Reliving The Glory

Remember that 21-14 win over Lehigh in the undefeated 1996 season? How Greg Smith rumbled for 127 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries and how future San Diego Charger Lloyd Lee made two interceptions and recovered a fumble to send a Lehigh Homecoming crowd of 11,325 home disappointed? If you'd like to revisit that exciting game from the only 10-0 season in Dartmouth history, you can purchase a DVD of the WFMZ TV broadcast for $19.95 by clicking here.

Lehigh is selling DVDs of many of its football games at this site. It's a terrific service that other schools would be well-advised think about offering. My only complaint is the Big Green's 30-28 loss at Lehigh in 1991 isn't available. To this day I believe that catch was inbounds and Dartmouth should have won the game. ...

The Lehigh site says "archived games are being added constantly," so there's hope we'll finally have the definitive answer on that one at some point. ;-)

The Ivy League web site notes that two former Ivy League standouts will be in uniform for the New York Giants at Green Bay today, while another is on the roster. The starting longsnapper and backup linebacker for the G-men is Brown grad Zak DeOssie. Cornell grad Kevin Boothe backs up both offensive guard positions. And Penn product Jim Finn, a former starter at fullback, is on the team's injured reserve list.

Dartmouth wide receiver emeritus Brian Evans placed second in the 60-meter dash for the Big Green yesterday in a tri-meet at Leverone with Columbia and Yale, running a 7.06. He was fourth in the 200 meters at 23.28.

A story on the Tampa Tribune web site is a reminder about why there are coaches around the country who scoff when Ivy League purists say the Ancient Eight is a non-scholarship league. From the story:

Gulf lineman Steve Reid is set to visit Brown University this weekend, Buccaneers coach Jay Fulmer said Thursday.

Reid is all set in the academics department, and while the Ivy League school does not offer athletic scholarships, it does offer scholarship and aid packages that bring down the cost of tuition. Fulmer said Reid would likely qualify for enough aid that remaining cost would be around $5,000 per year at an institution where the tuition is up to $50,000.

We all know that if said lineman is receiving this package, a non-athlete who fits the same financial aid profile is supposed to receive the same package. But just because everyone who fits that profile gets the aid doesn't erase the fact, in Coach X's mind at least, that the lineman is, in fact, receiving a $45,000 package. And that the package the lineman is receiving likely exceeds the athletic grant that many FCS schools can offer.

A final thought: If there are coaches out there who thought the Ivies were offering de facto athletic scholarships before, what are they thinking in light of the recent financial aid revisions at Harvard and Yale?