Dartmouth Big Green | |||
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First season | 1881 | ||
Athletic director | Harry Sheehy | ||
Head coach |
Buddy Teevens 12th straight, 17th overall year, 78–85–2 (.479) |
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Stadium | Memorial Field (Dartmouth College) | ||
Seating capacity | 15,600 (formerly 22,000) | ||
Field surface | Field Turf | ||
Location | Hanover, New Hampshire | ||
Conference | Ivy League | ||
Past conferences | Triangular Football League (1887–1898) | ||
All-time record | 643–422–46 (.599) | ||
Claimed nat'l titles | 1 (1925) | ||
Conference titles | 25 | ||
Consensus All-Americans | 15 | ||
Colors | Dartmouth Green and White |
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Fight song | As the Backs Go Tearing By | ||
Rivalries |
Cornell Harvard Brown Princeton |
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Website | DartmouthSports.com |
The Dartmouth Big Green football team represents Dartmouth College in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. The team possesses a storied tradition that includes a national championship, and is presently tied with Penn for a record 18 Ivy League Football Championships with eleven College Football Hall of Fame inductees.
The sport of football, in its embryonic form, was played on the campus as early as 1876. Goalposts were erected on the green where they stood for several months, before being removed for the 1877 commencement. The first intercollegiate game occurred on November 16, 1881, when Amherst traveled to Dartmouth. The Green won with a score of one goal to none. On November 21, the teams met in Amherst, Massachusetts for a rematch on Thanksgiving Day, and the scoreless game ended prematurely in a tie because of snow. In the following years, Dartmouth played games against some of the best teams in the nation. In 1882, Dartmouth played Harvard for the first time and lost, 53–0. In 1884, Yale visited Dartmouth and routed the Green, 113–0. The Elis teams did not return to Hanover until 1971.
From 1887 to 1898, Dartmouth competed against schools such as MIT, Amherst, and Williams as a member of the Triangular Football League. During that period, the Big Green secured eight conference championships, all of them outright except one shared with MIT in 1888.
From 1901 to 1909, Dartmouth compiled a 58–9–7 record under several different head coaches. In 1901, Dartmouth played their first game against their intrastate rivals, UNH. In 1903, Dartmouth traveled to Harvard for the dedication game of their opponents' stadium. The Green, who had lost the first 18 meetings by a combined margin of 552 points to 18, upset the Crimson, 11–0. From 1911 to 1916, Frank "the Iron Major" Cavanaugh, led the Green to a 42–9–3 record. He volunteered for World War I at the age of 41, and was replaced as coach by one of his former players, Clarence Spears. Spears attained a 21–9–1 record with the Green, and went on to further success at West Virginia and Minnesota, among others.