The recent naming of Reggie Williams '76 among this year's inductees to the College Football Hall of Fame brings back an era that is far from the minds of today's undergrads. Williams was a three-time first-team All-Ivy selection as a linebacker, and more impressive, a first-team All-American. Since Division I football was subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A and I-AA football, Ivy League football has been off the radar. As Reggie Williams' induction this coming December reminds us, this was not always the case.
Dartmouth's football program, currently under the direction of Buddy Teevens '79 (an honorable mention All-American as a quarterback) has a career record of 638-395-46. That mark includes nine undefeated seasons, a national championship, and including Mr. Williams, twelve members of the College Football Hall of Fame. Though the national championship came in 1925, the Big Green's success would continue for long time afterwards. In 1937, Dartmouth would turn down an invitation to the Rose Bowl (eerily reminiscent of the current Ivy League stance that its champion does not go to the Division I-AA playoffs?), with that season being just one part of a 22-game unbeaten streak.
When Ivy League play began in 1956, Dartmouth rose to the challenge. In the first eighteen years of Ivy League play (1956-1973), Dartmouth had three undefeated seasons, ten Ivy League titles, and was twice selected as the East's best team. Even as recently as the '90's, Dartmouth football was one of the best programs in the Ivy League, winning Ivy League titles in 1990-1992 and 1996, the last season being the middle portion of another 22-game unbeaten streak.
With this type of track record, it is easy to see why our alumni often express displeasure with the current state of Dartmouth's football team. From the perspective of their days at Dartmouth, our football team has fallen into ruin. They compare the current Dartmouth football team with teams of the past. However, this comparison is an unfair one. The breaking up of Division I, and Dartmouth's move to Division I-AA, doomed the Big Green's status as a national power, or at least as a team capable of toppling one. To channel Bruce Springsteen, "Glory days, well they'll pass you by." As someone who has attended almost every home football game while at Dartmouth, I often wonder why we seem incapable of returning to past successes.
Money in college football has become increasingly important. The top programs dominate recruiting via a combination of better recent history, better facilities, scholarships, big-name coaches and the development of players to the NFL. Those are not the players that Dartmouth recruits, nor should they be. Dartmouth is both an academic as well an athletic institution, and a precursor for admission for athletes should be the ability to succeed academically at Dartmouth. Our current athletes fit this mold, and Dartmouth should be commended for its commitment to academic success in combination with athletic achievement.
That does not mean there is not room for improvement, or that we should be complacent with the status quo. When Dartmouth fired head football coach John Lyons (Teevens' successor), my roommate at the time, wide receiver (than cornerback) extraordinaire Brian Evans '08 and I joked that Dartmouth could lure Coach Teevens back to Dartmouth. After being head coach at two Division I-A schools, we felt that there was no way he would return home to Hanover. Thankfully, we were wrong. It is still too early to tell whether the Teevens Era Part II will be beneficial to Dartmouth football, but he gave (and still gives) the program instant credibility with recruits. In much the same way, Harvard recently hired former Michigan and Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker to head their basketball program, a decision that increases the program's legitimacy with potential recruits.
As students, we know that Dartmouth's sports programs enjoy varying levels of success. However, we should not take the recent struggles of the football team as evidence that Dartmouth no longer cares about athletic success. For the most part, sports performance is cyclical, with down periods and good periods, which sometimes come when you least expect it. After all, if the Red Sox can win a World Series, why can't Dartmouth football win another Ivy League title?
