The following is guest column and does not necessarily express the opinions of the Crimson.

Football Captains

I believe the custom--long established at Harvard--of electing the captain of the football team for the ensuing year shortly after the close of the current season is unsound and that, viewed over an extended period, has proved unfortunate.

This statement has no relationship to the present Incumbent. It is not meant in any way, shape or form to imply that he was not or is not the man best fitted for the position.

Iam viewing it from a purely impersonal and long time outlook.

There are numerous reasons why the practice is unsound. Following so quickly on the heels of the final big game, some brilliant performance by an individual assumes an importance outweighing the quality of inspirational leadership. Enthusiasm rather than sober judgment tends to away the vote. The ten months intervening between the election and the start of the next season can readily develop drastic and unforeseeable circumstances. Captains elect have been forced to give up their college careers for varied, personal reasons. Captains elect have flunked out of college. Captains elect have gone on probation and were ineligible to lead their teams. Captains elect have met with sickness or acoldent during the summer. Captains elect have been injured in pre-opening game practices or have been injured in early games and thus unable to take an active part in the major game.

Not infrequently, when the following season gets underway, some aspirant for the same playing position as that of the captain develops so rapidly and so improves that he fits more effectively than does the captain into the scheme of play which the coach figures will prove the strongest employment of his available material.

Immediately there develops an embarrassing situation--a situation equally difficult for the boy and for the coach--a situation that can readily disrupt the complete coordination essential to the team.

Captain Develops

To be sure, many captains elect have been so deeply impressed with the honor and the responsibility which their selection as captain carried that they have grown in moral stature under this added responsibility. They have developed inspirational qualities of leadership far in excess of what had been expected of them.

Others, however, have shown a tendency to rest on their laurels. They have taken it for granted that their starting position on the first team was inviolate. The zest and the constant drive which made them outstanding the year before has been lost. Then again there have been those who, upon election to the captaincy, apparently assumed that their selection was paramount to an appointment to the coaching staff. They became simultaneously a would-be mixture of coach, strategist, big brother, disciplinarian and critic whose opinions must be considered not only sound but indisputable.

Captaincy Politics

The present method of electing a captain has likewise in the past developed active campaigning by players sepiring to that honor and by their closest friends. Politics have been played. Cilques have developed. Bad feeling has been engendered.

I believe the solution to this situation is to dispense with the election of a captain at the close of the season and to wait until late in the following season for an election; to have the coach appoint various individuals to set in that capacity during the early games and then, a week or perhaps two weeks prior to the Yale game, when the final make-up of the starting team is decided--strictly upon football merit and expediency--to have the players elect the man they then wish to honor and to have represent them