Highly Touted Indians Boast Versatile Backs, Speedy Ends

On the word of Dartmouth Coach "Tuss" McLaughry, this year's crop Indians is "the best team I've had up here." The last two words in the late refer, of course, to the hills of Hanover where boys are men and men are Indians.

"They have a wonderful spirit," continues the Dartmouth coach, who has been at Hanover since 1941, having taken 1943 and 1944 off for duty with the Marines. Prior to this season, his 1942 eleven was considered his best with last year's team in second race.

"As for the game in Cambridge, reserve my judgment," he said recently. "This is getting to be a harder game to figure every day. But I will say take a very good football team to of our boys."

"Our boys," are rated the best football is in New England. They have backs to go inside, outside, and through the middle. And contrary to general opinion, they have a first-string line that is tough, and rough from end to end.

Madar the Scout

Harvard's end coach, Elmer Madar--all-American end for Michigan in 1946--has been scouting Dartmouth for the past three weeks.

"The team hitting the hardest Saturday will win the ball game," predicts Madar. He explains that Colgate netted yards on the ground to Dartmouth's because "Colgate was running against Dartmouth's third team when the Indians we way ahead."

Backs Aplenty

The hottest back on the Dartmouth team is sophomore Johnny Clayton, ex-Phillips Andover player, who is quarterback in the Indian T-formation. The young man has more poise than a $25-hour Conover model, handles the ball a magician, and passes the way no sophomore should. There are many be talented backs--ones like Joe Sullivan, who played all of Dartmouth's a major games last year, missing only minutes during the season. Hal Fitts runs too fast, and another sophomore, Gil Mueller, is supposed to make debut tomorrow in the Stadium.

For the Harvard football team, the one tomorrow offers a great challenge. As Coach Art Valpey puts it, "They left everything, maybe more than everything, on the field at West Point."

Game of Intangibles

In many ways, football is a game of intangibles, and the capacity of men to arise far beyond their normal limits is the greatest of intangibles.

Now, Coach Valpey, who is a man not inclined to shed tears, has made these comments during the past week.

On Monday, he said: "The team is badly bumped and bruised." Tuesday he commented: "A terrible workout. No life in it." After Wednesday's workout, he said, "They have very little stamina. We're not making much progress." Last night, Art said, "They've got plenty of spirit."

Work for Recovery

Fire, then, is the intangible. The coaching staff has worked painstakingly this past week in bringing about a physical recovery. The seeds have been planted. It is now time for the intangibles that make things grow, to start their mysterious stirrings.

Maybe that's why more than 45,000 people are going to be in the Stadium tomorrow. Maybe it's just because last week's television was terrifically clear, so that in all of downtown Boston and South Boston's bars, men saw the Harvard team and liked it.

For there are not 45,000 Harvard and Dartmouth grads in this area coming to the game. For the first time in many a November, the football-lover, who usually laughs at the boys from the Squa-yah, is planking down cold cash to come and see and cheer the Harvards. Or maybe the Dartmouths.

So tomorrow, when the Crimson scrambles down from its bench to cheer the eleven men going onto the field, let the intangibles fall upon them, and, lot the roar of your blessings welcome them home.