We are the only class to be on campus during two undefeated football seasons—1962 and 1965. Coincidence? Hardly. We rooted like crazy in our beanies for the ’62 squad, and many classmates played key roles in the spectacular ’65 season, which culminated in a convincing 28-14 win over previously unbeaten Princeton.


To recapture those glory days the present gridiron gurus had the foresight to honor the 1965 team at the Holy Cross game. Back to Hanover came captain Tom Clarke and players Steve Bryan, Jon Colby, Dave Coughlin, Ed Long, Gerry LaMontagne, Gene Nattie, George Trumble, Mike Urbanic and Tony Yezer.


The result: Predictable. The modern-day Big Green stormed from behind to down the Crusaders in the waning minutes. “Hope to think our karma had some part in the victory,” Clarke modestly reports. The 2010 squad then went on to beat Columbia the next week. As we go to press the Dartmouth 11 is on its way to its best season since 1997, or when the current freshmen were in kindergarten. And ’66ers are clearly responsible!


Captain Clarke is on his way to another good year, too. He and Donna still work. She’s a nurse and Tom has a longtime orthopedic practice in Springfield, Massachusetts. But since he stopped doing surgery two years ago and is no longer on call, he has more time for golf and travel. 


David Coughlin made the cross-country trek from Baker City, Oregon, where he is still working as a lawyer in a firm with two offices covering “a large geographical area and small population” in eastern Oregon. And Dave is still married—to the same lady: Lisa. It’ll be 40 years in 2011. Their daughter is a lawyer, too, in Bend, Oregon. She’s the third generation in that noble calling. And, of course, Dave is still a jock, doing a lot of cycling, some cycle racing and skiing. Get this: In the last three years he’s ridden most of the Tour de France mountain stages in the Alps and the Pyrenees. “I now fully appreciate,” Dave jokes, “why they are tempted to take performance enhancing drugs.”


As he rose through the ranks and circled the globe for the U.S. State Department during a 40-year diplomatic career, Jim Cason has had politically sensitive management positions in Havana, Montevideo, Tegucigalpa and Asuncion. Now he’s trying for one in Coral Gables, Florida. Jim has tossed his top hat into the ring in a race for mayor of the Miami suburb. The election is in April. Meanwhile Jim is back in international service. As a senior inspector at the State Department he just got back from Baghdad, Iraq, where he inspected the transition planning from military to civilian predominance in our relations.


Bill Cooper and his wife are “wrestling with the issue of whether to become snow birds.” They’re retired in rural Virginia, contemplating buying a small house on Sanibel Island, Florida. There’s a wonderful town library and a challenging church choir and community service opportunities just like they have in Virginia. And they’d be able to “set ourselves up to shelter transient Dartmouth ’66s.” I’m betting on Florida. What do you think?


Packing yet? Our 45th reunion is only 10 months away! Happy holidays all!


—Larry Geiger, 93 Greenridge Ave., White Plains, NY 10605; lgeiger@aol.com