They closed the doors on varsity football practice for the first time since Art Valpey came to Harvard yesterday. For nearly half an hour the team worked on special Cornell preparations while sports-writers the only people who had never been requested to wait outside watched the lights in the roof of Briggs Cage.

These special "zipper" precautions mean just one thing: That Cornell is probably the best opponent Harvard will face this year. If the Crimson is to make a decent showing, Valpey and his men will have to have some specials tuff on tap.

One Boston writer asked Art if he was confident after the workout. "Confident? What do you mean"" said Valpey. I'm confident that we'll show up for the game." He continued in this merry vein to rate Cornell "among the best four or five in the country. The only thing that's holding Lefty (Lefty James, the Cornell coach) back is his schedule." Cornell, this year, does not have the kind of opposition that makes a national champion.

Offense and Defense Stressed

The actual work yesterday was the regular Wednesday workout both offensive and defensive work. The varsity first and second strings ran through passing and practiced plays for almost as hour, and then did defensive work against dummy formations.

Henry Lamar's freshmen served as defensive "Cornell" players against the varsity in a half-hour of hard contact work; then the jayvees ran Cornell plays against shifting varsity defensive players and formations.

The casualty list was unchanged--Moffie and Kenary definitely out, while Bender and Houston did some work in the lines. Sam Butler and John Coan were also on light duty.