by Bruce Wood

This time Brian Mann didn't have to change his hair color, put a razor to his legs or hit the tanning bed.

To listen to Dartmouth's former star quarterback talk about stepping in this fall as the Big Green's Director of Football Operations is to get a sense he might actually have done all that - again - to land the role. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Our story starts in Massachusetts where Mann follows in the footsteps of brothers Matt and Tim Hasselbeck as the starting quarterback for football powerhouse Xaverian Brothers High School. Like the Hasselbecks, who starred at Boston College before taking their act to the NFL, the script calls for Mann to perform in the bright lights of Beantown until he rethinks his decision to attend a certain school in Cambridge and instead packs his bags for far-off Hanover, N.H.

As the curtain rises on Mann's college career he hits fullback Bob Bunn from seven yards  out against archrival Harvard in 1998 to becomes the first Dartmouth freshman to throw a touchdown pass after freshman eligibility was restored in the Ivy League. He takes center stage next fall when as a sophomore starter he completes 60.1 percent of his passes for 1,848 yards.

But every good story has to have tension and so it is with Mann's tale as uneven play in his junior season sees him lose the starting position to strong-armed classmate Greg Smith. There is even the chance that a once-promising career might be over when he misses his entire senior year with a broken hand and agonizes about whether to come back for a fifth year or to get on with life after football.

Turning points make for good cinema and this will be a huge one for Mann. He talks with everyone he can find who took advantage of the opportunity to return for a fifth year and everyone who left a year of eligibility on the table. What he hears is unanimous. Those who returned were glad. Those who made the decision to walk away came to regret it.

And so he comes back for a curtain call and enjoys what to this day remains the most prolific passing season in school history, throwing for 2,913 yards and 19 touchdowns. As an encore he wins the Bob Blackman Trophy as the Big Green's MVP and is named to the All-Ivy League second team. (He should have been first team after outpassing the first-team quarterback and finishing 10th in the league in rushing with 393 yards while the first-team QB ran for an inglorious negative 74 yards, but that is a story for another story. Er, day.)

Graduating in December, Mann is offered a job on Wall Street thanks to an internship arranged by a former Dartmouth player. He asks for 24 hours to think about it and in the best tradition of the movies, the call from the governor comes at the midnight hour. It's not from the governor of course, and it isn't at midnight, but you get the idea.

On the other end of the line are the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League, offering a tryout. "If you believe in fate at all, that was it," Mann says today.

He flies out to Los Angeles where his goal is modest. "I wanted to get one paycheck to play pro football," he says.

After making the team his star is once again rising and so are the ambitions that he eventually fulfills.  "I wanted to last for three-plus years," he says. "I made it four years. I was able to start. I was able to play on national television. My family was able to come see me play.

"I didn't start in the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots but other than that, I really felt like I accomplished everything I set out to do."

Everything and then some as his stint on the Left Coast brings with it a role as Adam Sandler's stunt double in the remake of the movie, The Longest Yard. "I had to do three things I thought I'd never do," he says of the experience. "I dyed my hair, shaved my legs and got a fake tan."

He puts his Screen Actor's Guild card to good use as he goes on to appear in several other movies and commercials before breaking his hand for the fourth time, ironically while starting to film the movie The Game Plan, where he was scheduled to play the winning quarterback and even speak a few lines. With his Avengers contract up and interest from other teams lagging, he takes the injury as a sign and hangs up his cleats with few regrets.

"I played 18 seasons of football since I was a little kid and I needed a break," he says. "I wanted to try something totally different and I thought sales, marketing and business development were things I wanted to get into."

Mann will spend his days as a business consultant, mostly in the health care industry, helping hospitals become more cost effective and to think strategically about the future. It is a booming area and he is good at it, although in time he comes to a realization.

There is no real a-ha moment and the star of this show will tell you as much. "There was no real a-ha moment," he says. "It just kind of gradually got to the point where I was happy with what I was doing, and I was enjoying a certain level of success, but if I was honest with myself and looked in the mirror, I wasn't terribly excited to get out of bed every day and go to work.

"I had tried a different path away from sports and away from football and if nothing else, it taught me I wanted to be back in college athletics and that I needed to take a chance."

Always a smooth talker, he is invited to do color commentary for a few college football games and the reviews are good. He wonders if it will scratch the itch he is feeling, but it only makes it worse.

After a phone conversation, then-Dartmouth athletic director Josie Harper invites him to campus to shadow members of the college's athletic administration. He meets with the AD at an America East basketball school. His interest in working in college athletics is strengthening, but there is intrigue. Will someone take a chance on him?

All good stories have coincidences and so it will be with this one. At the same time Mann is wondering how to get into athletics, Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens is impressing on the college the need to hire a director of operations for his program. He explains how all the off-the-field responsibilities he's taken on have diverted his focus from the task at hand: winning football games. He pitches the idea that a DFO will breathe life into the all-important Friends of Dartmouth Football organization and that the right person will help significantly raise contributions to the program at a time when that kind of help is critical.

As so often happens in the movies, two storylines finally converge. Mann learns of the new position and is invited to campus for an interview. He aces his screen test because the role fits him, according to Teevens, "Like a glove."

Says the coach: "It's been seamless. Knowing the institution as intimately as he does, right off the bat he's been helpful. He's a very intelligent guy, very articulate. Hard working and meticulous. The alums all remember him. He can relate to older folks and he's also a young enough guy that the players relate to him."

It is a chilly October afternoon. Mann is watching practice and talking about his new position. "Coach Teevens and the Dartmouth athletic department have made the commitment to move this from a football team to a first-class program," he explains. "I am doing everything possible to support the coaches in their efforts outside of the football field. Everything from recruiting to operations to alumni support, particularly in fundraising.

"We have traditionally been last in the Ivy League in fundraising for the football program. There's been a major commitment not only from Coach Teevens and the athletic department but also the college and President Kim. They really want to change that. In order for us to be the program that we want to be that is an area where we need to focus. That's a major part of my responsibilities."

Mann speaks with enthusiasm about overseeing the mentor program that matches successful alums from the area with players. About the career day he will run when Dartmouth welcomes back alums who offer guidance, internships and job opportunities to players.

About how his own story was unfolding in similar fashion with former football player Brian Conroy '86 facilitating the Wall Street job he would have taken if the Arena League hadn't called at the last moment. "An alum gave me a tremendous opportunity," he says. "I didn't end up taking that career path but that's why you come to Dartmouth. For the network and the family that exists beyond Hanover."

He's only been on the scene for a month or so but he has his lines down cold. To listen to him is to believe the role he now plays was written with him in mind.