1959: Dartmouth Indians Tops Harvard Rugby, 9-3

The Dartmouth rugby squad handed the Crimson its second consecutive loss, 9 to 3, Saturday at Hanover, and virtually eliminated it from contention for the Eastern Rugby Union title. The Indians, undefeated this year, will probably make the trip to California in June to play the Western champions, while the Crimson will be lucky to finish second.

For the second straight week the rugby club lost to a team which it could certainly have beaten had it not been for a series of fatal mistakes. The opponents' winning margin resulted from a penalty kick and an intercepted pass.

Over a thousand people, by far the largest crowd of the season, watched the two clubs struggle to a scoreless tie in the first half. The Crimson suffered a harsh disappointment when wing forward Dave Kiely dribbled the ball over the Indians' goal line only to be tackled before he could touch it down.

They opened the second half, however, on a dazzling 65-yard punt return by wing Charlie Rowe. He raced to midfield, then cut to the sidelines and outran the whole Dartmouth team to the goal line and three points.

As the game progressed, the Crimson scrum began to prevail over their counterparts, and with the Indian fullback out of the game with a broken hand, Harvard should have won.

However, an offsides called against the Crimson forwards, gave the Indians a penalty kick and three points. The Dartmouth captain then picked off a pass from Jack Butterfield and romped ten yards for the try.

Their final score came after Crimson captain Hal Churchill accidentally kicked the ball out of bounds on his own one yard line. In the resulting line out, an Indian wing forward gained possession and dived over for three points.

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED, The Harvard Crimson