Class Note 1964

When asked about leadership, several Palaeopitus members said that the real leaders on campus were Dartmouth’s football players. Perhaps they were right: Everyone knew Scotty Creelman, Tom Spangenberg, Dana Kelly, Jan Dephouse, Bill Curran, Bob Komives, and the other Indians standing tall on Saturdays and behind Coach Blackman at rallies.

Tom Spangenberg, who caught a bunch of passes and led the team in rushing yardage, attributed the importance of football and athletics generally to being an all-male college of well-rounded students. He notes that today the College is far more diversified and that it recruits exceptional, “spiky” students. Tom felt that “if ever there was a model of how to manage for success, the Blackman model was one of the very best,” and he carried it forward in his life.

Leadership can be taught, writes quarterback Dana Kelly: “It was deep in the fourth quarter, Princeton leading 21-7. Things looked really bleak. However, our coach was a leader as well as a marvelous football tactician. The ‘Bullet’ turned to me and asked, ‘Dana, can we win this game?’ In complete honesty my true thought was we may not make it. I don’t know if we can do it: It’s late and we’re down 14 points. Blackman was challenging me as quarterback to be a leader, to do my best. My lips said, ‘Yes, we can!’ And I carried this message out to the huddle. We scored and then, in the waning light, Princeton snapped the ball from their own third-yard line. Dave DeCalestra slammed into their quarterback, causing a fumble that he recovered. Dartmouth then drove the ball into the end zone on a power left led by Jan Dephouse and ‘Fat-Willy’ Curran. Kicking the extra point, we earned a share in the Ivy championship.”

Good coaching, good leadership! “The Bullet instilled in me,” says Dana, “that when things look dark, you persevere, you tenaciously persist, you don’t quit, you put out your best and inspire others to do the same.”

Our next Class Notes will focus on the Olympic experience. We will then try to pick up creativity as a theme for submissions from classmates.

—Jay Evans, 274 New Aldrich Road, Grantham, NH 03753; gjevans222@gmail.com