Spring Games Set

In case you are checking airline tickets ... Dartmouth's spring practice will feature a scrimmage on April 26 (Freshman Weekend) and will conclude with the spring game and barbecue on May 3. (Apparently that Freshman Weekend schedule has changed. I'll try to get a final schedule from the football office.)

A story in the Columbia Spectator suggests all Ivy League football fans should be rooting for Zak DeOssie, Kevin Boothe, Jim Finn and the New York Giants this Sunday.

Having watched Ricky Santos play for four years and having observed him in postgame press conferences, I've always been very impressed by the UNH quarterback. He's so tough, and such a competitor that I wouldn't be surprised if he wins a spot on an NFL roster next year. But this commentator known as Guru pegging him as an early round draft choice had me shaking my head. The fellow writes:

If he builds more mass, runs a sub 4.9 40, and does well in his passing drills, expect him to jump to the 2nd round and maybe higher, depending on how well he does.

Um, no.

Speaking of quarterbacks, check out this video on a Texas QB named Jerry Bell who is headed for Columbia.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has a story that caught me totally off guard. The lede of the piece:

The NCAA has agreed to settle an antitrust suit by making significant increases in benefits to current and former student-athletes.

Lawyer-types might want to take a look at a PDF of the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement between plaintiffs and defendant National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Cape Codder has a story about Dennis Redding, football officials observer for the ECAC, Ivy League, Patriot League and Colonial Athletic Association. You probably didn't know there even was such a person, but I've often wondered what the observer jotting down notes in the press box does. Bits and pieces from the story tell the tale:

"I make sure the referee knows the rules of football, uses the right mechanics and uses them properly," the 67-year-old Redding says. ...

... Arriving at the field about three hours before a game, he studies how the officials communicate with each other and cover the rules in their pre-game ritual, making sure they are on the same page. ...

... Once the game starts, Redding looks for communication, mobility and anticipation among the officials. The toughest thing he has to scout is their physical condition and appearance. ...

... When the game ends. Redding goes into the locker room and reviews it with the officials.

It's not football but it's Ivy and I find it interesting, so here indulge me. ... The Brown Daily Herald has a story (with photo) about the temporary swimming pool the school has installed in a bubble anchored down in a parking lot. When I first heard about the plan I couldn't imagine how they were going to pull off building such a large above-ground pool to be used in a New England winter, but they did. If you are curious, check out this photo gallery slide show.

And finally, a story in the local paper today talks about bringing high-speed Internet to rural areas of the Upper Valley, including our dirt road up here on Moose Mountain. The story says all that is needed is 15 houses per mile agreeing to buy some type of service (cable, phone or Internet) from the provider. That's great except for one thing: There aren't 15 houses per mile on our road. We're 1.5 miles down and the ninth house. Oh well. I guess slow Internet is part of the price you pay for living in paradise ;-)

Chicago-Area DB Commits

From the Chicago Sun Times:

Dartmouth--Received an oral commitment from DB Brendan Murray of Niles Notre Dame.

Brendan Murray was the East Suburban Catholic Conference co-defensive player of the year after leading Notre Dame with 130 tackles. The team captain, he was named all-conference, all-area, all-state honorable mention and academic all-state. (Find ND game recaps and honors here.)

From a story quoting recruiting analyst Tom Leeming:

Lemming describes free safety Brendan Murray of Niles Notre Dame as a sleeper. The 6-foot, 180-pounder has 4.5 speed and a 30 ACT score. He's being recruited by Mid-American and Ivy League schools.

''He is a big-time hitter as a safety, Doug Plank with speed,'' Lemming said. ''He hits as hard as anyone I've seen on film this year.''

And this from an earlier Sun Times story:

Notre Dame High School coach Mike Hennessey said free safety Brendan Murray, a 6-foot, 180-pounder, was an all-conference selection last year but college coaches weren't sure at what level he could play. Murray is one reason the Dons are off to a 3-0 start.

''But now his star is rising fast. His senior tape will tell a lot,'' Hennessey said. ''He plays with old-fashioned aggressiveness. He plays the game very hard, very physical. He brings a winning attitude to everything he does.''

Compiled Recruit List

UPDATED 11 a.m.
Here's a list of what we know, and what has been reported, about Dartmouth's recruiting class. While the Ivies don't take part in Signing Day, expect the names of a few more recruits to become public when they hold unofficial signings alongside scholarship-bound teammates next Wednesday. (Positions for the second group in particular, are from newspaper and web reports.)

Early Decision

• JB Andreassi, 5-11, 185, DB, St. Anthony’s, Melville, N.Y.
• Brad Dornak, 6-0, 195, WR, Westlake, Austin, Texas
• Mark Dwyer, 6-4, 250, TE, Woburn, Woburn, Mass.
• Austen Fletcher, 6-2, 285, OL, St. Anthony’s, Melville, N.Y.
• Conner Kempe, 6-4, 225, QB, The Benjamin School, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
• Pat Lahey, 6-3, 285, OL, Brooks School, North Andover, Mass.
• Grant Palmer, 6-5, 250, OL, St. Charles Prep, Columbus, Ohio
• Connor Phillips, 6-4, 235, DE, Winston Churchill, Potomac, Md.
• Mike Reilly, 6-3, 195, WR, Kent Denver, Englewood, Colo.
• Foley Schmidt, 5-8, 180, K, St. Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights, Minn.
• Alex Shulman, 6-2, 205, TE, Thayer Academy, Braintree, Mass.
• Zach Wodka, 6-3, 265, OL, Buffalo Grove, Buffalo Grove, Ill.

Reported In the Media

• Shawn Abuhoff, 5-10, 166, DB/WR, Dade Christian, Miami, Fla.
• Andy Altman, 6-2, 275, OL, La Jolla Country Day, La Jolla, Calif.
• Joey Casey, 5-11, 171, DB, Noblesville, Ind.
• Anthony DiBlasi, 6-1, 175, DB, Belen Jesuit, Miami, Fla.
• Diego Fernandez-Soto, 5-11, 190, TE/LB, Belen Jesuit, Miami, Fla.
• Brock Middleton, 6-5, 260, OL, Brophy Prep, Phoenix, Ariz.
• Brendan Murray, 6-0, 180, DB, Notre Dame, Niles, Ill.
  
• Nick Schwieger, 5-11, 195, TB, Bishop Feehan, Attleboro, Mass.
• Eddie Smith, 6-4, 265, OL/DE, Christian Academy, Louisville

I've heard from readers about several others, but can't confirm them yet because college coaches aren't allowed to comment on spring recruits. While high school coaches and families are allowed to speak publicly (check out the next story) I'm holding off listing any names that I don't read in the media.

The Union Leader takes an early look at some of the names that have popped up in the UNH recruiting class.

The Providence Journal has a story about Brown grad Zak DeOssie, who will be longsnapping for the New York Giants Sunday against the team for which he served as a ballboy when he was younger. From the story:

GLENDALE, Ariz. — When Zak DeOssie was selected in the fourth round of the 2007 NFL Draft out of Brown University, it wasn’t just a new beginning with a new team, it was the continuation of a family legacy.

USA Today writes about the Giants having three Ivy Leaguers on their roster: DeOssie, Cornell's Kevin Boothe and Penn's Jim Finn, who is on injured reserve. From the story:

... (T)he Giants are the first Super Bowl team with three Ivy League players on their roster. Fifteen Ivy Leaguers were on NFL teams this season.

DeOssie told the writer:

"We have a certain connection coming from the Ivy League, small schools. I like to think we're the epitome of student athletes. I'm not downgrading any other university. I'm just saying non-scholarship, true college athletes."

And finally, a quote that I saw on the wall of the gym when I took that certain Hanover 8th grader to his basketball game the other afternoon. It's not a sports quote, but it got me thinking and I thought I'd share it. The quote is from William Hazlitt (1778-1830). I must have seen this before, but I didn't remember it:

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.

Miami Nice ... Thrice

The Miami Herald reports that Shawn Abuhoff, a defensive back/wide receiver from Dade Christian has committed to play at Dartmouth. He is the third player in a week from the Miami area to be commit to continue his education and play in Hanover.

Abuhoff, listed at 5-10, 166 with a 4.5 time in the 40 by Scout.com, had 51 tackles and three interceptions last fall as a defensive back. As a receiver, he caught 15 balls for 369 yards (24.6 yards per catch) with four touchdowns. Find his full statistics here. He was a Class 1A all-state first team pick for Dade Christian, which advanced to the Region 4-1A final last fall.

Abuhoff is just the latest player to publicly commit to Dartmouth. The practice of oral commitments is the subject of a USA Today story looking into the possibility of an early signing period in football, perhaps in mid-December. From the story:

Says Terry Smith of Gateway High in Monroeville, Pa., who this season coached Shayne Hale, an All-USA linebacker who has committed to Pittsburgh: "It is a good thing. There are a lot of kids who are ready to make their decisions early on and want to get it over with. Once they make that decision, coaches will leave them alone."

According to the story, Georgia already has three oral commitments from the high school class of 2009.

The official "signing day," for this year is one week from Wednesday, and for fans of big-time college football, it's almost becoming a holiday. Consider that at Kansas State, they are selling tickets to their signing day festivities. I kid you not. Check out this link. It's $10 in advance ($5 for students with an ID) and $17 at the door if any of the 400 tickets are still available. Hey, you even get tailgating favorites with the price of admission. From the K-State site:

The event for K-State fans will be hosted by coach Prince, who will provide commentary on the Wildcats’ 2008 recruiting class and answer questions regarding the class. Recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach Matt Wallerstedt will also conduct a player-by-player review of the class, which will feature video clips of each of the new Wildcats.

Bill Hutchinson was never an official coach at Dartmouth, but the 1940 graduate who died at age 91 in Connecticut was a familiar site on the practice field working with punters and sometimes kickers into the early '80s. Find a story about his life at the Westport.now site. From the story:

Called Poppa by his family, Bill was a tremendous athlete, and credited his football coach at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, N.Y., for keeping him from becoming a “street bum,” and enabling him to attend Dartmouth College.

Details are sketchy but today's Daily Pennsylvanian has a story about the Franklin Field Pavilion slated for the northern concourse of the historic football stadium in Philadelphia. The area is slated to be converted into a state-of-the-art weight training center. Now, you didn't really think the athletic facilities arms race would stop now that the weight training center at Floren Varsity House has come online, did you?

Cato '05 Drafted

Former Dartmouth defensive lineman Derham Cato '05 was one of three Ivy League products taken in the inaugural All American Football League draft. Picked in the 40th round by Arkansas, the 6-3 1/2, 294-pound Cato spent time with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League last season. He previously played in the Arena League and has been on an NFL Europe roster.

Find the Arkansas draft selections here.

Other Ivy Leaguers taken in the AAFL draft were Princeton defensive lineman Ben Brielmaier, selected by Alabama in the third round, and former Yale quarterback Jeff Mroz, grabbed by Tennessee in the 50th round. The complete draft list can be found here.

The All American Football League, which hopes to capitalize on football fever in college towns, will play in college stadiums and is putting a premium on education. From the league web site:

The player must, without exception, have earned a 4-year degree or more advanced degree to be eligible to play in League games. However, some players who have not yet earned their degrees may be invited to tryout in the hopes that the opportunity will inspire them to complete their education.

The AAFL is slated to begin play this spring with teams in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas. Arkansas is scheduled to kick off the season April 12 at Texas. It will play at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

A couple of notes about an upcoming Ivy League football film. The working title of For Love And Honor has been changed to "8: Ivy League Football and America." Visit the film's website here.

Also, well-regarded actor Brian Dennehy, who played football at Columbia in the late '50's, has agreed to do narration for the film.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore qualified for this weekend's New Hampshire state championships in a third event yesterday, the 1000 meters. Though she was disappointed with her time, she brightened when informed that she was four seconds behind a teammate going to Stanford on a running scholarship and nine seconds ahead of the next runner behind her. As of now it looks as if she's doubling in the 3000 and the 1500 at states Sunday in Leverone Fieldhouse.

Line Them Up

Whether Dartmouth is looking for height up front or simply finding it, a review of line/tight end recruits uncovered so far shows two coming in at 6-foot-5, three listed at 6-4 and two at 6-3.

One of the big guys headed to Hanover next fall is 6-5, 260-pound Brock Middleton. An earlier Green Alert Blog posting told of a recruiting visit to Dartmouth by the senior at Arizona powerhouse Brophy College Prep. A visit to the Brophy football web site and to Scout.com makes it official that Dartmouth is his choice. Middleton will join former linemate Shane Peterlin in a Big Green uniform. (An aside: The Brophy site lists classmate Bryan Berens as heading to Harvard.)

According to the school website, no fewer than 25 Brophy products have gone on to play college football since 2000.

The fallout from the Great Financial Aid Reform movement continues with elite Maine schools Colby and Bowdoin joining the fray according to this story. The Providence Journal reports that Brown is investigating its options for making the school more affordable.

The case involving former West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez is being presided over by a Dartmouth alum. Federal District Judge John P. Bailey was a member of the Class of 1973. There's a story about Judge Bailey getting the case here.

Let's Go To The Video

For a few impressive highlights of Hanover-bound tailback Nick Schwieger, check out the video above. To see an interview with the 5-11, 195 back from Bishop Sheehan H.S. in Attleboro, Mass., click on this link. (Fellow Macophiles - if you get it to work, congrats because even with Windows Media Player I couldn't. )

Dartmouth recruit Connor Phillips, a 6-4, 235 defensive end from Winston Churchill H.S., in Potomac, Md., is featured in this story.

Joseph Crowley '43, a three-year letter winner at Dartmouth and a veteran of the famed 5th Down Game against Cornell, has died in Massachusetts. Find a story about Crowley, who played in a precursor of the NFL and later was a successful high school coach, in the Boston Globe. From the story:

An end who was recruited by Columbia, Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Michigan, Mr. Crowley went to Dartmouth, his son said, and was on the field in 1940 during what became known as the fifth-down game. Cornell scored a touchdown to win, 7-3, with two seconds left, but relinquished the victory after a review of the game films showed that an official mistakenly gave Cornell an extra down in the winning drive.

Crowley's NFL statistics can be found here.

A Cottrell Mention

The Atlantic City Press leads off its college notes with a short piece on Dartmouth linebacker Justin Cottrell earning FCS All-America honorable mention after leading the Ivy League in tackles. Cottrell tells the Press:

As far as recognition, because it is the Ivy League and all the stereotypes that go with it, I think that the level of competition often doesn't get the attention it deserves. However, I think that is slowly changing for the better because of the increasing number of guys who have gone onto find success at the next level.

Regarding that next level, Cottrell has his eyes on continuing to play next year. I've touched base with him trying to set up a time we can talk about his football plans and after I do I'll have a story up on the Green Alert site. (Photo courtesy of Dartmouth)

And now I better put the blog aside and get back to work on some stuff that pays ;-)

And Another

Eddie Smith, a 6-4, 265 pound offensive lineman/defensive end at Christian Academy in Louisville, Kent., has committed to Dartmouth according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Miami Nice ... Twice

Two teammates from Belen Jesuit Prep in Florida have verbally committed to Dartmouth according to a brief in the Miami Herald. Joining former teammate Peter Pidermann in Hanover will be 6-1, 175 defensive back Anthony DiBlasi and 5-11, 190 Diego Fernandez-Soto, a tight end/linebacker in high school, but described by the Herald story as an "athlete."

Both recruits were first team All-County and Class 3A All-State honorable mention last fall. Fernandez-Soto had 95 tackles last year while DiBlasi had 70. Fernandez-Soto was was credited with three forced fumbles while DiBlasi was picking off one pass.

Belen Jesuit has been an Ivy League pipeline in recent years. For a list of players who went on to the Ivies and other college programs, click here.

By the way, while looking at the Belen Jesuit website I came across Pidermann's name in the school records for most rushing touchdowns in a season (16), most touchdowns in a season (17) and for the third-longest kickoff return in school history (95 yards). ... He had 47 tackles, a 70-yard interception return for a touchdown and a blocked punt for the Big Green last year, moving into a starting role after Ian Wilson was sidelined for the season by injury.

While Dartmouth scored in Miami, it came up short in a bid for 6-6, 260-pound two-way end Steven Chase of Maryland. The Frederick News-Post reports that Chase considered Penn State, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Dartmouth and Brown before accepting a full scholarship from Wake Forest.

The future of Colgate star running back Jordan Scott is yet to be determined after he was arrested along with a teammate for an on-campus incident. In its first issue since the incident, the Colgate school newspaper has this story.

The New Haven Register's Sean Barker reports on his Portal 31 Yale football blog that the school is naming its new football captain today. What I found interesting in his report was the following:

Yale and Harvard are believed to be the only two programs remaining for college football that pick just one captain.

I suppose it may happen on occasion at other schools, but I didn't know that only Harvard and Yale followed the practice regularly. I suppose as long as you get the right solo captain, it's a good thing.

Jayvee Stats Posted

A quick note that I finally got around to compiling the unofficial 2007 junior varsity stats. They are posted on the Green Alert site. Only passing, rushing and receiving are listed because my defensive stats are both incomplete and a little too dubious for my liking.

We're Better Than You Are

The financial reform wars are on. Check out this response out of New Haven to Dartmouth's announcement in today's Yale Daily:

Director of Student Financial Services Caesar Storlazzi said he is impressed with the many creative approaches being taken in financial-aid reforms, but emphasized that Yale’s policy extends farther than Dartmouth’s.

“Yale’s new financial-aid initiatives are more generous in that they apply to all families — not just ‘under $75K’ families — and that they are targeted at the calculation of the parent contribution and not at the amount of scholarship,” Storlazzi said.

The guess here is that the comment didn't come across in print quite the way Storlazzi intended. ...

Burlington, Vt., TV station WCAX has a story about Dartmouth's initiative that includes quotes from a few very happy students. ...

First Harvard. Then Yale. Now Dartmouth. Will Columbia be following suit? Not according to the Spectator. From the Spec:

On the heels of high-profile financial aid reforms by Ivy League peers Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth, Columbia President Lee Bollinger said that, despite its lucrative capital campaign, the University cannot afford to make similar changes.

Dartmouth football assistant Lance Clelland gets a mention in this story about brother Lane Clelland, a Notre Dame-bound lineman who has helped his Maryland high school become the top wrestling program in the state.

Dartmouth has been extremely fortunate to have hard-working student-managers for football the past several years. It can be a thankless job done done well out of the spotlight. The Columbia Spectator has an offseason story about the Lion manager.

Like the Trustees story, the Return of Beta saga is getting a little old in this precinct. That said, an opinion piece in today's Daily Dartmouth regarding the frat gets a mention here simply because of its lede:

It’s obvious what the football team must do when Beta comes back. No, not win the Ivy League championship (though they should do that, too). The team should really rekindle ties with the house that historically has been theirs and take advantage of the clean slate represented therein.

Jim MacLaren's story has been shared in this electronic space before. About how the former Yale football and lacrosse player was originally diagnosed as dead and eventually lost a leg when he was hit by a bus. About how he returned to athletics as an amputee triathlete only to be paralyzed when his bike was hit by a van during a competition. The Ivy League website reports:

The NCAA Honors Committee honored James MacLaren as the 2008 Inspiration Award winner at its Honors Celebration last week in Nashville, Tenn., and that dinner will be broadcast on ESPN2 on Feb. 1 at 3 pm.

Sounds like a slam dunk choice to me. To read the full Ivy release, click here. To visit Jim's website, click here. ...

And finally ...

Click on the video to watch Dartmouth alum Tanner Glass score his first NHL goal with the Florida Panthers. Unfortunately for Tanner, you've got to watch him get the worst of a fight to get a glimpse of the score.

Podcast On Financial Aid Initiative

In a Dartmouth "Views from the Green" podcast, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris and Director of Financial Aid Virginia Hazen discuss the new financial aid initiatives. Click here.

Check It Out

This is kind of fun. Click the flick below to meet the talented little brother of someone you will recognize.



If you couldn't get it to work that way, click here.

Needless to say, Dartmouth's new financial aid package is gaining attention. The Daily Dartmouth writes:

Dartmouth’s financial aid reform ... makes the College’s financial aid offer for low-income families the “strongest in the nation,” James Wright, president of the College, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.

That appears, on the surface at least, to fly in the face of a New York Times opinion piece this week that suggested:

The problem is that most colleges will feel compelled to follow Harvard and Yale’s lead in price-discounting. Yet few have enough money to give more aid to relatively wealthy students without taking it away from relatively poor ones.

A few tidbits directly quoted from a Boston Globe story:

• Already, 13 percent of Dartmouth students are the first members of their families to attend college and 14 percent receive federal Pell grants, which are for students from low-income families.
• (President Wright) said many students who will get free tuition also will get scholarships for costs such as room and board, books and other expenses.
• Tuition this year is $34,965; room, board and mandatory fees add $10,518, for a grand total of $45,483.

The Cornell Sun has an opinion piece about how the other Ivies are leaving Cornell behind. This story has some very interesting numbers in it, including anticipated debt at graduation for students at the Ivy schools. From the story:

Upon graduation, an average Cornell student on financial aid will have taken out $22k in need-based loans, while at Brown that number is $20k, for Dartmouth $17k, for Yale $8k, and a Princeton student will owe precisely nothing. Additionally, from 2006-2007, Cornell was the only Ivy whose average financial aid package, as well as its grants, has actually decreased.

Former linebacker Josh Dooley is quoted in a Denver Post story this week about -- what else? -- ducks, and not the Mighty kind. The Post draws information for its story from "a novel study by a Colorado State University graduate student to determine the effects of human disturbance on duck movements."

Former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler hasn't seen the kind of crowds he'd hoped for as owner of the East Kentucky Miners, a Continental Basketball Association expansion team. A story quotes Miners co-owner Demetrius Ford: "(D)uring and after each game, Jay Fiedler and I scratch our heads wondering why we don’t have more fans in the stands." They'll try to turn that around starting with a $1 ticket night on Jan. 30.

Dartmouth Financial Aid Policy Enhanced

From an email that just hit my in-box:

Dartmouth President James Wright announced today a number of enhancements to the College's financial aid packages for undergraduates, beginning in academic year 2008-09, to ensure that Dartmouth remains accessible to academically talented students regardless of their financial situation. The new initiatives also extend the College's need-blind admissions program to all international students, who typically represent about 7 percent of each incoming class. The Dartmouth Board of Trustees approved the enhanced program at a special board meeting Jan. 16.

From the Dartmouth release:

Key elements of the initiative, which will go into effect for the coming academic year, include:

1. Free tuition for students who come from families with annual incomes below $75,000
2. Replacing loans with scholarships
3. Need-blind admissions for international students
4. Junior leave term with no earnings expectation

Find the full release here.

Picture This

Offensive lineman Evan Nogay, linebacker Phil McKeating, quarterback Max Heiges, corner Matt Dornak and safety Micheal Dearwester are part of a group of students who visited a medieval village and enjoyed lunch at a restaurant that has been operating for more than two centuries during a hiking trip in Spain's Pyrenees Mountains. The sophomores are just some of the Dartmouth football players taking advantage of the Dartmouth Plan to study abroad this winter.

Sophomore wide receiver Ian Ferrell (right), a high school All-America lacrosse player at Kent Denver School, is on the Dartmouth lacrosse roster for the spring. Ferrell was first team all-state in 2004 and 2005. He helped Kent Denver to the Colorado state title in 2003 and 2004 and to the state finals in 2005. Also listed on the Dartmouth roster this spring are former Big Green tailback Chad Gaudet and basketball guard Robby Pride, a Ferrell teammate at Kent Denver. (Photo courtesy of Dartmouth)

The Concord Monitor has a story about the Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System football helmets developed in neighboring Lebanon, N.H., and being worn for several years by Dartmouth players. The story notes that the HIT System was named one of Time Magazine's best inventions of the last year.

Today's Daily Dartmouth notes that with more regular decision applications still to be processed, Dartmouth admissions are at a record level already. They are up 11 percent over last year.

¿Cómo estás?

One of the unique things about attending Dartmouth is that sophomore summer allows a winter out of Hanover. (It was minus-1 degree in the wee hours last night, so you know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, there was a time when Santa Barbara was the destination of choice for Dartmouth football players. Since Buddy Teevens took over as head coach there's been more international study, with New Zealand a favorite destination. That has been supplanted this year by Barcelona, where defensive backs Mike Dearwester and Matt Dornak, linebacker Phil McKeating, quarterback Max Heiges and offensive lineman Evan Nogay are studying and living together this winter.

Through the wonders of email, I got a few pictures from New Zealand last year. If any players studying abroad have a photo or two they'd like to share from their far-flung destinations this winter, send 'em along and I throw them up on the blog.

Yesterday's post about Lehigh selling DVDs of old games has brought a couple of comments from readers about the disputed out-of-bounds call that might have cost Dartmouth the 1991 game in Bethlehem. Read the comments here.

Here's a weird one in a brief about the UNH football schedule. At least it was a weird one for me. From the Manchester Union Leader story:

Because of the way the calendar falls, Football Championship Subdivision teams such as New Hampshire have the option of playing 12 regular season games next year. UNH intends to stick with its traditional 11, said director of athletics Marty Scarano.

Now, it seems really strange to me that the Ivy League won't give its teams an 11th game but the other schools can schedule a 12th game simply because of how the calendar falls. Yikes.

Interested in buying or selling Ivy League collectables? Check out this web enterprise.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore bounced back from a somewhat disappointing Dartmouth Relays two-mile to easily set a PR in the 1500 in yesterday's meet at UNH. Breaking away from the pack, she and another runner had a head-to-head dual about 100 meters ahead of the rest of the field for the final two laps on the 160-meter track. Exciting stuff. Although the certain soph ended up being edged by 6/10 of a second at the line she erased her previous PR by eight seconds.

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?

That Name Is Familiar

From the Clear Lake High School football web site in Texas about a 6-2, 255 offensive lineman:

Scott Fritz, Clear Lake High School Falcon offensive lineman, will join the 2008 Harvard Football Team in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Name sound familiar? It should. More from the site:

Scott’s brother, Michael Fritz, was the 2006 MVP and quarterback for Harvard’s rival, Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire.

Another offensive lineman might be coming Dartmouth's way. Depending on which numbers you believe (generally go with the smaller) Joe Barker is either 6-3, 280 or 6-4, 300. Either way, the Tallahassee Democrat reports that Barker is mulling "offers" from Florida International, Cumberland University, Brown and Dartmouth. There's a little information on Barker here.

And now, another one Dartmouth recruited but will have to play against. (That probably happens in the Ivy League more than any other conference in the country.) Ohio tailback Eric Stoyanoff of Strongsville (great city name, by the way) chose Princeton over Dartmouth and Penn according to this Plain Dealer story. The 5-10, 200 Stoyanoff (if he were an offensive lineman you just know his nickname would be Beef) ran for 1,846 yards and 26 TD's last year.

A brief mention in a column out of Tennessee Titans country suggests that former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer is expected to re-sign with the NFL team for next season.

Jake Novak over at Roar Lions Roar blog is hoping to drum up support for former Columbia football player Bobby Ray '90, who is battling ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Jake has a posting here. Bobby Ray is trying expensive alternative treatments in his battle with the insidious disease and the cost is great. If you can help, click here. Also, check out Bobby's blog, which has background about when he was diagnosed and how he's dealing with the disease.

QB Has Dartmouth 'Offer'

Dartmouth is in the running for a 6-2, 200-pound quarterback from Webster Groves, Mo., according to his coach, who told a writer, "Mike Whittier has received scholarship offers from Air Force, Dartmouth and Arkansas State."

Whittier completed 150-of-283 passes for 2,299 yards, 19 touchdowns and three interceptions last fall. Termed a "dual threat" quarterback in his Rivals profile, Whittier also ran for 315 yards and five touchdowns. To read a story featuring the quarterback before his final high school game, click here. To see video of him in action, click here.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a feature on senior linebacker Justin Cottrell in the aftermath of his being named an honorable-mention All-American.

The Daily Princetonian has an interview with Jonathan Meyer, the Greenwich, Conn., linebacker who chose Princeton over scholarship offers from Florida, Michigan, UCLA and others (SI.com story). Meyer's story elicited these thoughts from a Green Alert reader praising his decision to go Ivy:

• He can play two sports and, at Princeton, compete for the national championship in lacrosse;
• If he can play, he can play. If he can’t, he can’t. The NFL is a long way off for any high school player. If he can play in the NFL, he’ll have his chance regardless of where he goes to college. If he isn’t good enough, it doesn’t matter where he went to college;
• All recruits are gambles and you never know how they are going to perform at a higher level. “Sure things” fizzle in large numbers every year. If he can’t cut it, he’s still going to Princeton;
• Injured?? He’s still going to Princeton.

Lessons for Dartmouth?

• Don’t be afraid to recruit good players who can be admitted;
• Quality men’s programs in other sports help football recruiting;
• The school and the education are paramount. Stay away from FBS rejects. Compete for FBS players by selling the school, the education and the opportunities.

In anticipation of cold weather in Green Bay this weekend, today's Boston Globe has a story about what is on record as the coldest game in NFL history: the 1981 AFC Championship game at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium when the temperature was 9-below and the windchill was 59-below. Playing for the Bengals that afternoon was former Dartmouth linebacker Reggie Willliams, who remembers the day well. From the story:

"I'll never forget the cold that day," said Williams. "I can still feel it."

And finally, this from the Dartmouth News Service: "The Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience reached an important milestone in December 2007, surpassing $1 billion in gifts since its launch in 2002." The release notes:

"More than 65 percent of alumni and roughly 66,000 alumni, parents, and friends of the College," have contributed.

and

Following a record fund-raising month in December, the campaign has raised $1.012 billion as of December 31, 2007 and is on pace to achieve its $1.3 billion goal by December 31, 2009.

Technical Difficulties

If you've been frustrated today trying to access the official Dartmouth athletics website, you are not alone. The Dartmouth sports information office is frustrated as well.

Turns out, the problem belongs to the company that Dartmouth uses for the site, JumpTV Sports. All of the JumpTV schools are suffering the same problems and according to the Dartmouth sports information office, the JumpTV people are working hard to get things cleared up. Stay tuned ...

More On Lee, Perry

Updates on a couple of recent stories. ...

First, the Chicago Bears' website has a nice story about former Dartmouth safety Lloyd Lee's promotion to linebacker coach. There's also a relatively recent photo. (That certain Hanover eighth-grader: You mean he's Brian Urlacher's coach? Yup.) Head coach Lovie Smith's quote:

"Lloyd is extremely bright. He works hard, has energy. He has all the things you’re looking for in a coach."

Another story in the local paper about former Dartmouth offensive coordinator John Perry leaving New Hampshire to take over as head coach at Merrimack. Perry told the paper:

"I see this as a long-term adventure. I'll be there as long as (the administration) will have me."

My in box brought brought a well-reasoned response from a reader regarding the Princeton recruit who turned down scholarship offers from powerhouse programs (see yesterday's blog) but still expressed an interest in playing pro football. This reader went to a Big Ten school and knows Dartmouth from the inside. He wrote:

Any kid who is A) academically qualified and B) already being talked about as a legit pro prospect would be a fool to go anywhere but the Ivies.

If he goes to, say, Florida, and they recruit above him next year, then he sees a diminished role. If he goes to Princeton, my bet is he starts for four years. ... And he obviously is right that the NFL scouts look at Ivy kids, albeit without quite as much salivating. He might have cost himself several rounds in the draft by going the (Ivy) route, but as I indicated above, he's taking a chance wherever he goes. And at least this way he gets a Princeton degree out of the deal.

No-brainer ... even for a cow college grad like myself.

Any thoughts?

The Daily Pennsylvanian writes about Dartmouth's recent win over Harvard in men's basketball. It's amazing how much this sounds like what people were writing about Dartmouth football before last season:

Harvard coach Tommy Amaker has seen it all in his coaching career. He was a member of Duke's assistant coaching staff for two NCAA championships, made the Sweet Sixteen as Seton Hall's head coach and won the NIT title with Michigan.

And now he knows how it feels to lose to Dartmouth.

The Big Green beat up on the Crimson 73-56 in Hanover, N.H. last Friday to salvage the second half of a season split. After blowing out Dartmouth six days earlier in Boston, Harvard probably didn't count on too much of a fight from the Big Green- perennial Ivy doormats and the preseason pick to finish last in the league.

I'm not going to go overboard on the Beta issue, but given that it's so close to the heart of a lot of football alums, a couple more links before I leave it behind. First, the Daily Dartmouth reports there was an "open meeting to discuss the College’s recent decision to allow the Dartmouth chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity to return to campus." From the story:

Students also noted that the terms of Beta’s derecognition by the College stipulated that it was to be a permanent decision.

“Permanent is permanent, just like if a student is expelled from the institution,” (Dean of Residential Life Martin) Redman said. “However, exceptions are made, just like with students. We are making an informed exception.”

The D also has an opinion piece from a woman in the class of '08. She writes:

I would like to propose that Beta return to campus as a coeducational Greek organization. According to Dean of the College Tom Crady and Dean of Residential Life Marty Redman, there are no college policies restricting the house from becoming a male and female space. With the number of male fraternities that already exist, I don’t believe that Beta will provide anything unique to the campus by returning as an all-male entity.

I'm stringing the Dartmouth ice hockey game against No. 1 UNH tonight for a paper on the seacoast. Um, make that the No. 1 women's ice hockey team in the country. We're expecting snow and ice but thankfully I should be tucked away safely on the mountain before things get dangerous.

Lloyd Lee Moves Up

Former Dartmouth safety Lloyd Lee '98 is the new linebackers coach for the Chicago Bears after serving as a defensive assistant. The Chicago Sun Times sums up Lloyd's football career succinctly:

Lee assisted then-linebacker coach Bob Babich in 2006 after serving as a defensive quality-control coach for his first two years on staff. He turned down an interview before the '06 season with the Buffalo Bills, who were interested in hiring him as a linebackers coach. Lee previously worked for three years as a pro scout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and spent time as a safety with the San Diego Chargers from 1998 to '99 after a distinguished career at Dartmouth.

Former Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fiedler may not be in the NFL anymore but he's still in the spotlight in South Florida. From a story in the Palm Beach Post:

Limos. Playmates. Red Carpet. Stars. Glamour returned to Clematis in WPB on Tuesday night with the VIP opening of Dr. Feelgood's. The nightclub is the brainchild of nightlife entrepreneurs Rodney Mayo and Cleve Mash, with Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil as investor. More than 650 people took advantage of the free booze and five-song sets by Neil. Seen in the crowd: Retired NBA star Dennis Rodman, rapper Vanilla Ice, former major league catcher Darren Dalton, former Dolphins players Jay Fiedler and Todd Wade and local playmate Erica Chevalier.

There's been quite a buzz in recent days about a Princeton recruit out of Greenwich H.S., the same school that sent running backs TJ Cameron and Tom Brown to Dartmouth. Now Sports Illustrated is on the story. I guess that's what happens when you turn down scholarships at Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma and UCLA to go to the Ivy League. The kid's name is Jonathan Meyers and he's a fullback/linebacker. For a video interview with him, click here. From the SI.com story:

Meyers still wants to play in the NFL, but he doesn't believe he has to go to a football factory to get there. He points to 49ers back Zak Keasey, who played at Princeton. Meyers also cite Vikings center Matt Birk, a Harvard graduate just named to his sixth Pro Bowl. Of course, Florida coaches might counter with the fact that nine players from last year's championship team were drafted.

Tailback Headed To Hanover

Standout Massachusetts high schooler Nick Schweiger made official yesterday what has been whispered this way by a few readers in the past month or so: The well-regarded tailback from Bishop Feehan has indeed chosen Dartmouth over Harvard. From the Boston Globe:

The senior from Norton will play football for coach Buddy Teevens in the fall pending official school acceptance. Schwieger made official visits to Harvard and Dartmouth, according to Bishop Feehan coach Bob Alves. Last fall Schwieger ran for 2,182 yards and led the Shamrocks to the Division 2 Super Bowl title and a 10-2-1 record.

A little more insight about Schweiger from a Cape Cod Times article in late November:

“The only way you can really stop speed is to stop it before it gets started,” (Sandwich High School football coach Bill) Luette said yesterday after Bishop Feehan’s Nick Schwieger torched the Blue Knights in a 39-9 victory at sun-splashed McGrath Stadium.

“Our game plan was to play man-up on the outside and load the box and try to shut him down. But he’s a very patient back. He just waits for holes to open and he sees the whole field.

“(Today) he’d find a hole. He was patient and he’d bounce it out. He’s probably the best back we’ve seen all year.”

Schweiger, a rock-solid, 195-pound senior tailback, “bounced” the Blue Knights (4-7) for 272 yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries. Three of his touchdowns came on runs of 59 yards or longer as he increased his season total to 21 scores.

Dartmouth did not have a running back in the early decision class. From Schweiger's hometown paper:

“(Nick) is a horse and he’s just an incredible leader,’’ said coach Tony Woods. “He doesn’t go down on the first hit and he just pounds the ball

Scheweiger helped the Feehan Shamrocks to a Massachusetts Super Bowl title by running 26 times for 146 yards and three touchdowns and catching a 25-yard TD throw in a 26-20 win over Walpole.

Another former Dartmouth assistant is in the news as Elon head coach Pete Lembo has earned an extension according to this story. In just his second year rebuilding the Elon fortunes the former Lehigh head coach led the school to a 7-4 record and a No. 23 national ranking.

Now news breaks that Yale is cutting the cost of tuition by up to 50 percent for some students as reported in the Washington Post. From the Post:

Previously, a family with an income of $90,00 and assets of $150,000 would have paid $12,550 annually; now that family will pay $2,950, a Yale news release said.

More from the Post:

In a meeting with Washington Post reporters and editors yesterday, Yale President Richard Levin said that in the past 1 1/2 years, university officials had become "concerned that we were shortchanging" students by not providing more financial aid to needy families. He said increased returns on Yale's $22.5 billion endowment enabled the university to move forward with its plans.

Increased returns on that $22.5 billion endowment made the difference? But of course. Rest assured that fact that Harvard had announced a new financial aid policy of its own to help middle class students had absolutely nothing to do with the decision.

Will Dartmouth respond in some way? From today's Daily D:

The Office of Financial Aid is in the process of reviewing its policies, according to Director of Financial Aid Virginia Hazen, although neither she nor (Maria Laskaris, dean of admissions and financial aid) were able to say when the College will announce changes to its current financial aid program. ...

Although Dartmouth has not made any official decisions, Wright announced that the College intends to make Dartmouth more “accessible” to students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds in his Tenth Annual Report to the Faculty on Oct. 8, 2007.

Last but certainly not least for many readers, Beta is returning to campus. I got an email about this recently and forgot to post it. Check out a release here. (PDF format). From that release:

“Beta’s history at Dartmouth dates back to 1889, and our organization was perennially one of the leading and most respected fraternal organizations on campus. We’ve been proud to have had many distinguished members over the years. They include:

• Dartmouth leaders: former Dartmouth President David McLaughlin ’54; former
Dartmouth Trustee and current Chairman of the Rockefeller Center Ron Schram
’64; head football coach Buddy Teevens ’79; Presidents Leadership Council
Members Joel Hyatt ’72, Davies Beller ’83, and Brian Conroy ‘86
• Government leaders: former New Hampshire Governor Walter Peterson ’47;
Delaware Lt. Governor John Carney ‘78
• Athletic Leaders: Scores of Dartmouth captainships; All-Americans in seven
different sports; Olympians; professional athletes

More On JP

The Eagle Tribune has a nice story about John Perry, the former Dartmouth offensive coordinator who stepped down at New Hampshire to take over as head coach at Merrimack College. ...

Speaking of UNH, there's the lede of a story out of the Hula Bowl in Hawai'i:

New Hampshire’s Ricky Santos came off the bench to throw for 169 yards, leading the Aina to a 38-7 thrashing of the Kai in Saturday’s Hula Bowl.

Find another story about the game here. ...

Dartmouth received a commitment over the weekend from at least one visiting recruit according to a friend of the family. I can't add more details until it appears in the student-athlete's hometown media, a recruiting site or I hear directly from the family.

With eight or so inches of snow in the forecast, there's no school today for a couple of very happy Hanover kids. Another storm is due late in the week so summer vacation could start in July!

At least partly because she was unhappy with how she ran at the Dartmouth Relays, that certain Hanover soph ran 9 1/2 miles yesterday. Yikes. The local photographer who provided the photo of Buddy Teevens seems to have a shot of almost every one of the more than 2,000 athletes at Leverone Field House over the weekend. (Gotta love digital.) For a look at that Hanover runner, click here.

See Buddy Run

Buddy Teevens at the Dartmouth Relays (courtesy of Dan Grossman/Maple Leaf Photos)

As promised/threatened, something fun -- video of Coach Buddy Teevens running the 1500 meters in the Masters division of the Dartmouth Relays. This is the start and then the finish of his last lap. (Excuse the sound in the middle -- I couldn't get rid of it.)


A few quick notes today. Columbia has "announced" its football schedule. The Lions will be playing Fordham, Lafayette and Towson next fall. While Towson is hardly a powerhouse (1-7 in the CAA last year and 3-8 overall) it's a marked improvement over Iona and Marist, Columbia's cupcakes the past couple of years. With resurgent Fordham and Lafayette on the schedule, the Lions should be well-prepared for Ivy League play.

Dartmouth's non-conference schedule? Why it's Colgate, UNH, Holy Cross you silly goose.

There's a very interesting story in the Jan. 11, Inside Higher Ed taking a look at how the rate of black athletes and black football players compares to the population of black males at the nation's football-playing colleges and universities. The numbers are very interesting and in some cases disturbing. (Because the numbers were culled from a study of scholarships, the Ivies, Army, Navy and Air Force are not included in the full study.)

Former Dartmouth skater Hugh Jessiman gets a quick mention at the end of this story, but don't visit it for that. Click on the link to see what a pro hockey game looks like when it is played on pink ice and what problems that causes.

And finally, that certain Hanover High sophomore completed a busy Dartmouth Relays yesterday and learned an important lesson: You can't and won't always be at your best. After setting a PR in every indoor race she's ever run, she struggled in her big one Saturday. Between running a terrific 800 meter leg in the sprint medley and a solid 400 in the 4x400 relay yesterday afternoon, she ran the 2-mile yesterday morning. She finished fourth in her heat and fifth overall of 34 runners after being seeded first. We had a sense that it might not be her day when she woke with the sniffles and had a hard time getting out of bed.

Saturday Morning Stuff

Internet is out on the mountain so I'm online at the Dartmouth Relays posting a short blog before that certain Hanover High sophomore runs the two-mile. (I'll have that "fun" thing up tomorrow -- or as soon as we get Internet again.)

Incoming recruit Joey Casey is the subject of this story in the Indianapolis Star. The story includes this quote:

After my junior season, I just started getting mail from different schools, including all the Ivy League schools with the exception of Cornell, and that sparked my interest," Casey said. "The (Dartmouth) campus is so much different than the rest. Also, they recruited me the hardest, so that had a lot to do with it."

Former Dartmouth quarterback Jeff Kemp is mentioned in a story about the attempt by a booster to have Ty Willingham ousted as head coach at Washington. From the story:

Former Seahawks quarterback Jeff Kemp praised Willingham's "commitment to excellence" and dedication to ideals, The Times reported.

And finally, on the subject of the Dartmouth Relays, coach Buddy Teevens ran the 1500 in yesterday's Masters competition. Although his forte these days is distances (marathons) and cycling (a cross-country trip last summer), at age 50 he ran a 5:01.12 before showering and getting ready for a recruiting weekend.

You Beat Me To It

I'd planned to sit on news of another recruit until tomorrow -- you don't want to give away all your good stuff in one fell swoop -- but I guess I'll have to dig up something else for the morning. I've already gotten three emails from people wanting to know if I had heard about another recruit -- so without any further delay ...

Pencil in free safety Joey Casey of Noblesville, Ind., for this spring's class. Listed at 5-11 and 171 pounds, Carey was Noblesville's defensive player of the year as a junior and a senior. He made the state All-Academic team as well as all-conference and all-county. He had 91 tackles and five or seven interceptions this year (depending on the source).

Warning: If you click on Joey's highlight video above and are over, say, 25, mute the sound. OK, that's a little harsh. But the truth is, *I* muted the sound after about a minute.

And as for tomorrow's blog, I'm not entirely bereft of content. I'll have something that's fun. Promise.

Another Offensive Lineman Headed This Way

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune web site, Andy Altman, a 6-2, 275 lineman from La Jolla Country Day is headed Dartmouth's way. Altman was a member of the 2007 All-Pacific League football team. Find a profile of the Torreys' team captain and a long-snapper here.

Altman has an interesting story. From an earlier piece in the North County Times:

Poway resident Andy Altman, a 17-year-old who plays football for La Jolla Country Day School, is leading the school's team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Walk at UCSD on Oct. 14. He also has diabetes, and diagnosed the disease himself.

That story, which notes he had drawn recruiting interest from Princeton, lists him at 200 pounds. That appears to be an error because he's listed at 275 on the berecruited web site and the school roster.

Paul Boudreau, a Dartmouth assistant from 1979-81 and for the past 21 years an NFL assistant, might be headed to West Virginia as offensive line coach after being fired by the St. Louis Rams according to the Daily Mail. Boudreau came to Dartmouth from Maine and left Hanover to spend one year at the Naval Academy before moving on to pro football, first for three years in the CFL.

Recruits who arrive early this weekend will have a chance to watch Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens run the 1500 this afternoon in the Masters Division of the annual Dartmouth Relays at Leverone Field House. Competing in the Relays in Sunday's open shot put is former Dartmouth nose guard and two-time Olympic silver medalist Adam Nelson '97. (I don't remember if it ended up playing out this way, but I interviewed Nelson and wrote a story about him years ago because, as a longsnapper, he was projected to be the first freshman to appear in a Dartmouth varsity game after freshman eligibility was OK'd for the '93 season.)

There's a release about the Dartmouth Relays here. A certain Hanover High sophomore will run the 800 in the sprint medley tonight and will compete in the two-mile tomorrow morning.

And finally, sad news for longtime followers of Dartmouth men's basketball. Lee Julian, widow of legendary coach Doggie Julian, has died at age 98. Mrs. Julian was the greatest Dartmouth men's basketball fan I ever knew. Until moving to North Carolina with her daughter over the summer, Mrs. Julian seldom if ever missed a Dartmouth home game. It was always comforting to look across from press row and see her seated in her usual seat about halfway up the grandstand. Not rain, snow, freezing cold weather, too many losses or old age ever stopped her.

I remember back when I traveled with basketball when Mrs. Julian, then probably in her late 70's, would ride the team bus for the Princeton and Penn road trips. In her late 80's, or perhaps it was her early 90's, she traveled overseas to follow the men's team around Portugal. Twice if I recall correctly.

Mrs. Julian was the mother of former Dartmouth basketball captain Toby Julian '56, who captained the Big Green to one of its last Ivy League titles as a senior. Grandson Jeff Julian was the first Vermont resident ever to earn his PGA Tour card, which he did twice before being struck down by ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease.

I had a chance a few years ago to sit with Mrs. Julian and write a story about her on the 50th anniversary of Doggie Julian leading Holy Cross to the only NCAA men's basketball championship ever won by a New England team. It was a treat spending that time with her and hearing hilarious stories from Doggie's days at Holy Cross, as head coach of the Boston Celtics and finally at Dartmouth.

Thinking I might have a little more information, while her grandson was on the PGA Tour Mrs. Julian would occasionally call the house to ask a question. I can't help but smile as I remember picking up the phone and hearing her say, "Bruce, this is Old Lady Julian." She had me at Bruce ;-)

One of the last times I saw Mrs. Julian, she asked me a question she'd asked several times before, "Bruce, are they (Dartmouth men's basketball) going to win an Ivy League championship in my lifetime?" I answered her the way I always did, "Mrs. Julian, if it will keep you around for 20 more years, I hope not."

I don't know if they will have a moment of silence for "Old Lady Julian," at tonight's game against Harvard. I hope they do. I know I will.

Recruiting Redux

The full Green Alert early decision football recruiting story is now available to non-subscribers on the official Dartmouth sports information football site here.

Dartmouth also has posted a story on linebacker Justin Cottrell being named an FCS All-American by the Sports Network. Find that mention here.

Missed this in the fall, but for a picture of Dartmouth grad Casey Cramer and fellow Tennessee Titan David Givens visiting a hospital as part of the "Titans Tuesday," initiative, click here.

Today's Daily Dartmouth has a story about Ben True, the Dartmouth track and cross country skiing standout taking the fall and winter off to train fulltime for skiing. What the story doesn't delve into is what the time off means with regard to the four-minute miler's future eligibility in his two sports. I really don't know the rules but have always found the differences between what is allowed in various NCAA sports -- like playing junior hockey for a couple of years before attending college or skiers spending time on the national circuit during their time in school -- to be curious. About all I know is the rules seem to be a lot tighter with regard to football and basketball. I can understand why, but wonder about the fairness of that.

And finally, the Daily Dartmouth has a story suggesting the possibility that the Association of Alumni’s lawsuit against Dartmouth could be dismissed today. Yawn.

Peacefulness Returns

The political circus has left town. I just hope all those signs for John Edwards, Ron Paul, Hillary Whatshername and the rest disappear before the snow melts.

It's a quiet day on the blog front. The Daily Dartmouth has a mention of Tennessee Titan Casey Cramer in a story about Big Green athletes going on to the pros. (Speaking of Casey, a reader passed along the opinion that it's not necessarily a good thing that a tight end just brought up from the practice squad was on the active squad for the playoff game and Casey was inactive yet again. I don't know the full story there, but I think the reader has a point.) The Daily D story also mentions that three former Dartmouth skaters have seen time in the NHL this winter.

The D also has a story about an entity called Alumni Athlete Network that was started up by former Harvard basketball player Ron Mitchell, a terrific rebounder in his day. Mitchell is joined by former Princeton center Jesse Rosenfeld. The story includes a quote from Mitchell that I particularly like:

“Athletes have experience in leadership, multi-tasking, performing under pressure, accepting instruction and being team players. They are focused and willing to go the extra mile.”

January Thaw

The legendary January Thaw has arrived, right on schedule. It seems more often than not that the Thaw coincides with the Dartmouth Relays, and so it is this year. The temperature this morning was 46 degrees and it could be in the 50's today.

I suppose the warmer temperature is good news for the candidates in the New Hampshire primary. I know it's good news for the Dartmouth lacrosse teams. While I was on campus yesterday I saw the women's team working out on Memorial Field in shorts and T-shirts. They'd be well-advised not to get used to that because the temperature could be 15 below or there could be two feet of snow in a week. But to quote those old WWII movies, "Smoke 'em if you've got 'em."

Speaking of this weekend's Dartmouth Relays, Big Green football coach Buddy Teevens has signed up to run the 1500 meters in the Master's division Friday afternoon. (On a side note, a certain Hanover High sophomore is running the two-mile Saturday morning.)

I tossed a new countdown widget up on the desktop of my Mac today. You'll be glad to know there are 256 days until the opener at Colgate. ...

The Daily Dartmouth had a story Monday spun out of the early decision admission process. Nothing about football in the story -- skiing, lacrosse and women's ice hockey are mentioned -- but it is worth a look. The story is kind of awkward at the start because it opens with a look at (and comments from) a skier who was turned down for early admission.

Last night's national championship game was something less than riveting. The only question was whether or not the quarterback from Harvard would get in. Huh? Read the story.

There's a decent roundup of Dartmouth quarterback Jay Fielder's career in an announcement about an appearance he's making at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Football Coaches Clinic in Suffern, N.Y.

There's been concern about the future of football at Northeastern University in Boston. Right now it appears safe according to NU athletic director Peter Roby '79, a classmate and friend of Buddy Teevens. Check out a brief story in the Boston Herald.

Memorial Field Grandstand Note

A badly kept secret finally went public today.

A story in the Rutland Herald reports that the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl high school all-star football game played annually at Dartmouth's Memorial Field will have to be relocated in 2009. The reason: Memorial Field will be under construction again.

The paper reports that the home grandstand (completed in 1923) is going to be replaced. A couple of details not included in the story that can now be revealed: Tentative plans call for the historic outside brick wall of the stadium to be retained while the rest of the west side of the grandstand to be gutted. Taking down the grandstand will also mean a new press box, which has to be elevator-serviced to meet ADA requirements.

Sophomore safety Peter Pidermann had a terrific season last fall after moving into the lineup following Ian Wilson's injury. He finished fifth on the team with 47 tackles, returned an interception 70 yards for a touchdown and blocked a punt that Zech Glaize ran in for a touchdown. The winner of the Doten Award as the sophomore on defense who made significant contributions to the team did all that on a lingering foot injury that became more painful as the season went on. He had surgery for the problem earlier this month and is expected to be running again by the end of the month.

With the BCS national championship game on tap tonight, the Washington Post has a story asking whether the FCS/I-AA playoff model would work at the college game's highest level. As a good story should, this one offers up the pros and cons of the playoff concept. The story repeats this Dec. 2005 prepared statement from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany:

"If, as some of our critics have charged, college football has strayed too far from the original model envisioned for amateur athletics in the academic tradition, then we hardly hasten a return to that model by expanding the Division I-A post-season to a multi-game, NFL-style playoff format."

Although Penn State wasn't in the Big Ten while I was there, I guess I've got a little Big Ten blood in me. And still I find that statement hilarious and worthy of the Ivy League presidents. ...

Also from the story is this quote from Charlie Cobb, athletic director at Appalachian State, about the feasibility of the BCS schools having a full playoff:

"It's doable. People always ask me which system I would choose because of my experience (as the North Carolina State athletic director for seven years). I prefer the playoff system. There are good arguments for the bowls, but (the academic) argument is sort of nonsense."

The College Sporting News has a posting about FCS/I-AA players in the NFL. The names/numbers are drawn from season-ending rosters, which is strange, because there are players listed who did not play this year, but it's still worth taking a look at. Here are the number of players listed as being from each FCS conference:

38 Colonial
28 Gateway
23 Big Sky
23 Mid-Eastern
20 Southwestern
16 IVY
15 Southern
14 Southland
12 Great West
11 Ohio Valley
6 Big South
6 Northeast
5 Patriot
2 Independent
1 Metro Atlantic

Harvard grad Matt Birk has made the Pro Bowl as a center with the Minnesota Vikings for the sixth time. (link)

Speaking of the NFL, if you were looking for Tennessee's No. 48 on the field during yesterday's playoff game against San Diego and didn't find him, you weren't the only one. The reason you didn't see Dartmouth grad Casey Cramer is because he was on the "inactive" list, as he has been for most of the second half of the season. Reports in the Tennessee media that he was likely to see a good deal of action because of injuries were off the mark.

By the way, here's Casey Cramer's bio on Wikipedia.

A final note: Thank goodness the New Hampshire primary is upon us. Unless you live in the state (or perhaps in Iowa) you can't imagine the number of phone calls we've been getting regarding the primary. Enough is enough is too much.

Cottrell Honored

Dartmouth senior Justin Cottrell has been chosen as an honorable-mention pick to the the Sports Network FCS All-America team. Cottrell led the Ivy League and was 18th nationally with 10.8 tackles per game last fall. He had five tackles for loss and led the Big Green with three interceptions.

Ivy Leaguers chosen to the Sports Network All-America team:

Second Team

• RB Mike McLeod Yale Junior
• CB Steve Williams Harvard Senior

Honorable Mention

• WR Buddy Farnham, Brown
• WR Paul Raymond, Brown
• WR Austin Knowlin, Columbia
• WR Corey Mazza, Harvard
• OT Andrew Brecher, Harvard
• OT James Williams, Harvard
• OG Jeff Monaco, Yale
• DT Brandt Hollander, Yale
• LB Justin Cottrell, Dartmouth
• LB: Bobby Abare, Yale
• S Chris Wynn, Penn

A few notes on the team. ... Cottrell was called James in the Sports Network posting, but we know who they meant ;-) ... While I'm sure Howard is a fine school, wide receiver Jarahn Williams got a nice resume boost when he was listed as being from Harvard instead of the university in Washington, D.C., where he actually starred. ... New Hampshire quarterback Ricky Santos made only the honorable-mention team. ... Chosen to the second team was UNH sophomore tight end Scott Sicko. With a name like that, you just know he'd be a first-team pick if he played linebacker. ... Among the Holy Cross choices was quarterback Dominic Randolph on the HM team. ... Colgate had three second-team picks: linebacker Mike Gallihugh, defensive tackle Pat Nolan and tailback Jordan Scott.

The Boston Globe has a piece on former Dartmouth offensive coordinator John Perry being named head coach at Merrimack.

That certain Hanover High sophomore and I went to Boston yesterday where we watched the Dartmouth men's basketball get pummeled by Harvard in the afternoon and watched the Big Green women's basketball team stun overwhelming Ivy League favorite Harvard in the early evening. While we were there, we ambled by the football stadium to check out the inflatable bubble over the field. (Harvard Crimson story on the bubble)

A history lesson: Shortly after graduating from college I was an occasional ringer on an intramural basketball team at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Games were played in an early bubble. I remember being amazed that bubbles could actually cover basketball courts the way they did.

Folks, what Harvard has is a completely different ballgame, literally and figuratively. There was youth soccer going on inside when we wandered in for a look. I thought I knew what to expect, given my background at The Hall, but I was shocked. The place was absolutely cavernous. It was bright, and comfortable and stretched from beyond one end zone to the other, the full width of the field. You could honestly play a football game inside the facility.

It was a really, really strange sensation because once you were in the bubble you lost all sense of place. You knew you were inside the stadium, but it just didn't compute.

It's no secret that Buddy Teevens longs for a bubble in Hanover. Driving by Memorial Field and watching the crews try to keep up with the snow you can understand why. To be sure, it was a dramatic improvement when FieldTurf went down at Memorial Field. But no matter how hard they work at clearing the field, it's still going to be cold and windy there most of the time. And it's going to be too dark to use by 4:45 this time of year. Meanwhile in Cambridge they can have unofficial and informal football workouts, baseball, softball and lacrosse practices, and even youth soccer scrimmages in comfortable surroundings at all hours.

Doubtful that the fine burghers of Hanover would look kindly on a bubble like Harvard's looming over the landscape at Memorial Field, but one might fit in nicely out of the public eye over the new FieldTurf at Scully-Fahey. That might require early season lacrosse games moved from Scully-Fahey to Memorial Field, but that's a tradeoff that would be worth considering.

And finally, if you are watching the NFL playoffs today and happen to tune in the Tennessee Titans game against the San Diego Chargers (4:30 p.m. on CBS) keep an eye out for former Dartmouth tight end Casey Cramer. He'll be wearing No. 48. While he's mostly been a special teams player, he could see time at fullback or tight end today because of injuries.

Saturday's Stuff

I honestly thought yesterday's blog piece on I-A/I-AA football vs. FBS/FCS would generate a few comments. While the meter down at the bottom of the pages tells me readership was pretty good for a Friday, apparently no one feels strongly enough about the issue to offer a thought. ...

In addition to a couple of Ivy Leaguers, New Hampshire quarterback Ricky Santos will be playing in the Hula Bowl as he tries to make the leap from I-AA football (maybe that will drum up an angry protest) to playing on Sundays. From a Manchester Union Leader story:

Santos, listed at UNH at 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, has been working out three times a week with renowned trainer Mike Boyle in Winchester, Mass., and will soon up that to four. He has completed his requirements for graduation and plans to walk with his classmates in May.

For now, though, it's all about football for the quarterback who leaves with every UNH passing record. He finished his career with a Colonial Athletic Association-best 123 touchdown passes against 33 interceptions. In 2007, he completed 73.1 percent of his passes for 2,972 yards and 24 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

This is kind of funny. I got an email yesterday from a reader who helped out as a ballboy/unofficial Dartmouth football manager while he was at Hanover High in the mid- '80s. The email said:

The current issue of The Hockey News anoints NHL deputy comish and former reserve Dartmouth TB Bill Daly as No. 3 in its annual rankings of 100 People Of Power And Influence In Hockey. Sidney Crosby is No. 1 and comish Gary Bettman is No. 2.

Here's where it gets funny. I was walking down the driveway with my dog to get the morning paper today and a thought bubble popped into my head. "Kinnelon, N.J.!" So after grabbing the paper, I went inside, dug around and found a 1985 press guide. It reported that Bill Daly was a 5-11, 195 senior tailback from Kinnelon, N.J. Wow.

I can't remember some days if I'm picking my kid up after school or if he's on the bus but those old hometowns just stick with me. I'll never forget driving through Connecticut with Kathy Slattery Phillips, spotting a sign for Bethel, Conn., and both of us saying at the same time, "Mike Viccora." A wide receiver, Mike was an '85 from, you guessed it, Bethel.

Backtracking for a second, to find a dated, but pretty good story about Bill Daly and his role in the NHL, click here.

Time To Bring Back I-A and I-AA

A quote from a Carlisle Sentinel story about a local Pennsylvania player who will continue his football career in the Ivy League:

"Originally I wanted to play some Division I football but I’m a little small (6-foot-1, 255 pounds) to be playing at that level in some coaches’ minds."

A sentence from the writer of the story:

But that’s not saying Moore couldn’t have thrived on the Division I level.

This not a knock on the player or the paper, but the Ivy League is not Division II football. And the Ivy League is not Division III football.

The Ivy League is Division I football.

It's understandable why the kid and the newspaper put it the way they did. A year ago the NCAA abandoned the familiar Division I-A and I-AA labels in favor of the clumsy Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision labels.

FBS and FCS.

Confession time. Almost every time I write the abbreviations I have to pronounce them to myself to make sure I get them right: "Let's see. FCS ... Football Championship Subdivision. FBS ... Football Bowl Subdivision. OK."

I'm absolutely certain I've gotten it wrong a few times.

But here's the deal. No one says "The FBS level of Division I." Or, "Division I FCS." At least when there was I-A and I-AA, the "I" was written and spoken. Now any mention of "I" is absent.

The NCAA made the change largely because while Ivy and Patriot and CAA and other schools played I-AA football, they played Division I basketball with no letters attached. But because they played I-AA football, their hoop (and some other) programs were often considered as, and described as, I-AA. The NCAA got that one fixed. Rest assured, no one refers to Montana or Appalachian State as playing FCS basketball.

But at at what cost did the fix come? Now Ivy-bound football players in central PA and writers at their local newspapers no longer refer to Penn or Lafayette or Dartmouth as Division I of any flavor.

Think this through: A change was made in football nomenclature that benefited basketball and other sports -- at the cost of doing harm to football programs. How much sense does that make?

It's time to drop the charade. The NCAA recognized it made a mistake when it changed the rules to shorten college football games a couple of years ago and made a quick about face on that issue last fall. It should do the same thing and bring back the I-A and I-AA tags.

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The College Sporting News has a look back at the year in the FCS (got it right that time). For each of the leagues, including the Ivies, the writer offers a:

• Game of the Year
• Highest Moment
• Biggest Disappointment
• Player of the Year
• Unsung Player of the Year
• What If
• A Peek Towards 2008

It's worth checking out but be forewarned. The word Dartmouth doesn't appear anywhere.

A writer at the Baltimore Sun takes a looking at coaching candidate Jason Garrett, the former Princeton standout who will be an NFL head coach in the not-too-distant future.

And finally ... it got down to 12-below last night up here on the mountain. Winter has officially arrived!