Or they could have picked the Oct. 10 Homecoming game against Yale.
And the weather figured to still be pretty good a couple of weeks later when Columbia came to town.
Ultimately they chose this weekend’s game against Princeton, based at least in part on a hunch that the celebration in Hanover might be about more than the the silver anniversary of the first Ivy League championship under coach Buddy Teevens.Pretty good hunch, it turns out.
Upwards of 80 players from the 1990 team that earned a share of the Ivy League title with a 23-6 win
over Princeton will be at Memorial Field today hoping history repeats itself with another win over the Tigers that would clinch an Ivy championship a quarter century after they turned the trick.
“It is meaningful to me to see how much it means to them, to take the time to come back,” Teevens said with a faraway smile after Wednesday’s practice. “That was our first championship and now they have a chance to be here for the first one of the second time around.”
While this year’s Dartmouth team rolled to a 6-0 start, the ’90 team featuring Teevens’ first recruiting class at his Alma mater was 1-2-1 before reeling off six consecutive wins.
That championship season opened with a 16-6 loss to Penn on Memorial Field but the Big Green showed resiliency by bouncing right back as Shon Page ran for 148 yards and kicker Dennis Durkin was responsible for 15 points as the Big Green stunned nationally ranked Lehigh one week later, 33-14.
Dartmouth very nearly topped that in the third week of the season, building a 14-0 lead at No. 3 New Hampshire before having to settle for a 21-21 tie. Brad Preble picked off three passes and recovered a fumble but an 84-yard punt return for a touchdown by UNH’s Barry Bourassa and an interception at the end cost the Big Green a shot at a monumental upset.
After a 21-10 loss at a powerhouse Holy Cross team that would go 9-1-1 Dartmouth evened its Ivy League record at 1-1 with a 27-17 victory over Yale. That set up a showdown in Ithaca, N.Y., against a Cornell team with a 2-0 conference record and legitimate championship aspirations.
Dartmouth got a 24-yard Durkin field goal and a safety when a Cornell fumble went out of the end zone to take a 5-3 halftime lead. Cornell moved in front, 6-5, on Matt Hepfer’s 35-yard field goal in the third quarter.
Durkin booted field goals of 28 and 19 in the final period to give the Big Green five-point lead that with just seconds remaining and Cornell on its own side of the 50 seemed safe. It wasn’t.
On the final play of the game Cornell quarterback Chris Cochrane dropped back, evaded a rush and heaved a Hail Mary from his own 47 that Mike Grant caught at the Dartmouth 15. Grant seemed destined to score the winning touchdown until Big Green corner Sal Sciretto dove and brought him down from behind at the 3. To this day there are people who remember Sciretto as, “Salvation Sal.”
Having dodged the bullet on Schoellkopf Field, Dartmouth returned home the next week to post a 17-0 win over Harvard, with Page running for a school-record 222 yards and the stingy Big Green defense, led by Harry Wright’s 17 tackles, holding the Crimson to just 112 yards of offense.
Dartmouth got a late touchdown run from Page a week later to seal a 34-20 win over Columbia before heading to Providence and dealing Brown a 29-0 loss. The Bears managed just 84 total yards against the Big Green defense.
Dartmouth closed out the season and clinched the Big Green’s first title since 1982 with a 23-6 win over Princeton that featured 145 rushing yards from Al Rosier and three interceptions by “Salvation Sal.”
Like this year’s Dartmouth team. the ’90 squad featured a stifling defense that allowed just 32 points over the final five games. Unlike this year’s team, which came into the season with quarterback Dalyn Williams being heralded as one of the top players in the nation, the 1990 team did not have a proven quarterback. Instead it received an Ivy League Rookie of the Year performance from Matt Brzica after he shot up the quarterback depth chart when injuries struck players ahead of him early in the year.
What Teevens' first Ivy League championship team had most in common with the team that this afternoon will try to give him his third title as a coach was its approach to the game.
“The X’s and O’s aside the ’90 team was as closeknit a group as I have been around,” said Teevens. “They played for each other. They were unselfish. There was a lot of trust amongst each other on both sides of the football. The guys had fun on Saturdays. They just flat-out played.
“You look our team right now and it is very similar in that regard. We are probably more experienced now than we were back then, but there is that same mindset. That same joy of playing the game. Pulling for each other. Pulling for both sides of the ball. It’s not offense and defense. It is a team approach.”
While he hasn’t overplayed the championship card with this year’s team, Teevens has brought up his experiences as quarterback on the 1978 team along with those of the players who are returning this weekend.
“What I have said is, guys who have won a championship will tell you that you can’t appreciate how much it means to you now,” he said. “But when you reflect back it will be is one of your greatest accomplishments in life. It is done with a wide collection of people who didn’t know each other (before Dartmouth), who have come together at one time, in one place, and have worked for a common goal. If you get it, it’s something no one can never take it away.
“We got a second life and have a second chance to do that on Saturday. They know it’s out there. Now finish it.”
Just like another group of players did a quarter of a century ago.
(This is an edited version of a piece that was posted on BGA Premium earlier this week.)
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In the first game of the weekend, broadcast last night on NBCSN . . .Brown 28, Columbia 23
Columbia (1-6, 2-8) gave up Brown (3-4, 5-5) touchdowns on a fumble in the end zone, a 75-yard run, and a blocked punt all by the midway point of the second quarter.
Trailing, 21-7, Columbia fought back within five points on a touchdown with 5:12 left in the game. Because the two-point conversion pass failed the Lions couldn't force overtime with a field goal, and instead needed a touchdown to win.
Columbia got the all-important stop with 2:55 remaining, and then drove 13 plays from its own 35 to the Brown 5 where its faced fourth-and-goal. With no timeouts and just seconds left, heavy pressure forced quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg to toss up a desperation pass that was intercepted in the end zone.
Columbia lost despite posting 26 first downs to Brown's six, outgaining the Bears in total yards 395-231, and holding the ball for 40:47 to Brown's 19:13.
