham 
• Kenny Cook - Gardner-Webb
• Mark Ross - Lafayette
• Tanner Bleskin - Montana State
• Walter Powell - Murray State
• R.J. Harris - New Hampshire
• Brett LeMaster - Northern Iowa
• Larry Pinkard - Old Dominion
• Antonio Vaughan - Old Dominion
• Roman Wilson - Princeton
• Stephen Barnette - Richmond
• Ben Edwards - Richmond
• Reggie Bell - San Diego
• Simon Heyward - Savannah State
• D.J. Ward - Stephen F. Austin
• Tyler McDonald - South Carolina State
• Lee Doss - Southern University
• Fatu Moala - Southern Utah
• Ladarius Eckwood - Arkansas Pine Bluff
• Jeremy Butler - Tennessee-Martin
• Tre McBride - William and Mary

Cornell's Gellatly caught 61 passes for 940 yards (15.4 ypc) with 5 TDs. He averaged 94.0 yards per game.

Princeton's Wilson caught 37 balls for 649 yards (17.5 ypc) with 5 TDs. He averaged 64.9 yards per game.

 Perhaps just as deserving of a place on the list:

• Brown's Tellef Lundevall is a senior who was expected to petition for a fifth year. He caught 72 passes for 718 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 71.8 yards per game.
• Penn's Conner Scott caught 52 passes for 691 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 69.1 yards per game.
• Dartmouth's Ryan McManus caught 42 balls for 664 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 66.4 yards per game.

Relatively Speaking

Digging through information on incoming freshmen revealed that a lot of the recruits have relatives who played college sports. Some have relatives who went pro. Among the latter:

• Safety Lucas Bavaro's father Mark was a tight end with the New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles.

• Wide receiver Jon Marc Carrier's father Mark was a receiver with the Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

• Defensive end Brandon Cooper's cousin Barron Tanner was a defensive lineman with the Miami Dolphins, Washington Redskins and Arizona Cardinals.

• Running back Abrm McQuarters is a second cousin of R.W. McQuarters, a defensive back who played for the New York Giants, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers.

• Offensive lineman David Morrison's cousin, Mike Morrison, played in the NHL for the Phoenix Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators.

• Linebacker Alex McCrory's grandfather, El Collins, teed it up on the Senior PGA Tour.

• Offensive lineman Jack Friedman's uncle, Stuart Friedman, played in the Minnesota Twins' minor league system. 

• Tight end Peter Eggert's uncle Tom Tipton signed as a free agent with the New Orleans Saints in 1977.

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The Patriot-Ledger in Massachusetts has a story about a bench at a Braintree, Mass., recreation facility being dedicated to the memory of Ron Smith, a former Dartmouth football player. Described as a "longtime youth sports coach and official," Smith died of pneumonia on Dec. 28, 2012. LINK

The story notes that . . .

The bench was donated by the Friends of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital and Dartmouth College.

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Saw that several schools have notes that they have players on the College Football Performance Awards Wide Receiver Watch List. I didn't expect to find a Dartmouth player on the list but with Jeff Mathews back slinging it for another year at Cornell I expected to find at least one Big Red receiver on the list.

Here's the problem. Try as I might, I've never been able to find a link to the CFPA watch lists. I've posted them in the past (Dominick Pierre) but only after finding the lists on the websites of schools that have players listed on the watch lists such as this one.

If the information is out there it's tricky finding it, and that is too bad. Hopefully I can pull up the names tomorrow.

Winslow Coming To Town

With apologies to former NFL veteran Casey Cramer '04, the best tight end to ever set foot on the Dartmouth campus will be in town Tuesday. That's a safe bet because Kellen Winslow has to be in any conversation about the best tight end in NFL history.

Winslow will be speaking about wellness Tuesday at Dartmouth Hall from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995 and the College Football Hall in 2002, Winslow starred for the San Diego Chargers from 1979-87. He had been an All-America selection at Missouri and went on to earn his JD at the University of San Diego School of Law.

From the announcement of his visit:

Winslow frequently speaks with college students about how lifestyle choices they make in college impact their personal health and their ability to get succeed after college.

Winslow has served as director of athletics and wellness at Central State University in Ohio where, the Dartmouth release notes, he "created health intervention programs designed to foster academic success and a more active and healthy lifestyle for all students."

He recently stepped down as vice president for athletics and wellness at Lakeland College in Wisconsin.

Mad Max

Artist and popular former Dartmouth quarterback Max Heiges '10 is the subject of this story about a 26-foot tall, 750-pound art installation he is responsible for in Geyserville, Calif.

Max Heiges
(Courtesy Dartmouth)

Heiges, well known for making terrific Etch-A-Sketch art and funny drawings on the white board in quarterback meetings when he was in college, was also a serious studio art major at Dartmouth.

From the story:

During high school at the Marin School of the Arts, his obsession was creating realistic paintings, taking pages from National Geographic and copying them in oils. Yet high school football was what got him to Dartmouth College in Hanover, N. H.
At Novato High, he also served as football captain and lettered in track, lacrosse and baseball.
“To me, college was all about football, the coach and the team,” he said. “I was not intending on majoring in studio art, but that is where I found a place for myself.”

And . . .

He now spends part of most days in New York cleaning up for that artist and others. He pays the rent on his one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn with an evening job with a catering company, and has turned the living room into an art studio. 

“Now I am trying not to say yes to all the lucrative catering jobs so I will have more time for my own art,” he said.