The latest edition of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine has an interview with Niko Lalos '20 of the New York Giants:
“High school teammates who went to big universities told me, ‘Go where you’re wanted. If you’re good enough, the NFL will find you.’ Dartmouth made me feel wanted, and my mom was adamant about academics.”
And . . .
“I got the same grief every NFL rookie does, but there’s the Ivy League grief too. Someone will have a question in the locker room and someone else will say, ‘Ask Niko. He knows everything.’ Once a coach quizzing us offered an ask-a-friend option. One of my teammates who didn’t know an answer said, ‘I’d rather ask Niko than Google.’ It’s kind of entertaining.”
Find the full Dartmouth Alumni Magazine piece HERE.
The magazine also has a short Q&A with interim athletic director Peter Roby under the headline, Let’s Make This Memorable. From the story (LINK):
What’s your outlook for September, when the College might return to some version of normal?
I think we should feel optimistic that we’ll get back to the kind of iconic fall we have learned to love here. People back on campus, celebrating team success, seeing old friends, and supporting the College. That’s what I’m hoping for.
And finally, the "Big Picture" in DAM is titled Room to Roam and it's a shot of Dartmouth's new indoor practice facility, which goes by the wonderful name, the Indoor Practice Facility. You can call that it you want, but you are invited to join me in referring to it as The Green House, "Where Dartmouth athletes grow into champions." Check the photo out HERE.
The New York Times writes about Brown baseball players spending the spring in Florida honing their craft. From the story, which notes that the Ivy League is the only Division I conference in the country not playing this year (italics are mine):
While hundreds of Ivy League athletes — including droves of football players — have taken leave from their schools because of the conference’s archaic rules prohibiting graduate students from playing sports, Brown’s baseball players were already more than a month into the spring semester when their season was canceled.
(Editor's Note: The Ivy League is allowing graduate students at their own school to have one year of athletic eligibility, a ruling that will see receiver Masaki Aerts return to Dartmouth in the fall.)
More from the Times story:
Instead of letting their disappointment fester, the Brown players hatched a plan: Soon, they were on their way to Florida to continue another semester of remote learning and to train six days a week at a top-flight baseball site. Just because they couldn’t play games didn’t mean they couldn’t get better at the sport.
And this editorializing . . .
It is one thing for the Ivy League schools not to chase billions in TV revenues as major college football and basketball schools did during the pandemic; it is another to avoid tapping into vast resources — in brain power and money — to play sports more safely because it conflicts with the ideal that athletes shouldn’t be treated differently from other students.
By the way, have you noticed that you've seen snippets of stories about Dartmouth softball, lacrosse and several other sports competing this spring but not about baseball? Turns out, per the Times report, Penn is the only Ivy League team playing games this spring.
Find the full NYT story HERE.
#
There will be a new national champion in this odd FCS football season with North Dakota State seeing its season end over the weekend in the NCAA quarterfinals. Here's how the games went:
Sam Houston (8-0) 24, North Dakota State (7-3) 20
James Madison (7-0) 34, North Dakota (5-2) 21
South Dakota State (7-1) 31, Southern Illinois (6-4) 26
Delaware (7-0) 20, No. 4 seed Jacksonville State (10-3) 14
And here's the schedule for the semifinals: Delaware visits No. 1 seed South Dakota State Saturday at noon on ESPN and No. 3 seed JMU plays at Sam Houston at 2:30 on ABC in the semifinals.
I spent a little extra time in front of the TV yesterday watching Keegan Bradley and Sam Burns in the final group of the PGA Tour's Valspar Championship near Tampa.
Bradley grew up in nearby Woodstock, Vt., and while his father's relocation as a golf pro saw him finish high school in Massachusetts – and he now lives in Florida – he always refers to himself as being from Woodstock. During his agonizing loss in the Valspar yesterday he again was listed as being from Woodstock.
I clearly remember first meeting young Keegan when he joined with his aunt, Pat Bradley, the World Golf Hall of Fame member, in an exhibition fundraiser I covered for the local daily. I was there to interview Pat, but I did get a quote from then squeaky-voiced Keegan that went pretty much like this:
"When I grow up I'm going to play on the PGA Tour."
Yeah, sure, kid. You and every other 12- or 13-year-old with a set of sticks and a sleeve of Titleists.
Darned if he didn't end up doing just that after playing collegiately at St. John's.
You wouldn't think the Upper Valley would be a hotbed for producing pro golfers but it has done all right. Jeff Julian, grandson of legendary Dartmouth basketball coach Doggie Julian, spent summers working on his game at Hanover Country Club and then competed two years on the PGA Tour before losing a courageous fight against ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Joining Julian in trying PGA Tour Qualifying School was Lebanon's Rich Parker, now the Dartmouth golf coach. Parker never quite made it through but John Feinstein wrote about one close call in his book Tales from Q School: Inside Golf's Fifth Major. Parker had some success on the Hogan Tour, the Triple-A of pro golf, losing the 1991 Albertson's Boise Open to Russell Beiersdorf in a playoff.
I covered Parker and Julian in the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah but had left the paper to start BGA before Bradley won the PGA Championship in 2011. All in all, that's not a bad resumé for a part of the country where winter is so long and the golf season is so short.
PS: I should probably also mention Bob Lendzion, who three years into his stint as head pro at Quechee Club won the 1986 PGA Club Pro Championship at La Quinta and Rancho Mirage and has captured pro events around the world. (To read a sweet story about Lendzion's accidental meeting in Latrobe, Pa., with Winnie Palmer, Arnold's wife, CLICK HERE.)
