During the fall football season at least, it is a physical impossibility to pick up a Boston paper which does not contain some news on Harvard football practice. Who writes this stuff, and why is it necessary it undoubtedly is for a man to read more than one paper if he is really to "follow" Harvard on the gridiron?

No man, not even a newspaperman, can write without showing something of himself and this, of course, accounts for the different views that the reader gets of Harvard football if he reads more than one paper. But even the writer's personality has, in some measure to yield to the stamp of the paper he works for, so that there exists a definite Transcript style, a Globe style, a Post style, and so forth.

In order that students of Harvard may not waste their pennies experimenting, the CRIMSON, with its customary desire to set everybody off on the right foot, offers this "guide" to Harvard sports writers, modelled to a certain extent on the Confidential Guide to College Courses, the Guide to Fields of Concentration, and the Student Vagabond. In order that no prejudice may be charged, the papers have been listed alphabetically and for obvious reasons the CRIMSON itself has been omitted from the survey.

The Boston American

Mr. Hearst's personal representative at Harvard is T.F. Lynch '29, known more familiarly as "Ted."

Aside from the fact that Mr. Lynch lives in a Business School dormitory which overlooks at least a part of the secret football field, his qualifications as a sports writer are based upon his ability as an amateur hockey player and the possession of a W.O. McGeehanesque acepticism. As a hockey player, Mr. Lynch was one of Boston's best amateur puck-stoppers and this position naturally gave him a detached view of the game that was bound to make him a student of the ice sport. Though still an undergraduate, the rotund Hearst man is already the Boston American's hockey expert and as such he "does", besides his Harvard sports, all the professional hockey games in Boston. His prowess as a hockey referee makes him one of the most sought-after of ice officials so that, though still in the cub stage, he has referred some 125 games.

Very few things that Mr. Lynch sees in an athletic way are not "in the bag." Even college athletes, according to his views on the subject, don't die for dear old Rutgers without the Rutgers A.A. assuring responsibility for funeral expenses. No master is a hero to his valet, and very few athletes are anything but names to Mr. Lynch.

Of course, this is just his personal opinion, and doesn't appear in the stories he writes. Hot tips on "dark-haired Woburn boys" and "phantom half backs" are his specialty, but while his typewriter is busy clicking off these potent concoctions. Ted is not very much fooled, and casual observers may note a bulge in his left cheek as he builds a second string tackle and third string guard with a "likely-looking monkey wrench in Yale's classy juggernaut."

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe has the distinction of having in its employ the dean of all Harvard sports writers, Melville E. Webb, Jr, known more familiarly as "Mell". "Mell" has probably seen more Harvard football games than Mike Denihan, and is the most veteran follower of the Crimson's fortunes. Mr. Webb covered his first Harvard game when the Crimson met Pennsylvania in 1895, and he has not missed any important games since then.

As dean of Harvard writers, Mr. Webb is in charge of the Stadium Press Box, and as those who have tried to crash the sacred portals will testify, he runs it in a very efficient manner. The system of "spotters", announcers, and operators, explained elsewhere in this issue, is his invention, and makes the Harvard press box one of the easiest to work in.

Besides his administrative duties, Mr. Webb does considerable writing. Every Saturday he shatters the doctrine that only one thing can be done at one time, for while Harvard and Yale will be battling on the turf this afternoon. Mr. Webb will be keeping a chart of the game, observing the individual play of each of the 22 men; but the "System" will be running the press box.

Not only is "Mell" the dean of Harvard writers, but he does not hesitate to associate with the callow Harvard correspondents who get their news daily form the official spokesman of Soldiers Field. True, he does not depend entirely upon this source, for his friendship with coaches, officials and former players is a wide one, but he is on the spot almost every afternoon when the news is given out.

Besides his duties as college sports editor of the Globe, Mr. Webb writes professional baseball and hockey for his paper. He is the New England College Sports correspondent for several New York and Philadelphia papers.

Mr. Webb's style, like the Globe style in general, depends upon facts. He is not unconscious of the drama of football, but he is not given to printing intimate little scenes from the lives of great college athletes. He seldom wakes a coach up in bed, and if he does he does not describe the tone of his voice. When facts are not available, Mr. Webb's hunches are based on the facts of the past, plus such facts as he learns through his contacts.