Rick Bender, the highly regarded former head of varsity athletics communications at Dartmouth, is the new assistant AD for communications and marketing at Knox College in his home state of Illinois. Find the story HERE.
Green Alert Take: Two promises. First, Knox will immediately have the top sports information office in the Midwest Conference. And two, there will be a lot of folks in these parts rooting for the "Prairie Fire."
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Dartmouth football begins preseason practice Saturday morning. Look for a story Saturday night on BGA Overtime HERE.
The tentative preseason practice schedule features all morning sessions and looks like this:
Saturday, August 24 – Practice 1
Sunday, August 25 – Practice 2
Monday, August 26 – Practice 3
Tuesday, Aug. 27 – No PracticeWednesday, August 28 – Practice 4
Thursday, August 29 – Practice 5
Friday, August 30 – Practice 6
Saturday, August 31 – Practice 7
Sunday, Sept. 1 – No PracticeMonday, September 2 – Practice 8
Tuesday, September 3 – Practice 9 (Scrimmage)
Wednesday, September 4 – Practice 10
Thursday, September 5 – Practice 11
Friday, Sept. 6 – No PracticeSaturday, September 7 – Practice 12
Sunday, September 8 – Practice 13
Monday, September 9 – Practice 14
Tuesday, September 10 – Practice 15 (Scrimmage)
Wednesday, Sept. 11 – No PracticeThursday, September 12 – Practice 16
Friday, September 13 – Practice 17Fordham Game Week Practice begins
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Writing for The Analyst, Craig Haley picks Butler to finish sixth in the 11-team Pioneer Football League. (LINK)
I have to admit I'm surprised that Craig wrote, "It’s asking a lot to replace three-year QB Bret Bushka and 2023 PFL rushing champion Jyran Mitchell" without mentioning Nick Howard, the Dartmouth grad transfer who could replace them both.
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The Buffalo News has a story about Pete Lembo, the University of Buffalo's first-year head coach and a former Dartmouth assistant. Headlined, 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Hogan's Heroes,' The Police: How UB coach Pete Lembo fuses pop culture with football, the story includes this (LINK):
As a tight ends coach at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., from 1994-96, Lembo was on a staff of assistant coaches that loved classic rock and historical references. Dartmouth’s head coach, John Lyons, also had a habit of giving nicknames to players, which led to a contest among the staff: Come up with the most creative and memorable monikers for each individual.
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A story headlined How the era of 'men were men' birthed America's first drag superstars begins this way (LINK):
You probably didn't know it, but in the 1910s and 1920s, "varsity" referred just as much to college drag musicals—"normal" dudes in splendid dresses and sparkly heels—as to football. The University of Michigan Mimes, the University of Wisconsin Haresfoot Club, the Princeton Triangle Club, and countless others were the pride of their respective campuses.
In 1923, newspaper headlines lauded Dartmouth quarterback Haley Mills for "basking in a double spotlight" as both "gridiron star" and "impersonator of female roles."
Green Alert Take: OK, two things again. First, the quarterback in question's name was Halsey Mills, not Haley Mills. He lettered in 1922 and graduated in 1923. A 1963 issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine asks, "Who remembers Halsey's record punt return of 114 yards in the Harvard Stadium?" That return doesn't appear in the Dartmouth records and I'd ask master-researcher Rick Bender about it but . . .
And second, seeing Ivy League " 'normal' dudes in splendid dresses and sparkly heels" might have had something to do with putting on shows at Ivy League schools that at the time had no women to fill those roles, right?
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You may have already come across this, but here's Paris Olympics gold medalist Quincy Wilson (who updated his Hudl page before heading to France) as a speedy high school football player:
16-year-old Track & Field Gold medalist @QuincyWilson5 has some unreal football highlights. 🔥
— NFL (@NFL) August 20, 2024
(via @Hudl) pic.twitter.com/jqNqOrIrwv
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EXTRA POINT
The sun is shining and if our lawn and field dry out in another hour or so I'll be hopping on the electric tractor.
OK, maybe hopping isn't the right word.
I tweaked my neck bad enough that I barely slept one night earlier this week so I'll be gently climbing on the tractor and be carefully driving over gopher holes and uneven spots out in the field. I've got no choice. Our lawn and field won't wait. I can never remember grass staying this green and continuing to grow the way it is growing this late in the summer in this part of the world. Wish me luck.
