In 1958, the Dartmouth football team won the Ivy League Championship, and the men's basketball team won two NCAA tournament games before losing to Temple University in the regional championship contest. More than 50 years later, the Big Green's hockey teams rule Dartmouth, while its basketball and football teams struggle to gain attention.
One reason for Dartmouth's diminished athletic prowess is the sheer growth of college athletics as a whole. Faced with a growing number of institutions and increasing interest in athletics, the NCAA was forced to partition itself into three competitive divisions. The NCAA now contains over 1,200 institutions across the country.
"Until the late '70s when the Ivy League became part of [Division I-AA], Dartmouth and the Ivy League were reasonably competitive [with larger programs]," former Dartmouth Sports Information Director Jack DeGange said.
The surge in new teams was matched by an increased interest in college sports across the country. Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens '79 said that when attended Dartmouth in the late 1970s, there was one college football game on national television per week. Today, viewers can find dozens on any given Saturday.
Not only is there a greater number of competing schools now than there was in the 1950s, but many programs are also significantly bigger than Dartmouth's. Larger institutions have a bigger student body to draw from, which translates into a bigger pool of potential athletic candidates. They can also afford to admit an athletic class with lower academic standards.
Student athletes make up roughly 20 percent of the student body at Dartmouth, compared to a meager 3 percent at the University of Michigan, a powerhouse in the Big Ten Conference with an undergraduate student body of 27,000. Ivy League institutions are also bound by the Ivy League's Academic Index, which determines student eligibility at a stricter level than the NCAA requires.
One of the most striking transformations to Dartmouth's athletic makeup has been the changing success of its football team. Although it has won 17 League titles, the most in the League, it has failed to win a championship in nearly 15 years.
The team maintained over two decades of dominance, winning 14 League titles between 1958-1982. Former head coach Bob Blackman, who led the team from 1955-1970, revolutionized the football program by putting a new emphasis on the physical development of players.
Teevens, who led Dartmouth to the 1978 League title as a player, said Blackman "pioneered a training protocol year round." In addition to a new focus on improving the team's natural abilities, Blackman also introduced the concept of national recruiting to the League. East Coast student-athletes previously populated the majority of conference rosters, but Blackman's national mailing campaign attracted recruits from across the country.
DeGange said this expanded recruiting effort is "what really jumpstarted Dartmouth in the '60s."
According to former Dartmouth Athletic Director Seaver Peters, the combination of these factors led Dartmouth to dominate in football until "all the other Ivies went to school on Dartmouth."
Other teams began to mimic the Big Green, and Dartmouth lost its superiority as its revolutionary practices became the League norm. This ushered in an unprecedented era of parity, during which many non-traditional football programs such as the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University have fielded very competitive teams.
Other teams, including the men's and women's hockey teams, have thrived in recent decades.
The women's hockey team has been remarkably consistent, posting winning records in all but four seasons since it began play in 1977. The team has also seen success at the national level, making three Frozen Four appearances.
Peters, who was athletic director when the team formed, said he is impressed by the team's growth and the competitiveness of women's hockey at the collegiate level.
The men's team has also had recent success despite playing in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, which includes six teams from the League which does not grant athletic scholarships and six teams from other conferences that offer financial aid based on sporting skill. Dartmouth plays competitively with teams in the ECAC and the prestigious Hockey East Conference.
While the League's ban on athletic scholarships is accepted as a potential barrier to recruiting efforts, many believe Dartmouth offers other qualities that can convince top-level recruits to come to Hanover.
"Uniqueness is an attraction for some," Teevens said. "For people who want what we do, we do it better than anyone in the country."
Teevens said recruits often acknowledge that they are impressed with Dartmouth's sense of community. DeGange added that Dartmouth offers "a very attractive academic experience."
Dartmouth also provides a wealth of modern facilities. The construction of Thompson Arena is often cited as jumping-off point for both hockey programs, while ongoing construction in Leede Arena has demonstrated a new commitment to basketball.
