high school, he was playing baseball, basketball, and football. As a tailback, Dark was an All-State and All-Southern player for Lake Charles High School, and he captained the basketball team as well. The school did not have a baseball team, but Dark played American Legion baseball in his teens. He was offered a basketball scholarship from Texas A&M University, but he turned it down in favor of a baseball and basketball scholarship from Louisiana State University (LSU). College Dark was a member of Phi Delta Theta at LSU. During his sophomore year in 1942–43, he lettered in baseball, basketball, and football. Used as a halfback by the football team, he averaged 7.2 yards rushing, gaining 433 yards on 60 attempts. With World War II occurring, he transferred through the V-12 program to Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), in order to train to be an officer in the United States Marine Corps. Playing tailback for the most successful football team in school history in 1943, he helped SLI to an undefeated season in 1943 and a New Year's Day victory in the Oil Bowl. Against Arkansas A&M College in the 24–7 victory, Dark ran for a touchdown, passed for another, and kicked a field goal as well as three extra points. Meanwhile, he batted .462 for the baseball team, also participating on the basketball and golf teams. Then, Dark went to Parris Island and Camp Lejeune, completing basic training for the Marines before getting sworn in as an officer at Quantico, Virginia, in 1945. He would ultimately complete his bachelor's degree at SLI in 1947, after his professional baseball career had already begun. Military service After receiving his Marine commission, Dark was sent to Pearl Harbor to await assignment. He was briefly sent to Saipan to be part of a machine-gun outfit, but after one day, he was sent back to Pearl Harbor because the military wanted him on the Marine Corps football team. In December, after the war was over, he was sent to China, where he helped support the Nationalist forces in the Chinese Civil War by guarding a supply station 45 miles south of Peking and transporting supplies to another station. Dark spent four months doing this, but he and his squad did not realize that one of the towns they passed through was Communist-controlled. "A month after I got back to