We’re counting down the top 10 moments in each Ivy school’s history as part of our Ivy League at 60 retrospective. Of course, Dartmouth’s top 10 countdown ends at this post’s conclusion because nothing gold can stay.
The 1957-58 Dartmouth squad is quite simply one of the best teams in the past 60 years of Ivy hoops.
The team finished 22-5 for an 81.5 winning percentage, eighth-best in the country. Two of those wins were NCAA tourney wins.
Dartmouth defeated Connecticut in the first round, 75-64, on the strength of Rudy LaRusso’s and Chuck Kaufman’s 24-point performances.
Then Dartmouth outmatched Manhattan in the regional semifinals, 79-62, holding the Jaspers to 32.9 percent shooting and benefiting from a 22-point performance from Kaufman.
The win over Manhattan set Dartmouth up with Temple in the regional finals. LaRusso notched 21 rebounds and 19 points, but Dartmouth lost, 69-50, to an Owls squad led by first-team All-American and future Naismith Hall of Famer Guy Rodgers.
Nevertheless, Dartmouth’s 1957-58 campaign resulted in one of the deepest NCAA runs in Ivy history, a claim that still holds up nearly 60 years later.