Solving A Mystery

First, a happy and healthy new year to all.

Now, an update on a blog item for a few days ago about a Dartmouth football trophy sold on eBay. Former Dartmouth sports information director Jack DeGange, solves the mystery. Jack writes:

Every member of Dartmouth's 1970 football team received a trophy identical to the one displayed, including Alex Turner, a sophomore halfback on the team. Also, coaches and some athletic administrators (including me) received one of these trophies. Each trophy had a name plate identifying the recipient.

Coach Bob Blackman preferred trophies to rings to commemorate Ivy League championship seasons, each a different design and all produced by L. G. Balfour Company in Attleboro, Mass. Jake Crouthamel, Blackman's successor when Blackman left after the 1970 season to coach at Illinois, continued the trophy theme for Ivy championship seasons in 1971-72-73.

Travis Normand notes the images (on metal) of the Ivy and Lambert trophies on the left side of the trophy and the team photo on the back side. The missing element on the right side is a similar plate listing of the seven offensive and defensive statistics involving national ranking (plus a couple of significant Ivy League stats) achieved by the 1970 team that was undefeated (9-0-0), won the Ivy League championship and the Lambert Trophy as the outstanding team in the East.

The trophy appearing on Normand's web site isn't unique...there are close to 100 of them floating around. Likewise for other Ivy championship seasons achieved by Blackman's teams at Dartmouth (1958, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1969). Until 1969, Blackman had plaques made by Balfour. The more substantial trophies were created for the five-year run of Ivy titles from 1969-73.

The Portsmouth Herald's online service has a story with former UNH and current Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Asked about Ricky Santos, Kelly has the following to say about the record-setting UNH quarterback Dartmouth faced the past four years:

"Ricky could play anywhere. He's as good as anybody we've faced this year, whether it's the Michigan quarterback or anybody in the Pac-10. Ricky could play at any of those places."

The snow has started. Again. The forecast is calling for 6-12 inches this time. I don't know how much snow we had in December, but I read that Concord set a record for the month with 43 inches. I'd be shocked if we didn't have significantly more than that in the Upper Valley and more again up here on the shoulder of Moose Mountain. A few years ago our plow driver had to call in the reserves: a front-end loader to move the piles on the sides of our driveway back. This could end up being another of those years.