Correction appended.
"The team was great. We won football games," Tom Adams '46 said nostalgically of the Dartmouth football program when he was a student over six decades ago.
On Saturday, Dartmouth was dismantled by Holy Cross for its fifth straight loss. As Big Green alumni young and old convened in Hanover for the annual Homecoming football game, we asked the alumni in attendance to weigh in on the state of the program and how they remembered the Big Green football team of decades past. Despite the current team's struggles, loyalty and optimism for a brighter future were shared by all.
1990s
Geoffrey Willison '95 was a kicker and punter during his time at Dartmouth. When he played, the Big Green won the last of three-straight Ivy League title in 1992, memorialized in the banners that line the sidelines each game day in Hanover.
"We were good," Willison who brings his wife and two daughters to every Homecoming, said. "I was fortunate to play on a good team."
He believes that head coach Buddy Teevens inherited a bad team when he came back to manage the squad beginning in 2005, and the reason for Dartmouth's recent struggles is that the rest of the Ivy League teams have improved at a greater pace than the Big Green.
"It's undoubtedly true," he said. "We dominated Ivy League play for 50 years and have one title in the last 16 years."
Willison also thinks the fans need to be more supportive. Student turnout to home contests in particular is typically thin.
"It drives me crazy to see this silent crowd," he said. "It's fourth [down] and two [yards to go] at the four-yard line, and the crowd is silent. We have to find a way to get the fans involved and support the team on the field."
1980s
Unlike Willinson, Randy Hobbs '89 did not experience a championship football season as an undergraduate. He did, however, see Teevens build a strong program during Teevens' first stint as Dartmouth's head coach from 1987 to 1991. In that coaching span, the Big Green won a share of the Ivy League title with Cornell in 1990 and outright championship in 1991.
"I graduated in '89 and the program went through a couple down years there from '87 to'88," said Hobbs. "Then we generated some positive momentum, and after I graduated we won a couple championships in a row."
Hobbs believes that the continuation of a winning mentality is a necessary piece if Dartmouth is to regain greatness in Ivy football
"We need to get some positive momentum going," he said. "It's a matter of the opposition having better athletes. It's a matter of attracting the athletes. If we generate some momentum, we can do that. I have faith in coach Teevens. He's done a great job."
Hobbs suggested that Dartmouth should place even greater emphasis on improving the image of the football program to potential recruits.
"Certainly putting a lot of emphasis and money on the football facilities should help to compete with the rest of the Ivy League to attract the student-athlete," he said.
1970s
Scott Brown '78 has experienced the entire Buddy Teevens era. When he was a student, Teevens was quarterback, leading a very good team to an Ivy League title in 1978, the same year that Teevens received an honorable mention All-American and was named Ivy League player of the year.
Just as he did then, Brown expects Teevens to lead the team back to its former heights.
"It's a matter of the team gelling," Brown said. "It's taken coach Teevens longer to build the program than expected, but he'll get it right."
Brown sees the lack of success in recent years coming from a combination of the opposition getting better and the fact that Dartmouth is in the midst of a rebuilding process.
"The competition has gotten tougher," he said. "This is true all of last year. We've lost a lot of close games. They've played extremely well in some of their toughest games and lost by a small margin. So the program as a whole could've turned around with some small results."
Brown maintains hope in his classmate Teevens.
"Buddy's a great coach," he said.
1960s
Every year Jim Clouser '63 makes the six-hour drive from Brielle, N.J. to support his alma mater in its Homecoming football game. Like many others, he was spoiled by a successful team during his time as a student.
"My senior year we were undefeated and won the Ivy League," Clouser said, referring to the Big Green's 9-0 overall, 7-0 Ivy season in 1962. "I was used to a lot of success. Throughout the 60s Dartmouth was a very tough football team."
A loyal follower of the Big Green, he lists the great Robert Blackman and Jake Crouthamel coaching eras as the gold standards of Dartmouth football. Blackman coached from 1955 to 1970, while Crouthamel headed the Big Green from 1971 to 1977. Between them, Dartmouth won 10 Ivy titles in 22 years.
As loyal as Clouser is, he could not deny the troubling state of the program when compared with Dartmouth's rich football history.
"It's not good," he said. "But what can you say? They give it their best. Coach Teevens is good."
Clouser's wife gave a telling example of the program's recent growing pains.
"We have a son-in-law, who is here today, and this is probably his sixth or seventh game, and he's never seen them win," she said.
Clouser agreed with Hobbs' assessment that all Dartmouth is missing is the athletes.
"It's only a matter of time before we gain the reputation that will attract the better athletes," he said. "Let's face it -- with the cost of coming to Dartmouth, if you were somebody from limited means and you are a good football player and you could go to Dartmouth or Penn State, I mean, it's not that hard of a choice."
He added, "It's not nice to have people ribbing you about whether your team's ever going to win a game or not. I don't like to hear that. Dartmouth is my team no matter the score."
1940s
Adams, a former editor of The Dartmouth who now lives in Devon, Penn., experienced some of the great Dartmouth teams when he was a student and was visibly disappointed with Saturday's result against Holy Cross.
"We've got problems," he said. "I've been trying to figure it out for the last several years. I haven't quite decided what the problem is."
Like Brown, Hobbs and Clouser, Adams believes that Teevens is a good football coach. He also believes that Dartmouth has the players available to win games, and success is only a matter of letting Teevens get the recruits he wants.
"This is his first year where they're really his own recruits," he said. "They're a lot of freshmen playing out there. We'll see for another year what'll happen."
Having witnessed Dartmouth success for over 60 years, Adams was clearly eager for the team to return to the top of the Ivy League.
Jim Shanahan '47 of Manchester, N.H. perhaps best exemplifies the loyalty that is a common theme in many Dartmouth alumni.
His father Jim Shanahan was a member of the class of 1916 and took him to games as a child in the early 30s. This Homecoming marked the 75th consecutive year that he has been to at least one Dartmouth football game, save for 1944 when he was in Europe fighting in World War II.
"We dominated everything," he recalled of the team he and Adams saw as students.
He was in attendance for the legendary Fifth Down Game in 1940 when the Big Green defeated previously undefeated and top-ranked Cornell, 3-0, after a botched call by the officials gave the Big Red an extra down and the Big Red agreed to forfeit the game.
"It was unprecedented in college football history," Shanahan said.
"For now we're still supportive," Shanahan, who is good friends with College President James Wright, said. "I have faith in Buddy Teevens, who was not only a great player but a great coach here in the past. I'm optimistic. We're still here supporting."
The original version of this article, which ran on Oct. 20, 2008, incorrectly described the famous Fifth Down Game from 1940. Cornell, not Dartmouth, scored a touchdown to go ahead, 7-3, in the final minute after the officials accidentally gave the Big Red offense an extra 'fifth' down. The referees recognized the error after the game, and Cornell agreed to forfeit the contest and give Dartmouth a 3-0 victory.
