Lou Little is a fine football strategist, but when it comes to disputing officials' decisions, the Columbia coach is obviously less than a whiz.

At a football writers luncheon the other day. Little analyzed the officiating in the Penn-Columbia game, which the Quakers came from behind to win, 27 to 17.

According to the New York papers' accounts of the meeting. Little was particularly unhappy about one pass-interference penalty, on which he questioned a call by the field judge, our own Dolph Samborski. Director of the local intramural program, "Sam" doubles in brass as an official on Saturdays.

The facts of the play were these: Penn, trailing 17 to 14, tried a fourth-down pass from the Columbia five-yard line. The forward was completed, but the receiver failed to make the yardage necessary for a first down: Columbia had held. But off in one corner of the end zone, far from the play, a Columbia halfback pushed a Penn end. That, according to the rules, is pass-interference. Following the book, the officials gave the ball to Penn on the Columbia one-yard line. The Quakers went on to score and break up the game.

A Question of Judgment

"I'm not questioning his (Samborski's) interpretation of the rules," Little told the assembled gourmets, "only his judgment. If I was an official and I saw a play like that I don't know how I'd call it. Penn was panicky then; our morale was high, and that call changed everything."

Apparently Little was convincing, because the representatives of the "New York Times" and "The New York Herald-Tribune" led their respective stories with the Morningside Maestro's comments. The whole thing caused quite a stir, none of it very complementary to Samborski's competence.

The one man completely unmoved by all the hubbub is Mr. Samborski himself. And for a very good reason.

"I didn't even make that particular call," Samborski said yesterday. "Jimmy Coogan, the umpire, was in on that play. I wasn't even near it."

"I guess," he added, with admirable restraint, "Little was sort of mistaken."