The Harvard athletic system (with an accent on Bill Bingham) has recently become the victim of an intensified newspaper campaign, crammed full with foul blows, rabbit punches, and lots of hitting on the breaks. The Boston professional mud-slingers demand that the Big. Three subsidize football players; actually what these bright columnists need is a few whacks with a ring post. It would be the only way to make an impression on their tough skulls. Colonel Dave (Boston Biowtorch) Egan is an old standby in the axe-grinding business, and his newest disciple is Bill Cunningham of the Boston Post. What a strange pair of bedfellows they make.

Seriously though, writers like those are prime examples of why Boston sportswriters as a whole are considered to be among the most blased, prejudiced, and front-running of the whole nation. Whether you are a flagpole sitter or a ball player, you come under the general classification of "our hero" in this town--IF you are a winner. Think of what happens when hockey season descends upon us. The first 100 words of any Bruin game story in a Boston paper deals with sauerkraut. Then, gradually through a complicated process of reasoning, the reader is brought up to the point where he can find out what kind of tollet paper the Kraut wingmen prefer.

Harvard Influence

God help us if Harvard ever assembled a nice, honest semi-pro football team like Boston College. The grateful New England scribes would probably nick-name the backfield "the scrambled eggs" in honor of Dick Harlow. The newest angle to be played up for a local consumption is the likening of Coach Frank Leahy of Boston College to the immortal Knute Rockne (Leahy's team accomplished the stupendous feat of beating Tulane, which has yet to win its first game this year). Dave Egan was only groping around in the dark last spring, letting loose an occasional blast at Harvard, but this fall he found the nice-sounding rallying point he was looking for. Extensive research convinced him that Harvard was lowering the standard of all New England football--even the Johnny-cakes and popovers are suffering from the unwholesome influence Harvard exerts.

Blowtorch Egan calls on Harvard to come out from behind false whiskers by either "abolishing intercollegiate football, as the Intellectually honest Dr. Robert M. Hutchins did at the University of Chicago or subsidize football players." He continues with an elaborate explanation of how Bill Bingham is the boss of every Dean of admissions in the Ivy League, a fotball Czar comparable to Judge Landis in baseball. Egan winds up his little dissertation by tacking that same confusing monicker on Boston College. It is an "Intellectually honest institution", says Egan, comparing it with Dr. Hutchins and Chicago. That simile is a rather difficult one to follow because the Eagles resemble Chicago just about as much as Egan resembles John Kleran.

Bill Cunningham really gets around! Some one showed him around Texas A. and M. and Louisiana State, and he has been writing and talking about it ever since. I'm just waiting for him to point out that the Texas Aggies jump into their pants with both feet instead of putting them on. He seems to think those boys have energy to burn. Football has certainly been racing along the road to subsidization in recent but there will be barriers in the way. Southern colleges are the most outrageous and brazen in their actions--their reward will be schedules among themselves. Northern teams are beginning to shy away from them, canceling lucrative games for the future. Notre Dame wants no more of Georgia Tech; Dartmouth is anxious to get out of playing a series of games with Georgia. Nevertheless there is a future for these line Southern schools of which Bill Cunningham talks in such glowing terms. They can work up an attractive series of games with the Green Bay Packers, the New York Giants, the Pittsburgh Steelers etc.

Harvard football is based on the assumption that there are still a few deluded young men in this country who want to be capable athletes and scholars alike. They even prefer gaining an education to gaining yardage on the gridiron. Naturally, every preference in admissions should be given to the scholar-athlete. If a man has both high marks and a good athletic record in high school, be is the perfect type of raw material for both the Harvard football coaches and the professors. The scholar-athlete is the best type of man not because he can help Harvard but because Harvard can help him.