With regard to the effect which the result is likely have upon the future of athletics in the University, the game today is to Harvard the most important one she has ever played. For the past five years, although the games have been remarkably close and intensely exciting, Harvard has been successful but once. The effect of that victory was remarkable. Interest in the game such as had never before been known at Harvard was awakened, and our other teams completed the year with an unbroken record of victories. But it is next to impossible for any enthusiasm to live through the effects of repeated failure, and however reluctant we may be to acknowledge it, it is true that there has not been from the very beginning this year, the same interest that there was two and three years ago.

A victory today will mean a great deal. It will leave us with the opportunity to put ourselves in a position to lay undisputed title to the championship; it will justify the continuance of a system of training which in many respects has proved eminently desirable. Moreover, two outside colleges, - Pennsylvania and Princeton, - are awaiting the result with an interest which we have reason to believe is scarcely less intense than our own.

In the face of the misfortunes which have come to the team in the past few days, and the reports of Yale's great strength, it is not easy for us to figure out a victory. But newspaper calculations are not infallible and we firmly believe that one feature of the eleven's work has not been given due consideration. It is the superior team-play which has been developed. In this and in the grit and courage of our men we must find our strongest hopes for success. Every man of us should go to the field this afternoon, saying not "Can we win?" but "We must win."