Matt Dougherty, the former Dartmouth Sports Information intern who does such a tireless job covering Division I-AA (sic) football for The Sports Network, wraps up the year with his "best of" column. Among other things, he rightfully laments the fact that we never had a chance to see how Princeton would have fared in the playoffs. And he takes a little shot at the NCAA for the change in I-A, I-AA (oops) nomenclature. ... Matt's early pick for the top-10 next year includes New Hampshire, which loses David Ball but will see the return of a very dangerous Granite State-bred flanker named Mike Boyle, who was injured much of this year. Also joining the UNH program are a couple of interesting recruits as this Manchester Union Leader story notes. Oh, and there's a fellow named Santos who will be guiding the offense. Again.
Brown may have the inside track for an Arizona quarterback with some pretty astonishing numbers if, and it's one of those big ifs, he doesn't go Division I-A. (oops). The kid completed more than 60 percent of his attempts as both a junior and senior, throwing 21 touchdown passes and passing for almost 3,000 yards in 11 games. Apparently Harvard and Yale have also shown some interest. I'm reminded of a story people tell about Bob Blackman, the legendary Dartmouth coach. It has a ring of truth to it. What people say is Blackman's goal was to have the best quarterback in the league on the field and the next-best on his bench ... so he didn't have to play against him.
We had a good trip up to Burlington yesterday to see the Dartmouth men's hoop team battle Vermont. The fans up there are nothing short of rabid. It's a dramatic contrast with the Hanover wine-and-cheese crowd. I didn't see one this time around, but they have the best T-shirts up there. They say: "UVM Football, Undefeated Since 1974." That, of course, is when the school gave up the game. There are occasional rumblings about starting the sport up again, but don't expect that dog to hunt, as they say.
There's a nice Hartford Courant piece about former Dartmouth hockey standout Hugh Jessiman (aka Huge Specimen) visiting sick children in the hospital while playing for the Hartford Wolf Pack hockey team. Jessiman, you may recall, was the top draft pick of the New York Rangers several years ago.
Stretching a little for football content this morning ;-), Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher has two daughters playing basketball at Princeton and will host them overnight at the end of their holiday trip to Pittsburgh. We saw Cowher at the Ivy League playoff against Dartmouth last March in New Haven. My kids keep hoping he'll show up in Hanover one winter.
Thanks to another reader for clicking the tip jar over to the right. I wish I had a bell I could ring when that happens so everyone could hear it. I appreciate the encouragement to keep going. ... Now I'm off to battle the traffic in West Lebanon, not for shopping, but to make a dump run. Ah life in the country.
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