A Piece Of History

I haven't been on the Dartmouth campus since March and haven't been in the Floren Varsity House football offices since before that. But anticipating days when I expected to struggle to find things to post – although certainly not for the reason why I've been holed up in Vermont the past seven-plus months – on one of my last visits I snapped a few pictures of items in a trophy case in the football lounge.

First, a little background.

The Lambert Trophy, emblematic of "Supremacy in the East," has been awarded to Penn State on 31 occasions, with no one else winning it more than Army's eight times. Given that kind of dominance, the Nittany Lions winning it in eight of the nine years between 1967 and 1975 shouldn't surprise anybody.

The surprise? That the one year interrupting the run in Happy Valley it landed in another valley.

The Upper Valley.

The 1970 Dartmouth team, which finished the year ranked 14th, four spots ahead of PSU in the final Associated Press poll, won the Lambert after outscoring its opponents, 311-42, on the way to a 9-0 record. The Big Green posted six shutouts in the nine games and over the final four games outscored the opposition, 117-0.

Despite those numbers, Penn State coach Joe Paterno – whose team was coming off an 11-0 season in 1969 and had been ranked as high as fourth in the country early in the '70 season –  took a swipe at the idea of the trophy going to the Ivy League champion. Knowing full well it wouldn't happen – and couldn't by rule in the Ivy League, where he himself had played – Paterno challenged Dartmouth to a Dec. 5 game for the "Eastern championship."

Big Green coach Bob Blackman countered that he was, "a bit disappointed that a guy can challenge you to a fight when your hands are tied behind your back." He also responded to Paterno, whose team finished 7-3, with this memorable zinger:

“If the rule could be changed so we could play in a bowl game or other postseason game, I'd personally prefer to play someone with a better record than Penn State's.”

The Lambert Trophy has now become the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy. Since 1982 the Lambert Cup has been awarded to the top Eastern team in the FCS, Division II and Division III. (LINK)

And in case you are wondering, Dartmouth also won the Lambert Trophy in 1965 when it went 9-0 and finished 14th nationally.

It was awarded the newer Lambert Cup in 2015 when it went 9-1, sharing the award with Harvard and Penn.

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Former Dartmouth defensive back Micah Croom gets a brief mention in a 247Sports story about a 5-foot-8, 200-pound walk-on running back from the United Kingdom breaking a leg in USC football practice. From the story posted in a run-up to the No. 20 Trojans' opener Saturday against Arizona State:

USC added preferred walk-ons in Colorado Mesa offensive tackle Joe Bryson, Purdue long-snapper Nathan Weneta and Dartmouth safety Micah Croom.

Speaking of Croom this is from his Twitter account:

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EXTRA POINT

After snow earlier this week and the mercury (silicon?) plunging into the mid-teens, the sun is shining today and the high temperature is projected to be 64 in our little village. In fact, the highs from tomorrow through Tuesday are expected to be 65, 64, 63, 66, and 65. If that happens up in Burlington it will either tie or break (can't remember which) the record for consecutive days of 60 degrees or higher in November, per a TV weather report from earlier this week.

Given the forecast, I pulled the VW bus out from the shade and aimed it toward the rising sun this morning to warm it up before sitting down at the keyboard. In a little bit I'm going to pack up the computer and a little lunch and drive it over to our little lake and spend the day in the BGA Remote Headquarters – as far away from the temptation to tune in the TV news as I can be. (And the radio in the VW doesn't work, which right now is a good thing ;-)