Think back to every great football movie you've ever seen. Now think about the last scene. Think about the epic goal-line push in "Friday Night Lights," the inspiring halftime speech in "Any Given Sunday" and the amazing last-second touchdown in "Remember the Titans." Now ask yourself: What do these moments all have in common?
Stumped? While you might be tempted to say large sweaty men or a soundtrack filled with inaudible grunts, the answer is a little more obvious. These three movies highlight three very different aspects of football that each contains a final football game under stadium lights.
Dartmouth football finally has the chance to recreate one of these memorable moments. Last week, the Town of Hanover authorized the installation of permanent lights on Memorial Field. Thanks to the wonderful donations from Chris Jenny '77 and his wife Andi Jenny along with other members of Friends of Dartmouth Football the Dartmouth and Hanover communities can now spend several crisp autumn nights watching the Big Green.
Don't get me wrong, the Dartmouth football program already has an incredible collection of amazing moments that includes 17 Ivy League Championships and NFL stars like Jay Fielder '94 and Reggie Williams '76. All of these moments, however, have occurred during Hanover afternoons.
I love sunshine as much as any Floridian does (which is a lot), but nothing compares to playing and watching football under the bright stadium lights.
This afternoon, I conducted a very non-scientific research experiment to gauge the student body's reaction to the plan to add lights on the field. I walked around Baker Berry and asked students to "describe your reaction to the new lights on Memorial Field in less than three words." The seven responses ranged from, "awesome" and "chill" to "what lights?" and "where's Memorial Field?"
After crunching the numbers and running several citation-worthy regressions, I determined that 99.9 percent of students on campus are generally for or indifferent to the new lights. While my stats are somewhat (read: completely) exaggerated, the general buzz on campus says the students are excited about watching nighttime football games.
Despite the campus reaction, many Hanover residents are wary of the new additions to the field. I'm making it my mission to change their opinions. In the first comment opposing the installation to the lights written in the Valley News, Hanover resident John Schumacher said the lights "will significantly and adversely affect" his property.
"When [the football team] practices now, they play rock music from time to time, and there is shouting and cheering by the players and a lot of yelling by the coaches," he added.
Well John, I hate to tell you this, but football players will always yell and shout, no matter where they are playing. Come to think of it, football players usually yell off the field as well. I'm pretty sure that these players would yell in class if it weren't socially frowned upon. Imagine having a screaming Jim Harbourgh or John Gruden in your classroom to pump you up before every test and quiz. I don't think I would ever fail another exam.
In the same article, Marilyn Denk said, "The light is the poison in our night sky. How many lighted fields are we going to have in our tiny town? It's going to look like a city in the sky. It really is, and it makes me sad. No matter which direction you come into town, you're going to be blasted by light, and it's going to be ugly."
I don't think Hanover has the capacity to ever look like a big city. A town of under 12,000 people will always look small. Keep in mind, the new lights on the field will only be used about four times per week. Practices will use a low light feature and only five major events that use the bright settings are allowed per year. Between the street lights and the dormitory lights, the new fixture on the football field will not add much more to the Hanover skyline.
At the end of the day, these lights will help the entire Hanover community. When Brown University rented several lights to play the school's first primetime football game against Harvard University in 2010, twice the number of fans showed up to the event. Evening events attract a bigger crowd. The increased flow of people to the games will set the stage for memorable sports moments and will increase the business of local restaurants and retail stores.
Everyone wins with the lights. I hope when Dartmouth football has its epic movie-worthy moment, there will be plenty of spectators there to see it.
