Green Wave Trumps Big Green

This one has to rankle Buddy Teevens a little bit. A 300-pound lineman who took a visit to Dartmouth and is said to run a 5-flat 40 has chosen the Green Wave over the Big Green. That's the Green Wave as in Tulane. As in the school where Teevens once coached. There's a mention here.

Ryan Fuselier, who led the Ivy League in receptions last fall as a fifth-year Dartmouth senior, drew interest from five NFL teams but after weighing his options is headed to New York and Morgan Stanley's Institutional Investment Branch as part of a two-year grooming program for financial analysts. Fuselier was named to the All-New England first team this fall and twice was chosen to the All-Ivy second team. Also an outstanding student, Fuselier won Dartmouth's Alan Hewitt '34 and Robert Hewitt '40 Award as "the player who best epitomizes athletic performance with academic achievement." He had 57 catches for 711 yards and three touchdowns last fall.

A column in today's Daily Dartmouth looks at the Ivy League's prohibition against going to the football playoffs and the absence of a postseason basketball tournament in the conference.

The Columbia Spectator has a story about a wrestler who chose between hitting the mat in New York City or the blue gridiron at Boise State. Kevin Lester was a second-team, All-State offensive lineman at Idaho's Nampa High School. From the story: " 'It was a difficult decision,' Lester said of his choice between wrestling at Columbia and playing football at hometown college Boise State."

Gotta think football coach Norries Wilson would love to see the 6-foot-5 grappler give football a go. In another era, Dartmouth linebacker Reggie Williams combined football and wrestling.

Reading about Lester reminded me of Dartmouth senior Rob Kerris, who captained Pennsylvania his high school football team to a 13-2 record and a state championship as a senior center and defensive end. He was chosen to the all-state third team before deciding to compete on the track team as a throw at Dartmouth. You just know the football people would have loved to see what he could do. I wrote about Kerris last year. Find the story here.