The Durango Kid

For Yale's 108th gridiron captain, football is like a class and each game like a problem set. You are taught, you learn, you practice and then you are tested.

"The Harvard game is just the final exam," says Eli Captain Martin Martinson.

And the men in blue won't be entering Harvard's stadium cold turkey this year. Yale's disappointing 1-9 season of a year ago helped make this year's team stronger, says the senior center.

"Last year's season drew us all together," Martinson says. "There were so many people shooting us down, that now we stick to each other.

Yale's current 5-3 overall record and 4-2 Ivy mark speaks for the Bulldogs' improvement, and veteran Coach Carm Cozza attributes much of the success to the leadership of the soft-spoken Martinson.

"There are similar qualities in the two," Cozza says of Martinson and last year's captain Tom Giella. "Marty has the same kind of leadership as Tom. He has a way of talking to players and leads by example."

That's the way it always seems to happen with football captains, and the easy-going Martinson echoes that pattern.

"I'm not a real 'rah rah' player and I'm not real vocal," he says.

The Durango, Colo native says he just relies on hard work and the competition of the games to motivate both himself and his teammates.

"The Harvard game itself is a pysche. There's no need to do anything special for it, since it's the last game of the year," he says, adding that, "our class has never beaten Harvard and it has a chance at the [Harvard Yale-Princeton] championship."

Martinson applies his cool perspective to all the season's challenges. "You're working hard when you win and what you lose also," he says, mirroring Giella's credo of competition.

And he attributes this year's improved record to better play coupled with the undaunted work ethic in the face of adversity that is fast becoming Yale's trademark. "We've had more success because of the fact that we never give up," he adds.

Junior running back David Klide's impression of the male Bulldog is consistent with Cozza's view of him as silent but hardworking.

"He [Marty] is usually in the weight room every day after practice. It helps to form a cohesive group on and off the field. He's never giving up. We learned that from last year," Kline says.

Although comparisons between Giella and Martinson surface continually, there are differences.

"Tom vocalized more. Marty doesn't vocalize much," adds junior tight end Andy Marwede.

Leading by example and not rhetoric seems to come naturally to Martinson.

"He seems at ease with himself and very happy. He doesn't ever seem to get frustrated," says Marwede. "He keeps his cool on and off the field."

According to his teammates and coaches, Yale's last minute comebacks in four of its games this season, were dependent, in part, on Martinson's steadfast leadership.

"He always thought that we were in the game. You could tell just by the way he was playing," Marwede continues.

Martinson admits to getting frustrated but notes that one has to keep playing. "There's introspection," he says, "but it all boils down to working hard."

Despite severely injuring his right thumb during last year's Princeton game, Martinson, Marwede says "just kept on playing and snapping with his right hand."

Cozza says of that Princeton game, "after that injury, he still did not make one fumble. That's indicative of the type of person he is."

Martinson switched playing hands before the Harvard game to take to the field one last time before a series of operations. His thumb joint is still virtually immobile.

"He's not the type of person to make a lot of noise. He's a fine leader and football player," says Cozza. He's from Durango, Go...and is not the kind of guy to parade around selling himself. He's just a genuine human being."

"I don't think I've done anything out of the ordinary," says the Eli captain, referring to Yale's improved performance. "There's a lot more competition for positions which makes everyone better players. The good sophmores and experienced seniors give the team enough depth so that we don't have to play people this year who aren't at 100 percent."

As for tomorrow's impending in the Stadium, Martinson says "We are just going to play the best game we can. Win or lose, I won't leave any regrets. Everybody prepares differently. I like to stay loose and listen to music before a game."

And is there life after football Martinson thinks so.

"I want to go out west, back to Denver and get into a management training program," he says. "The East coast moves to fast at around 300 miles per hour, 24 hours per day."

Perhaps nothing describes the Bulldog's leading man better than that.

"He's a typical mid-westerner," Kline says. "Low key and relaxed."