Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Catch This

Former safety Quinten Arello, a two-time Dartmouth captain, is the subject of a Q&A HERE in advance of the NFL Draft.

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This is cool. In recognition of Jackie Robinson Day, the Chicago White Sox piorneering former Dartmouth football assistant Jennifer King throw out the first pitch:

Click HERE to read King's bio as assistant running backs coach with the Chicago Bears. Unfortunately, no mention of her year in Hanover with the Big Green.

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With the retirement of Yankees' radio announcer John Sterling (LINK) it's a chance to revisit his call of The Catch by Dartmouth's Andrew Hall in the Big Green's win over future NFL QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and Harvard in 2003:


Here's the story I wrote a few days later about The Catch, now immortalized in a photo by former SID Kathy Slattery on a column just inside the main gate of Memorial Field:
Catch As Catch Can 
Hall's Haul in Win Over Harvard Was The Talk Of The Ivy League
HANOVER – Brett Hoover of the Ivy League office is home in Plainsboro, N.J., watching the YES Network broadcast of the Dartmouth-Harvard football game, laptop computer at his side, online.

Two-hundred, sixty-one miles to the northeast, Big Green coach John Lyons has called timeout, a decision longtime voice of Dartmouth football Rick Adams reports from his sunny radio cubby high above Harvard Stadium.

Taking advantage of the break in play to make her way from the end zone back to the 20-yard line is Dartmouth sports information director Kathy Slattery, shooting digital pictures on this day with a spanking new 300mm, f/4 lens.

It is Saturday, Nov. 1, 2003. There are 12 minutes, 58 seconds remaining in the game between undefeated and nationally ranked Harvard and the underdog Big Green.

Less than two minutes have elapsed since Crimson quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick hit Rodney Byrnes with a 55-yard lightning strike to slice Dartmouth's lead from 23-9 to one touchdown in one fell swoop.

The Big Green is in a third-and-28 hole at the Harvard 40-yard line because quarterback Charlie Rittgers collided with the referee for a bizarre 18-yard loss on the last play. It is crunch time.

For everyone.

***

Lyons is hoping a long pass will bring a first down, but is thinking that an interception would be as good as a punt.

On the Crimson sideline, coach Tim Murphy has sent in another defensive back and is feeling confident that the numbers are in his team's favor.

Near the painted H in the middle of the field, Rittgers huddles his troops and calls the play: 79 Trade.

Junior wide receiver Andrew Hall and senior wide receiver Jay Barnard will line up left. Senior tight end Casey Cramer will be on the right side of the line.

Hall, the 6-foot-3 Rick Fox lookalike who is enjoying a big game, reviews the play as he heads to the line. He and Barnard will be running "jet" routes, straight up the field, crossing along the way. He knows how big the moment is.

"We need the momentum back," he says later of his thinking. "I'm telling myself you have to do everything you can to get the first down the way I always do on third down."

In the YES booth, John Sterling, he of the "Yankees win, thuuuuuuh Yankees win," fame, sets the scene.

"Here it is, third-and-28," he tells his audience. "A big play for Dartmouth."

Slattery hoists her Canon EOS-1D digital SLR camera and looks through the viewfinder.

Across the Dartmouth offensive line, senior tackle Courtney Wuistinger, senior guard Chris Mathewson, senior center Luke Catenacci, sophomore guard Mike Shannon and junior tackle Vik Tiku gird for a hard rush.

Rittgers takes the snap. Wuistinger rides Harvard defensive end Matt Farbotko around the left of Rittgers, who steps up into the pocket at just the right time. Mathewson is a wall in the middle that Harvard defensive tackle David Kunst can't budge. Catenacci, Tiku and Shannon team up on the right side to hold off a bull rush by tackle Jon Berrier and defensive end Eric Grimm.

Just as Berrier breaks through, Sterling makes the call in the TV booth. "Rittgers, deep downfield, over the middle for Hall ..."

On the home sideline, Slattery has her camera poised as Rittgers lets fly from the 47. "I had been in the end zone waiting patiently for what I was convinced was going to be a touchdown the play before," she says. "When I saw Rittgers roll out and go down, I was mad. So I went stomping back to about the 20-yard line, thinking, 'Now what's going to happen?' The camera just happened to sight on Andrew Hall when he was at about the 10 and I knew Rittgers had thrown it."

Hall is on the left hash, around the 25, when the ball leaves Rittgers' strong right arm. Free safety Chris Raftery is close on his heels. Linebacker Dante Balestracci is tearing straight toward his own goal line -- and Hall -- in a race with the tight spiral. Corner Rick Williamson is sprinting in from the right.

As Hall reaches the 6-yard line, he leaves his feet, his long left arm reaching straight up, a black sweat band just below his elbow. Like a dance partner, Raftery goes up with him, pinning Hall's stronger hand to his side.

Hall's gray-gloved left hand palms the ball and he pulls it into his body as he bounces. Sterling's call continues, the excitement in his voice rising to a fevered pitch: 
"... and he made a catch. That's as good a catch as you'll see. Andrew Hall. Oh, what a catch!"
Adams and color commentator Wayne Young send the same word back to radio listeners in the Upper Valley.

"Did he catch it?" Adams shouts. "What a catch at the 2-yard line! Andrew Hall gives Dartmouth a first-and-goal. ... My goodness, what a catch! Wow!"

Adds Young: "As long as they play football at Dartmouth, that's going to be one of the greatest catches you'll ever see. I wish our audience could have seen it."

***

Slattery has seen it, through the lens of her camera.

"My concern was I might have sighted on it, but did I have it in focus?" she says. "I could see the ball on Hall's fingertips, and I said, 'Ooh, I think I have it.'"

Down in New Jersey, the Ivy League's Hoover can't believe what he has just seen until YES replays the catch two times. Hoover's mind is already racing as Hall rolls onto his feet and Cramer rushes over, signaling the touchdown that will come on the next play.

Slattery thinks of checking her camera to see if the picture she wants is preserved on its one-gigabyte compact flash card, but thinks better of it.

"Part of it is I'm new to digital photography, and I'm afraid I'm going to push the wrong button," she admits.

Hoover, who knows he will have to try to describe the indescribable on the Ivy League's Web page, has no idea that Slattery shot the picture. But he does have an idea.

"Immediately when I saw it, I would say within 20 minutes, I e-mailed the people at YES saying, 'This catch is unbelievable. If you can turn it into an MPEG (Internet movie file), we'll gladly put it online, " he says. "I certainly can't do that thing justice by writing about it."

One play after Hall's grab, Rittgers sneaks in for the touchdown that closes the books on a 30-16 Dartmouth win.

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Slattery finally gets a peak at her picture a day later. It is better than she could have imagined.

On Sunday, Hall sees the still photo and catch for the first time on the coaching study tape. It's not a YES Network closeup, but his teammates hoot and holler for more. "Everybody wanted to see it a couple times," he says. "I think people were in kind of disbelief. I know I was."

On Monday, it is Hoover's turn to be in disbelief when he sees the picture Slattery e-mailed his way. He quickly puts it on the Ivy League website with the words "The Catch 2003" superimposed across the bottom.

By Wednesday, the YES techies have e-mailed a 48-second video clip to Hoover, who throws that up on the Ivy website, too.

By Wednesday night, Hall has finally seen the YES clip. He's heard Sterling say, "Boy, that's fabulous. That is really fabulous. Well, if Harvard loses today, that will be the catch of the year."

The decathlete from Greene, Maine - who asked Lyons if he might walk on to the football team during his track recruiting visit - has watched the replays and heard his name called. He's getting ready to e-mail a link to his parents so they can see the catch he tried to explain in an excited phone call home.

And still, Hall wonders aloud if it ever really happened.

"It's hard to believe they are talking about me," he said. "Hearing someone say it's a great catch and should be top 10, that's amazing. It's a dream."

No, it's a third-and-8 dream come true.

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For what it's worth, here's The Catch, taken by the late Kathy Slattery (Phillips), the legendary Dartmouth sports information director.


And here is where Andrew Hall is today: LINK. 

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EXTRA POINT
For those of you who recall the PAT a few weeks back about "ice out" on Joe's Pond here in Vermont (LINK) the hard water lasted a good deal longer than expected:


More than 17,000 tickets were sold at $1 apiece in the ice-out contest. The winning pot this year is $6,974. Find a story on the WCAX TV page HERE.

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