Dartmouth Big Green (1952)

The latest dip into the bag-o-random gives us the 1952 Dartmouth Big Green, during a real dry spell for the program. 

The Team: Dartmouth went 2-7, the second of six straight losing seasons. The wins were over Rutgers (decades before that meant anything) and Columbia. A funny aside: As the Ivy schools were making plans for formal league play later that decade, they agreed in '52 to abolish spring practice. Even though Dartmouth played six Ivy teams that year (the exception was Brown), the Aegis yearbook trotted out the lack of spring practice as a reason for Dartmouth's poor record (another being that classic old-time chestnut, "bad breaks"). The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine was a little more blunt: "While there are no All-Americans on the squad, there are nonetheless some fairly talented players; but for some reason they don't function together as a unit, or the spark in most cases doesn't seem to be there."

I forget if I've run this photo before (probably), but this is a spectacular shot, between the action,
the expression on the player's face and, of course, the official's peaked cap.

Legendary sportswriter Dick Schapp was a Cornell undergrad when
he covered the Big Red-Big Green game for the Cornell Daily Sun.

The Players: It appears what few strengths Dartmouth had were on the line, as guard Pete Reich and tackle George Rambour were named to the United Press' All-New England team. Jim Miller did most of the passing at quarterback when not handing the ball off to Russ Smale, who in a 38-14 win over Columbia caught a 43-yard TD pass, returned a punt 60 yards for a score and intercepted a Lion pass.

The Coach: I touched upon DeOrmand "Tuss" McLaughry in this post about his Brown "Iron Men" teams of the 1920s. He guided Dartmouth from 1941-42 and 1945-54, serving as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943-44. In 12 years with the Big Green, he had only four winning records, the last in 1949. For those Upper Valley residents who remember the McLaughry real estate clan, yes, they are descendants of Tuss, who lived in the area until his death in 1974.

Tuss McLaughry (standing) takes in the action in '52.

Tuss and captain Pete Reich, an all-New England lineman.

The Uniforms: I've discussed these in a few other posts, but green and silver was the order of the day. Different fonts were used on the home and road unis. Cornell used a similar helmet design, which sometimes makes it challenging to figure out which team is which in those grainy black-and-white newspaper photos.

The Fallout: After two more dreary seasons, McLaughry was let go and Dartmouth brought in Bob Blackman, who turned the program around in a jiffy and won seven Ivy League titles.