Readiness on (and off) the Gridiron

At Soldiers Field on Saturday. Dartmouth's Big Green(with envy) come to Cambridge to take on the Crimson gridders. One consequence of this contest is that about 1000 Dartmouth students will be in town to try to live up to their self-professed reputation as the most obnoxious drunkards in the Ivy League.

They will succeed, no doubt. Last year at home, the school's president exhorted the Big Green to "blow Harvard off the field" at the pep rally the night before the game (the president was formerly chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission). Dartmouth won.

The moral in all this is to watch out for flying beer bottles in the Square on Friday night, and to sit on the opposite side of the Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Crimson, 2-0 in Ivy play, will blast past the Big Green behind the elusive running of Jim Acheson, Jim Callinan, and quarterback Ron Cuccia. Dartmouth has lost wide receiver Dave Shula (son of Miami's coach Don, now with the Baltimore Colts) and quarterback Jeff Kemp (son of former Buffalo signal-caller and current budget-balancer Jack, now with the Los Angeles Rams) from last year's flighty offense.

Predicted final score: Harvard 28, Dartmouth 7. Lifetime record: 997 right, none wrong.