Dartmouth Picked to Upset Princeton In High-Scoring Battle for Ivy Crown

The biggest Ivy League game in history takes place at Princeton this afternoon, when the unbeaten Tigers meet unbeaten Dartmouth for the Ivy championship and possibly the Lambert Trophy.

Bookies have made Princeton a seven-point favorite. They are wrong. With 91 per cent accuracy predicting intra-League games this year, we'll pick Dartmouth, 28 to 23.

It is true that Princeton's record is more impressive than the Indians'. Princeton has won 16 straight, and hasn't really had a close shave all season. Last week they humbled a good Yale team, 31 to 6. Dartmouth, on the other hand, had a good deal of difficulty defeating both Yale and Penn.

Tiger Single Wing

Dartmouth Coach Bob Blackman has traditionally done a good job preparing his team to cope with the Tigers' anachronistic single-wing offense. The Indians have won five of the last seven meetings between the two teams.

Moreover, Princeton has shown signs of a weak pass defense this season. Besides Princeton, three teams in the Ivy League have first-rate passing attacks: Cornell (with Marty Sponaugle), Brown (with Bob Hall) and Dartmouth. Cornell and Brown both scored 27 points against the Tigers.

Dartmouth has two fine passers in Gene Ryzewicz and Mickey Beard, along with a varied and balanced running game. If Princeton holds them to less than three touchdowns, it will be quite surprising.

The big question mark is Dartmouth's defense. It certainly won't be able to stop Charlie Gogolak from kicking a few field goals, but it doesn't have any glaring weak spots like Princeton's pass defense.

Before the season, we thought Princeton would roll to the Ivy title. But the Indians' 14-0 win over Harvard convinced us otherwise; they looked more impressive than Princeton, and Blackman held the score down by having his team play conservative football in the second half.

The Predictions

Here are our selections for the other Ivy games:

Cornell 24 Penn 21

Cornell has been a very disappointing team this year. Expected to contend for the Ivy championship, they must win their Thanksgiving Day game with Penn to finish fifth. Despite their 20-0 loss to Dartmouth last week, Cornell has good materal. The passing of Marty Sponaugle should prevail over the Quakers.

Columbia 14 Brown 7

Brown is a three-point favorite in this game because of the talent of quarter-back Bob Hall. Otherwise, the Bruins have nothing. All season long Brown has been proving that a good passing attack alone isn't enough to win ball games. The Bruins have an awful 1-7 record to date. Columbia does not have much of an offense, but their defensive line is good enough to stop Brown on the ground and put pressure on Hall.

LAST WEEK'S RECORD: Four right, none wrong.

RECORD TO DATE: 30 right, seven wrong, three ties. (On Intra-Ivy games our record is 20 right, two wrong, two ties.