Pidermann Keeping Busy

Busy times for Dartmouth senior Peter Pidermann, a second team All-Ivy League pick at free safety last fall. Pidermann has added a new sport to his resume as a member of the Dartmouth squad that will compete in the inaugural USA Sevens Rugby Collegiate Championship Invitational in Columbus, Ohio, on June 4-6. Pidermann is one of 12 players traveling for the Big Green.

Dartmouth's schedule features games against Notre Dame on Friday, and Harvard and Cal on Saturday (the latter game live on NBC at 5 p.m.). Sunday's action will include either the Cup or Challenge quarters, semis and finals, with the final carried live on NBC at 5:15 p.m.

In addition to Dartmouth, the 16-team invitational includes Arizona, Arizona State, Army, Bowling Green, Cal, Florida, Harvard, Indiana, Navy, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, San Diego State, Tennessee and Utah. The event will be televised live on NBC and Universal Sports both days from 2-6 p.m.

Pidermann is also weighing football opportunities in Europe beginning in mid-June or early July. He may join a team to finish up this season and then return to Europe next January to play a full season after doing the LSAT thing next fall.

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News releases announcing schedules at this level can be pretty "un-newsworthy" stuff unless there are significant changes, a la Dartmouth, Colgate and Bucknell. That said, the Harvard schedule release is worth looking at for two reasons. First, the overhead picture of Harvard Stadium shows just how glorious that facility can look when it is filled for The Game.

And second, the release reminds us again that Harvard lets all children 12-and-under in for free (except for The Game). Smart.

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Speaking of stadiums – stadia – the University of New Hampshire will be playing in two of the best and one of the worst this fall. The best? Two NFL facilities: Gillette Stadium, where it will play Massachusetts the next two years, and Heinz Field, where it will put a run of consecutive FBS victories on the line against Pitt. The worst? Its own Cowell Stadium.

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The recent statistical look at Dartmouth teams in the era of formal Ivy League play reminded one reader of the 1987 Sports Illustrated look back at the Big Green's legendary 1970 squad that beat out Penn State for the Lambert Trophy, emblematic of Eastern supremacy. This has been posted here before, but it is worth repeating. When Joe Paterno suggested (as the SI story says with "tongue-in-cheek") that the Nittany Lions and Big Green settle on the field who is the better team, Dartmouth coach Bob Blackman responded:

"Of course, Coach Paterno knows that under Ivy League rules we're not allowed to play in a postseason game, but if we were allowed to play a postseason contest, I would prefer to play a team that had a better record."

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And finally, the rest of the day will be spent transcribing interviews as I get started on another personal history project. Last week I finally delivered nine copies of an 8x11 format, 80-page hardcover book to the daughter of Dartmouth '60 who wanted her father's story told. Neat story, but with a series of interviews, lots of typing, scanning of photos, designing and revising, that was a ton of work. If only I charged people for the amount of time I actually put in on projects. Of course, then I wouldn't get any business ;-)