Officials on the Ice

The local college hockey season, which was opened last week-end by Boston University and M. I. T. and in which Harvard and B. U. will play the second chapter when they square off at the Garden on Wednesday night, this year seems destined to be governed by the best officiating which local teams have seen in many years. At a recent meeting of New England hockey mentors and officials, definite steps were taken to have a uniform interpretation of the rules at all the games.

In recent years officiating at the amateur games has been decidedly off-color and during the course of one season identical plays would be given varying decisions by the referees. Most of this was due to the fact that both the college and professional games were officiated by the same men. This year, with the pros introducing a new ruling on offside play, the difference between the two rule codes became more apparent. Coach Joseph Stubbs, the Crimson mentor, took a leading position in the move to have officials correctly informed and clear up the hazy ruling which has existed.

It is the opinion of Stubbs that correct officiating will speed up the game and add as much to college hockey as the new offside rule added to the professional game. Incidentally he also expressed the opinion that college hockey right now didn't want the new offside rule. This seems to substantiate popular opinion. The collegiate officials are trying to open up the game just as the pros are doing but from a different standpoint. The pro magnates are throwing away some of the fine points of hockey in permitting offside play and are catering to the crowds in their attempt to add the spectacular to the game. The rule was not taken over this year because it has always been the policy of the amateurs to let the pros do the experimenting. The innovation will this year get its share of watching and if it warrants adoption by the colleges it will certainly be introduced. At present however the intercollegiate coaches seem eager to keep the hockey game intact and interpret it correctly rather than adopt a doubtful improvement for the sake of the fans.

Open Tennis Tourneys?

The United States Lawn Tennis Association took a step in the right direction when it decided to find out the possibilities of holding an open tournament for amateurs and pros alike next fall. It is understood that the association intends to go ahead with the idea if enough players can be induced to enter, regardless of what the attitude of the international tennis body may be when it meets in Paris.

It is certainly to be hoped that the plan will work out successfully, because it will go a long way towards the solution of the professional problem in tennis. It seems inevitable that we are going to have tennis pros just as we have them in golf, and the sooner they are treated sensibly the better it will be for the sport as a whole. More good tennis players will take up teaching the game as soon as they realize that they are not going to be ostracized from the court aristocracy for doing it; and the more good teachers there are the more the game will prosper in this country.

The institution of such a plan of open tournaments will do much to settle the question of the supremacy of the courts also. While this is admittedly not a vital matter, still it will afford a great deal of satisfaction to tennis fans who have been arguing for a long time as to the relative merits of various professional and amateur players. Those who champion the cause of Karel Kozeluh, king of the professional world, will have an opportunity to see if their choice really is better than Henri Cochet, wizard of the amateur courts, or if, as many will loudly protest, the latter is in a class by himself.

The Manly Art at Harvard

The exact reason why Harvard has never had a boxing team is rather difficult to discover. Certainly it isn't on account of lack of material, because there have always been more men taking their exercise with the boxing gloves than with the polo mallet; and a polo team has never been criticized as unjustified.

The recent agitation for a boxing team, therefore, would seem to have a sound foundation. Figures show that at the present time there are between 100 and 150 men working out in the Hemenway Gymnasium any where from three to five times a week under the direction of Lawrence Conley, boxing instructor. With so much interest being shown, it seems that there ought not be much argument about the advisability of organizing the sport into teams when the Student Council takes the matter under advisement at its next meeting. BY TIME OUT.