Wednesday, March 09, 2011

We're B-A-A-A-C-K

Flipping through the Penn 2011 spring prospectus I couldn't help but notice that Penn coach Al Bagnoli needs just four more wins to pass Dartmouth legend Bob Blackman for second on the all-time list for Ivy League victories. The list:

1. Carm Cozza (Yale) 135-84-5, .614
2. Bob Blackman (Dartmouth, Cornell) 100-53-3, .651
3. Al Bagnoli (Penn) 97-36, .697
4. Joe Restic (Harvard) 92-65-4, .584
5. Tim Murphy (Harvard) 79-40, .664

A couple of notes about Bob Blackman. His Ivy League record includes a 3-6 mark in 1955, the year before the start of formal Ivy League play.

Blackman's conference record in 15 years of official Ivy League play at Dartmouth: 76-18-2, .802.

(Note: All records cited are for games against Ivy League opponents.)
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The Sports Network has a story up listing the top offensive NFL prospect in each FCS conference this year. Any guesses who they picked from the Ivy League? TSN certainly fooled me.

The top prospect according to The Sports Network is Chris Blohm, Yale's 6-foot-3 1/2, 260-pound tight end. Blohm was second-team All-Ivy this fall.

Here's a scratchy New Haven Register video with Yale coach Tom Williams calling Blohm an NFL prospect during the preseason.
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Yahoo Sports has a deal where fans can "contribute their own content," and in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day, one fan tossed up a story headlined, Top 5 Irish NFL players. The headline left me thinking these were players born in Ireland, but once I saw Tom Brady was No. 1 and Jim Kelly was No. 3, I knew that wasn't the case. Anyway, No. 5 is Dartmouth alum Ed Healey '18. The author of the piece writes:
Healey was one of the pioneers of NFL football in the 1920s. He was the first player to have a contract purchases by the NFL. That was done by the legendary George Halas. The contract price was a mere $100 in 1922. Healey was born in Massachusetts and attended a Catholic university before moving on Dartmouth. He is in the College Football Hall of Fame and the NFL Hall of Fame.
Find Healey's Pro Football Hall of Fame bio here.
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The Championship Subdivision Football message board has another thread on Ivy League football teams not going to the FCS playoffs. (You knew they can't go, right?)

I found this back-and-forth interesting:
89Hen wrote:
The Ivy, especially Harvard, is a joke. They don't participate in the playoffs, so they shouldn't even be mentioned on the FCS board. Put them in "other sports"... that is, if you think their brand of football is even a sport.

Franks Tanks answered:
Ok Hen- The Harvard team from a few years ago, 2004, was as good as any team I have seen in FCS. They had current Bills starting QB Ryan Fitzpatrick under center, and former NFL RB and Northwestern transfer Clifton Dawson toting the ball. They beat a pretty decent Northeastern team that year 41-14. Yes 41-14 - by far the worst loss for Northeastern that year. How many FCS teams have an NFL QB and NFL RB on the team at the same time?

I don't know how far they would've went (sic) in the FCS playoffs, but they would at the very least (have) given teams a very good game.
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Working in the wonderful (and warm) Hanover town library yesterday, I got up to stretch my back for a bit and stumbled across an intriguing little paperback titled, A Week at the Airport. Turns out Alain de Botton was hired to be the "writer in residence" at Heathrow for seven days and to write about whatever stuck his fancy at the airport. That concept fascinated me and so I spent a couple of hours flipping through the book's 112 pages. The author went off on a few too many philosophical walkabouts for my taste, but what I wouldn't have given to land that assignment! Alas, all I can claim is being hired to be the "writer in residence" for one night of Middlebury College men's ice hockey several years ago.
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And yes, we have electricity, heat and even running water again up here on the mountain. It's impossible to thank the folks who get that stuff up and going enough, although we try at the end of each month ;-)

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