The Real Frank

"I've never read any of the books," says Yale Quarterback Brian Dowling, 20. "But from what I understand, Frank Merriwell was quite a guy."

Indeed he was. The kind of guy who would run from punt formation on fourth down and 26--and make 35 yds. Who would average 24 points a game for the Yale basketball team. Who would turn out for tennis, win his first two matches, and quit because his game was "not too good." Who would then suit up for baseball and drive in the winning run in his first game. In other words, Frank Merriwell was a kind of fictional Brian Dowling.

Not since Princeton's Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy in 1951 has an Ivy League football player so captured the public fancy as has Dowling, a 6-ft. 2-in., 195-lb. junior from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who turned down 100 scholarship offers to go to Yale--because, as his father put it: "Why go cabin class when you can go first class?" With Brian at quarterback, says a teammate, "You never know what's going to happen--but you know that you're not going to lose."

Five Straight. A broken wrist sidelined Dowling for the first two games this season; Yale lost one to Holy Cross 26-14, barely squeaked past Connecticut 14-6 in the other. Since then, with Brian, the Bulldogs have rattled off five straight lopsided victories--beating Brown (35-0), Columbia (21-7), Cornell (41-7), Dartmouth (56-15), and Pennsylvania (44-22) to stamp themselves as one of the top teams in the East.

Despite tough games still ahead with Princeton (6-1) and Harvard (5-2), Yale now is a solid favorite to win its first Ivy League title in seven years--barring further damage to Dowling. Injuries have been Brian's biggest bugaboo since he was a junior at St. Ignatius High in Cleveland and broke his collarbone in a football game--the only game St. Ignatius lost during his four years on the team. He missed all but one game at Yale last year because of torn cartilage in his right knee; this season, in addition to the tender knee and bad wrist, he has been playing with a broken nose. None of them have slowed him down much. Against Cornell, he passed for two touchdowns and ran 6 yds. for a third. Against Dartmouth he threw a 69-yd. scoring pass, scampered 30 yds. on a bootleg for a second Yale TD. Last week against Penn, he ran for 35 yds. and completed 13 out of 19 passes for 141 yds. and two TDs.

According to Yale Coach Carmen Cozza, Dowling is "neither a great runner nor a great passer. But he is a born winner. He uses all his ability to the utmost advantage and he has great response to pressure." When he graduates in 1969, Dowling hopes to test that response in the pros--which is something that not even Frank Merriwell had the courage to assay.

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