Gaudet Set For NCAA Debut

Good story in Virginia's Daily Progress about former Dartmouth tailback Chad Gaudet going to the NCAA's as a grad student with the Cavalier lacrosse team. This quote from coach Dom Starsia doesn't surprise me at all:

"I made a joke to the team earlier in the spring. I said, ‘Are we going to let an Ivy Leaguer be the toughest guy on the team?’ He brings that component to us. He’s an animal in the weight room and works his tail off on the field.”

For anyone who saw Gaudet play at Dartmouth before the devastating knee injury that ended his football career, that's not a surprise. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If Gaudet had stayed healthy running behind an improving line he would have broken the Dartmouth career rushing record and would have helped the Big Green program turn the corner.

A couple of interesting notes from a Q&A with Princeton head coach Roger Hughes.

First, Hughes said the wildcard for his team at quarterback might be 6-foot-2, 195-pound Brett Kan. Should Kan win the job he would be the second son of a former Dartmouth player to quarterback the Tigers in four years. Kan's father, Darryl Wong '82, got tryouts with the San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers after graduation and today is an orthopedic surgeon in Hawaii. Jeff Terrell, who quarterbacked Princeton to the 2006 Ivy League title and won the Bushnell Cup as IvyLeague Player of the Year, is the son of Steve Terrell '79, whose 61-yard punt is tied for ninth all-time on the Dartmouth career chart.

The other note of interest from Hughes is also in regard to the Princeton quarterback situation. Hughes said:

I fired my quarterback coach, which is me. Basically, with my responsibilities, trust me that the best part of my day is being out on the field with the players. I love coaching quarterbacks; with that said, the demands of a head coach and all the hats I have to wear take away from my time. As I looked at it, I wondered if the time I have to do other things and not be with the quarterbacks may have slowed their growth a bit.

The Portsmouth Herald's web page has a story in anticipation of today's Blue-White scrimmage at the University of New Hampshire that offers good insight into the team Dartmouth will visit in the second game of the season. Write Mike Zhe notes:

The annually explosive UNH offense will head into battle this fall with one of the league's top quarterbacks (R.J. Toman), running backs (Chad Kackert) and tight ends (Scott Sicko). But with four new starters, the line blocking for that trio is anything but proven.

And ...

Last year, UNH entered the season with four senior starters on the line and ended up churning out 406.9 yards a game (best in the CAA) and 35.6 points (second to James Madison). This will be as young and as inexperienced it has been at the position as any time in recent memory.

There's also this about the 2009 UNH schedule that. It is now ancient history, but it sill has to sting the Green faithful:

Looking ahead to the fall, the Wildcats' 11 opponents include two teams that were winless in 2008 (St. Francis, Dartmouth), four others that finished below .500 (Towson, Hofstra, Northeastern, Rhode Island), and five that finished above .500 (Ball State, Villanova, Massachusetts, William and Mary, Maine).

The poll over there on the left has closed with 54 percent of you suggesting that you are more optimistic than a year ago at this time, 25 percent feeling about the same, 10 percent feeling less interested and nine percent less optimistic.

Green Alert Take: That 54 percent of you are more optimistic is a surprise because the sense that I got last spring was that there was significant optimism coming off a 3-4 Ivy League season. I wonder if a good portion of that 54 percent is actually more optimistic than they were after last season. I'd expect that if the question were reframed to ask it that way the number would soar if only because, really, there's just one way to go.

And finally, back when that certain Hanover High junior was still playing baseball with the boys (right through the summer of her freshman year), I asked a Dartmouth softball coach whether that was a good idea, or if it might slow her transition down to softball whenever that might come. The word I got back was that baseball with the boys would only help her and clearly it has.

Yesterday she pulled something off that you don't often see girls do. On third base with two outs, she came off the base a little bit more with each successive pitch until finally breaking for home when the catcher lobbed the ball back to the pitcher. She slid in safely with a delayed steal of the plate that scored another run when the stunned pitcher's hurried return throw went into the dugout area. That certain catcher also threw a runner out bunting, picked a runner off first and threw a runner out stealing second. Alas, her team remained winless.

Familiar Name Heading To Hanover

If lineage means anything, Dartmouth football is adding a good one in Joe Marek, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound lineman from Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minn. Marek is the son of former Buddy Teevens teammate Tom Marek '81, a three-year letterwinner at offensive guard and winner of the school's 1980 Manners Makyth Man Award.

As a Cretin-Derham Hall product, the younger Marek follows in the footsteps of 2000 Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke, former NFL quarterback Steve Walsh, Harvard grad and All-Pro center Matt Birk, and Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer.

Mauer, by the way, was the 2000 Rivals.com football prospect of the year as a Cretin-Derham quarterback and he's not the only Raiders player to be so-recognized. Marek's teammate, 6-8, 315 center Seantrel Henderson is recognized as the No. 1 prospect in the high school class of 2010 according to Rivals.com.

Henderson's head shot and bio are on this page, where if you skip down one player you'll find a bio and headshot of incoming Dartmouth offensive lineman Rob Bathe of Wayzata.

Californian Joins Incoming Class

Another name to add to next year's freshman class is that of Garrett Wymore, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound linebacker from Chadwick School in Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif.

Wymore had 107 tackles last fall with 70 solo stops while helping Chadwick go 6-4. One year after an ACL injury he returned to earn the All-Prep League defensive MVP honor. He plays lacrosse in the spring and hit the hardwood in the winter. Find him in the center of this picture in a preseason story about the Chadwick team last fall.

Check back in a bit for yet another addition to the Class of 2013.

Getting The Jump On Preseason Honors

If you want to get your name out there, be among the first – even better, be the first – to get a preseason college football magazine on the shelves.

Or if you are Consensus Draft Services, get your stuff up on the web early.

That's what CDS has done, already naming a preseason FCS All-America team that features two Ivy Leaguers from a traditional power on the first team, two from an Ivy League team that wouldn't be considered a traditional power on the second team, and eight Ivy Leaguers on the honorable mention squad.

These things are always incredibly easy to quibble with, but I'll leave that to you. Here are the Ivy Leaguers honored on the CDS preseason All-America team:

First Team

• Penn kicker Andrew Samson
• Penn defensive tackle Joe Goniprow

Second Team

• Columbia outside linebacker/defensive end Lou Miller
• Columbia punt returner Austin Knowlin

Honorable Mention

• Harvard wide receiver Matt Luft
• Harvard offensive tackle James Williams
• Harvard corner Derrick Barker
• Brown wide receiver Boby Sewall
• Brown defensive tackle David Howard
• Yale tight end John Sheffield
• Cornell linebacker Chris Costello
• Penn corner Chris Wynn

Other Dartmouth Opponents mentioned ...

First Team

• New Hampshire tight end Scott Sicko

Honorable Mention

• Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph
• New Hampshire safety Ryan Hinds

Dartmouth is one of two Ivy schools not to have a player mentioned, along with Princeton. Surprising, actually, that Tiger running back Jordan Culbreath didn't get a mention. But I said I wouldn't quibble.

Of note: Jared Turcotte, the 232-pound running back from Maine who should be all-too familiar to followers of this blog, was named to the second team.

CDS also has a list of draft prospects for next year that includes six Ivy Leaguers. The list is headlined by Harvard corner Derrick Barker, the only one of the group projected at this point as a draft pick (seventh round). The list:

• Corner Derrick Barker, Harvard
• Linebacker Chris Costello, Cornell
• Defensive tackle Joe Goniprow, Penn
• Defensive end Lou Miller, Columbia
• Tight end John Sheffield, Yale
• Corner Chris Wynn, Penn

Freshman tailback Nick Schwieger gets a mention in an Attleboro(Mass.) Sun Chronicle story for his work in the weight room: a bench press of 350 pounds, a squat of 525 and a clean of 325.

Remember Big Lu, 6-foot-8, 340-pound offensive lineman Lucius Alexander '07? His sister and brother, twins Tina and Chris Alexander '11, are members of the Dartmouth track team and are featured in this Daily Dartmouth Q&A about attending the same school. It doesn't happen all that much anymore, but there was a time when Chris would walk by the football field after finishing up with his track practice and you could see Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens almost starting to drool at the size of the big guy.

Kudos to the Cornell football team, which raised more than $1,100 for Family & Children's Service of Ithaca. Two thoughts on the picture accompanying this story on the school web page. First, as a traditionalist I really like those jerseys.

And second, imagine the fun you could have writing a caption for that picture if it were a, well, a "bandit" school instead of Cornell. If you are curious, check out the pic.

Texas QB Makes Decision

Missed this a little earlier but a friend shared information drawn from last week's Austin American-Statesman that Stony Point, Texas quarterback Nyk McKissic has signed a letter of intent to play football at Jackson State. McKissic was originally reported to be headed to Dartmouth by Rivals.com as well as other outlets.

The Incoming Class

The lists of Ivy League football recruiting classes should be dribbling out over the next several weeks. Here's the Dartmouth Class of 2013*:

OFFENSE
Line
Rob Bathe, 6-3, 265
Wayzata HS, Minnesota

John Golio, 6-4, 240
Bergen Catholic HS, Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.

John Hanna, 6-4, 300
Torrey Pines HS, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

Daniel Jamokha, 6-5, 255
Western HS, Anaheim, Calif.

Thomas Prewitt, 6-7, 298
Brighton HS, Brighton, Colo.

John Scheve, 6-8, 295
Boys Latin, Baltimore, Md.

Tight End
Michael Aprahamian, 6-6, 235
Brookfield Central HS, Brookfield, Wis.

Jackson Floyd, 6-6, 223
Loyola HS, Willmette, Ill.

Justin Foley, 6-3, 235 (TE/H-back)
William Henry Harrison HS, Harrison, Ohio

Wide Receiver
Anthony Fulham, 6-2, 200
Canisius HS, Amherst, N.Y

Brian Kosnik, 6-5, 185
Darien HS, Darien, Conn.

Steven McCormack, 5-10, 175
Seven Lakes HS, Katy, Texas

Corey Vann, 6-1, 170
Harvard Westlake HS, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Running Back
Billy Bradshaw, 6-1, 210
Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego, Calif.

Jordan Brooks, 6-0, 212
Mount Vernon HS, Howard, Ohio

Jeremy Rick, 5-10, 185
Bellingham HS, Bellingham, Wash.

Fullback
Jason Lawrence, 5-10, 225
Guilderland Central HS, Guilderland, N.Y.

DEFENSE
Interior Line
Mick Davis, 6-3, 250
Eastside Catholic HS, Renton, Wash.

Elliot Kastner, 6-2, 250
Hawaii Preparatory HS, Kamuela, Hawaii

Defensive End
Danny Husband, 6-3, 210
Cascia Hall, Tulsa, Okla.

Teddy Reed, 6-4, 256
Deerfield Academy, Boxford, Mass.

Michael Tree, 6-2, 230
Brophy Prep, Paradise Valley, Ariz.

Linebacker
Miles Gay, 6-0, 195
Clear Brook HS, Friendswood, Texas

Ryan Hrabak, 6-2, 215
Carmel Catholic HS, Grayslake, Ill.

Tom Patek, 6-3, 205
Carmel Catholic HS, Mundelein, Ill.

Corner
Chase Womack, 6-0, 195
Westlake HS, Austin, Texas

Safety
Alex Douglas, 6-2, 198
Bartram Trail HS, St. Johns, Fla.

Kelly Mitchell, 5-11, 190
Parkview Baptist HS, Baton Rouge, La.

Swin Moore, 5-11, 180
Marietta HS, Marietta, Ga.

Greg Patton, 6-0, 190 (/quarterback)
Woodward Academy, College Park, Ga.

Cole Pembroke, 6-0, 200
Desert Vista HS, Phoenix, Ariz.

Garrett Waggoner, 6-2, 210
Riverview HS, Sarasota, Fla.

KICKER
RC Willenbrock, 5-11, 170
Cherry Creek HS, Englewood, Colo.

* includes two-sport crossovers and several players not officially recognized as recruits

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Chuck Burton over at College Sporting News has a well-conceived column headlined "FCS and the APR." The Academic Progress Rate is a formula the NCAA uses to measure how successful schools and individual teams are at retaining and graduating student-athletes.

From the column:

In the NCAA’s APR public recognition for the best APR rates this year, there are many FCS schools – including the entire Ivy League, Bucknell, Colgate, Davidson, Dayton, Holy Cross, New Hampshire, Richmond, Villanova, and William & Mary.

These schools for the most part have a similar profile. For example, only two of these seventeen schools – New Hampshire and William & Mary – are public schools. All of them are wealthy private schools, and all are expensive to attend.

Not a surprise because they do things the right way, but it's nice to see New Hampshire as one of the rare state schools recognized among the best.

The column suggests:

In a nutshell, if you’re being praised by the NCAA for great APR rates, chances are you’re a rich, private school with an extremely selective admissions department. You also probably have a pretty good FCS football team. If you’re being punished, however, chances are you’re a state school that cannot depend on a rich endowment. You also are likely to have an FCS team that hasn’t exactly ripped it up in postseason play.

The column does a nice job of explaining some of the difficulties faced by schools that fare poorly in the APR. Again, find the column here. For a New York Times piece on postseason bans resulting from poor academic performance, click here.

Speaking of UNH, there's a story about spring football on the other side of the state here.

Bloomberg.com has a piece about Princeton pitcher David Hale picking "Minor Leagues Over Wall Street." There's a funny – and telling – quote from the CEO of a Chicago placement company:

“It’s harder to get onto Wall Street than it is into the major leagues right now,” (John) Challenger said, laughing. “The offers on Wall Street this year are sparse in comparison to recent years. It’s not bad to have another area of expertise.”

And finally, remember when you sweated your college essay? (I wrote mine for graduate school on the adventures I had working as a cross country mover for Bekins while trying to figure out just what you can do with an undergraduate degree in English.) The Wall Street Journal asked presidents of 10 leading colleges to write 500-word essays as required by their school's applications. Interesting stuff that you can find here. (Penn President Amy Gutmann wrote one of the essays that you can find here.)

Game-Day Insider

Thanks to a couple of readers for interesting links this morning. The first is a Dartmouth football-related offering in the 2009 Benefit Auction for the truly remarkable Montshire Museum of Science across the river in Norwich, Vt. (Montshire: verMONT and new hampSHIRE. Get it?)

The silent auction is May 15 and you can bid on:

Experience Dartmouth Football as a Game-Day Insider

With this Game-Day Special Access Pass for a 2009 home game of your choosing, you and a guest will have the opportunity to: 1) Attend Coach Teevens' pre-game chalk talk at the Hop as his special guest; 2) Receive a private, pre-game breakdown of game strategy from Coach Teevens; 3) Enjoy a pre-game tour of the Floren Varsity House football training facilities by a member of the football staff; 4) Meet up with players as they exit the locker room and follow them out onto the field; 5) Watch the game with a sideline pass (for safety reasons, participants must agree to strictly abide by all sideline rules as explained prior to the game); 6) Spend halftime in the Friends of Dartmouth Football tent; and 7) Receive an official, regulation Dartmouth football signed by your favorite player and/or Coach Teevens. This package is for one adult and an accompanying child aged 10 or older--read restrictions carefully. (Restrictions: Excludes Dartmouth homecoming; chalk talk subject to change if discontinued; due to NCAA regulations governing recruitment of student athletes, high school students in grades 9 through 12 are ineligible to participate.) Value: $210

For more about the auction, including how to make a bid for the Game Day Insider award via email, click here. To view more up for auction in the Sports & Fitness category (including football season tickets), click here.

Dartmouth football has had a surprising crossover with men's lacrosse the past few years and a couple of incoming recruits (see last night's BGA story on recruiting) have indicated they intend to play both sports. That may or may not change with news that lax coach Bill Wilson is resigning after five years at the helm. The Daily Dartmouth has a story about Wilson telling the lacrosse team he was stepping down.

The spring football season for Dartmouth opponents finally draws to a close this weekend with New Hampshire holding its Blue-White game at 12:30. There's a brief look at the 2009 Wildcats in this announcement of the game.

Baseball America has a nice piece on Dartmouth being the first school to earn a berth in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. That kind of pub is one advantage of finishing up the season before other schools. The disadvantage? The Big Green has nothing scheduled for the next three weeks until the NCAA pairings are announced. Compare that to the University of Vermont, which has games through May 12, with the America East Championship slated to run through May 23.

Last year Ivy champion Columbia scheduled "friendlies" (not a big fan of that soccer term, but in this case ...) against Patriot League champion Bucknell to try to stay fresh.

And finally, another reader sent along a link to this absolutely classic Life Magazine photo featuring the mascots from Penn and Princeton. My money for some reason is on the former. Check it out and see if you agree.

Q&A With Recruit; Full List On BGA Tonight

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog has a lengthy Q&A with incoming Dartmouth recruit Jeremy Rick, a running back from Bellingham, Wash.

Later tonight the Big Green Alert premium site will feature the first roundup of all Dartmouth football recruits including Rick, a speedy 5-foot-10, 185 pound tailback. Comments from coach Buddy Teevens on each of the members of the Class of 2013 will be included in the report.

A Real World Message

This is a sports blog – for the most part – but there are those few days when the real world barges in. After several emails regarding swine flu landed here in the past week I suppose today should be one of those days.

So you know, at the Ivy League Baseball Championship Series over the weekend, Dartmouth's policy on swine flu was posted on the ticket booths. Today's Daily Dartmouth has another story about the issue under the headline, "Three ‘suspected’ flu cases found negative." The story begins this way:

Three of the five Dartmouth students with 'suspected' cases of swine flu have tested negative for the virus, director of Health Services John Turco said at an information session held for members of the Dartmouth community on Monday. Test results for the other two cases are still pending, and two additional students were identified on Monday as “suspected” cases, Turco said.

There are currently five 'probable' cases and one 'confirmed' case of swine flu in New Hampshire, State Public Health director Jose Montero said in a press conference on Monday afternoon.

One local high school was closed briefly, but at this point it doesn't appear the college or any more schools will be closing. Montero offered this common-sense assessment yesterday:

"Across the nation there is no transmission that goes beyond what we expect in normal and regular flu season, and the severity of illness has been quite similar as well."

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Dartmouth gets another mention in a Dayton Daily News story about "do-it-all football player Robbie Sherk (who) had the academic credentials to get admitted to some prestigious colleges and took visits to Dartmouth and Davidson, but he found what he was looking for barely a punt, pass and kick from his front door." As mentioned in this earlier BGA blog note, Sherk was a high school teammate of Dartmouth freshman Chris Hardy.

A "long-time reader, regular-emailer," sent along a link to a SunSentinel.com page for The Miami Dolphins All-Jersey team. The Dolphins' all-time No. 9? Well, he wore No. 11 at Dartmouth. Here's what the caption to a less-than-flattering picture of the player says:

#9 -- Quarterback Jay Fiedler (2000-04). Fiedler didn't turn out to be the next Dan Marino as the team hoped, but he did start more games than fellow No. Nines John Beck and Scott Secules.

Dartmouth men's ice hockey coach Bob Gaudet coaches sons Jimmy and Joey. Doggie Julian coached son Toby on the hardwood. It's rare, but it happens.

Rarer, to be sure, would be a husband at Dartmouth, or at any school, coaching his wife. But it will be happening next year. A Daily D story about the retirement of squash coach John Power includes a note about assistant coach Hansi Wiens taking over as men's and women's coach next year. One of his players will be his wife Valaria, 22, who has been accepted into the Class of 2013.

Another regular reader sent along a note about a 5-K trail run this Sunday in memory of former rugby player Katie "Cully" Cullinan '08. If you would like to run or support the effort, which benefits the National Eating Disorders Association, click here.

And finally, the good news now that spring football is over is that I finally had a chance to watch that certain Hanover High School junior captain play in a softball game yesterday. The bad news is that even a kid who has no trouble running 5-6-7 miles during cross country and indoor track season was black-and-blue and totally spent after lunging, jumping and diving for pitches in a 19-5 loss. Playing catcher is a tiring challenge when your team surrenders 10 walks, one hit batter, two errors and 14 runs – in the first inning!

Monday Update

Here's a very good NYT article on Harvard QB Chris Pizzotti and the Jets, thanks to an Alert reader. Former Brown receiver Paul Raymond is quoted.

Baseball Wins Ivy Title

Some football to come but I'd be remiss if I didn't start with Dartmouth baseball winning the Ivy League championship with a 10-0 victory over Cornell in the rubber game of the Ivy League Championship Series.

With former punter Brian Scullin waving a pirate flag draped from a hockey stick and leading the ebullient student cheering section on, freshman Kyle Hendricks spun a masterpiece for 7 1/3 innings before the bullpen completed the shutout. Johnathon Santopadre clubbed two home runs as the Big Green won its first Ivy title in 22 years. That it happened in the first year of Biondi Park only made it that much sweeter. Find a story in the Daily Dartmouth.

The surprising storybook season for Dartmouth softball ended the way Cornell's baseball season finished, with a loss in the third and final game of the championship series, this time in Ithaca.

Back to the gridiron, the Daily D has one of the more interesting football stories I've seen in the student publication in some time. Headlined, "Football shows promise and problems in spring game," the story includes these thoughts:

The lack of downfield passing displayed this weekend is cause for concern. The vast majority of pass plays resulted in check-downs to the flats for smaller gains, allowing linebackers to more effectively gear toward stopping the run by crowding the box.

and ...

The offensive linemen still need to work on keeping their pad level lower. During the game, they lost leverage to the defensive linemen on a number of plays.

The D also has a "Power Ranking" of spring teams. The school paper usually takes a more gentle approach to coaching criticism than this column does at the bottom, when it takes a shot at a pair of Big Green coaches.

The New York Times has a column that begins this way:

After three decades of steady growth in the number of teams and student-athletes, colleges and universities large and small, private and public, east and west, are slashing millions of dollars from their sports budgets.

I have to admit to mixed feelings about the issue. On the one hand, I absolutely understand how cutting sports can help the overall health of an athletic department. While Dartmouth has said categorically it would not be dropping sports, some who watch the athletic program closely have explained in detail why it would be advisable in the long run to do so, and they make a good argument.

But as the parent of an athlete who is looking to compete in college in a couple of years, I can't imagine what it would be like for her to pick her school, enjoy a successful freshman year and have the sport yanked out from under her. All I know is I wouldn't want to be an athletic director these days.

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Rooting through some things in the basement I came across this promotional piece produced by the sports information office in 1986-87. Needless to say, it didn't catch on. But I still like the idea of a Big Green Thing stomping on whatever is in its way. (Click to supersize)

Wasting time on the computer after finishing yesterday's blog, I came up with a newer design. It's amateurish, but there's the root of an idea there.

I seem to recall the Dartmouth Outing Club having a logo of some sort where the sole of the hiking boot print spelled out words. I used to think that something similar would be an original logo on the side of a helmet that really says Dartmouth. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what it would really say is someone stomped on the players' heads.

Oh well, back to the drawing board for this obviously frustrated graphic designer ...

Spring Award Winners

This made it onto the regular site last night, but for the rest of you, here are the award winners announced at halftime of Saturday's Green-White scrimmage:

Most Improved Running Back: Matt Dornak
Most Improved Tight End: John Gallagher
Most Improved Offensive Lineman: Kyle Cook
Most Improved Wide Receiver: Garrett Babb
Most Improved Quarterback: Dan Rooney
Most Improved Special Teams: Matt Kelly
Most Improved Defensive Lineman: Connor Phillips
Most Improved Linebacker: Royce Egeolu
Most Improved Defensive back: Robbie Krattiger

Weight Room honorees were ...
Offensive Lineman Ryan O’Neill
Linebacker Diego Fernandez-Soto
Wide receiver Tim Vanderet
Running back Nick Schwieger
Linebacker Royce Egeolu (team-record 650-pound squat)
Defensive end Charles Bay

Stubby Pearson ‘42 Award for character, leadership on campus, high academic standing and performance on the playing field ...
Timmy McManus

If I were handing out game balls after the spring game, they would go to tight end John Gallagher on offense and to defensive ends Charles Bay and Matt Oh on the other side of the line.

No word yet on the second BCS transfer heading to Yale, but one message board suggests it is a redshirt freshman offensive lineman from UCLA who was third on the depth chart at his position this spring.

News that Jack Kemp has died reminded me of my days as a cub reporter at the newspaper in Jeff Kemp's '81 final year as a Dartmouth quarterback. We'd put the Friday night paper to bed and then hustle up to the quonset hut that used to serve as the Lebanon Airport terminal in those days. It was a neat old building that had a Casablanca feel.

Anyway, while we'd be trying to connive the waitress into having the cook make us up something to eat well after the kitchen closed, we'd hear the hum of a plane engine and a minute or two later an unassuming Congressman Kemp would come through the door carrying his own bag. It always impressed me that he found a way in his busy schedule to get up to Hanover to support his son, who would eventually follow him into the NFL.

And finally, Dartmouth and Cornell will be playing what amounts to Ivy League championship games in baseball and softball today. Baseball is a Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park and it you are in the neighborhood, be sure to stop out. It should be a blast. If you do, check out the top corner of the third-base stands where members of the football team have been the baseball team's loudest supporters.