Harvard lost both a fine football coach and a gentleman yesterday. Those who were lucky enough to be Arthur Valpey's friends during his two years here are firmly convinced both of his coaching ability and of his warmth and integrity as a man. We are sorry to see him leave, although his decision looks like a wise one professionally. The University of Connecticut has chosen an excellent new head coach.

But Valpey's decision to leave Cambridge makes painfully clear the confusion of Harvard's athletic program. The fact that a man might even consider leaving a school with the prestige and rank of Harvard to coach at Connecticut ought to drive home the unpleasant fact that we have no athletic policy as any level in Cambridge. There is no need for Harvard to go professional in its athletics; but to disregard completely the forces which are acting on intercollegiate athletics is to be guilty of self-inflicted blindness.

Provest Buck yesterday submitted his report on athletics to the Corporation. That austere body would do well to act quickly on it, for it is our opinion that lack of policy direction more than anything else moved Valpey to accept Connecticut's offer. One cannot censure any man for leaving a college which has exhibited such deeprooted and persistent disregard for its athletic program.

It will be hard enough to find a new coach under any policy, for Valpey has expressed by his departure what every sane coach must feel about Harvard. It will be well nigh impossible to collect a new coaching staff unless the University--the Corporation, the Overseers, the Alumni, and even the President--gives a fast, sure answer to the question posed by Arthur Valpey.