Just chalk up the American Olympic hockey debacle as a minor international incident. Snow is drifting over the St. Moritz rinks, and the A.H.A. and the A.A.U. teams are taking a look-see through Europe on the cuff before embarking for the States. The Brundage versus Brown issue is, for the moment, closed. But in backroom, beer-primed athletic colloquiums the nation over, A.A.U. and A.H.A. partisans are waxing eloquent over the entire American amateur athletic picture. Avery Brundage's Olympic committee, of which Bill Bingham is a member, gets excited about amateur athletics once every four years, searches through its dusty files, and throws its weight behind a likely combo for the U.S. representative in each event.

Walter Brown Shows Interest

Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Garden and head of a 14 man rink owners association, has put two decades of his time, energy, and finances into college and high-school hockey, basketball, and track at little direct recompense to himself. He's made it possible for men like Crimson ice veterans John Garrison, Stan Priddy, Goodie Harding, and Dartmouth's '47 front line trio, Ralph Warburton, Bruce Mather, and Bruce Cunliffe to play hockey after college without becoming professionals. Brown gave Garrison use of the Garden for a month before the coach's departure for Europe, that the A.H.A. might get in shape for the Olympics.

Bicker Has Wide Implications

The debate over quadrennial versus annual interest in amateur athletics is seeping into every corner of the U.S. sports panorama. The showdown should come in July at the track Olympics in London.

It was Garrison, one-time Crimson skater and later Chase's assistant coach for the Varsity, who fired the shot heard round the rinks. When his A.H.A. sextet broke camp before Christmas, he stole Brundage's thunder and let his skaters know that they were to make up the American Olympic team. Brundage, his presidential pride raging, revoked his previous backing of the A.H.A., and used his prerogative to back the A.A.U. The initial skirmish of the Olympic civil war was on.

Sports Writers Back A.H.A.

Reached last night, sports columnists Jerry Nason of the Boston Globe and Bill Grimes of the Record stated that their pens are cocked for Garrison, Brown, and the A.H.A. As for Garrison, Nason dubbed him the victim of being "too darn nice." His move to ease the minds of his hard-working cohorts pitched him into the middle of a storm of roaring prides, according to the sports analyst.

Grimes opened his hand with "for my money, the commercial rink owners are the only boys to be trusted." Brown's backing of amateur athletics to create a demand for his Garden is an obvious, accountable motive, in the opinion of the columnist, when compared to Brundage's picayune bickering and political subilety.