Princeton's weakest football team in six years, loser of two games, but still strong enough to rate a one touchdown edge over the once-beaten varsity, opens its 1953 Big Three championship defense in the Stadium today.
Charley Caldwell's Tigers, completely routed by Navy, 65 to 7, and winner three times in very close Ivy games, are favored by the odds-makers only; over 40,000 people will jam the Stadium today, most of them hoping to see an upset.
The Harvard fans, however, may watch the game under distinctly unpleasant circumstances. Rain has been forecast, and it becomes more probable that Captain Dick Clasby will not start.
Harvard hasn't beaten Princeton since 1946, and the Tigers posses the best offensive record in the Ivy league. But the varsity football team, even without Dick Clasby in the starting lineup, is a confident, competent football team, the best that Lloyd Jordan has coached here. It has a strong line and a varied offense.
Varsity Seeks Revenge
And today it will have the incentive to end the bitterness and frustration which have been building up for six years, which have mounted just as Caldwell's scores have mounted.
In the Dillon Field House locker room is a sign--"Harvard hasn't got a defensive line worthy of the name"--Caldwell. These were the Princeton coach's words last year, and they have been re-echoed loudly all week down at Soldiers Field.
Secrecy has clouded all the Soldiers Field workouts. For the first time since he came here four years ago, Jordan has sent his team through closed workouts before the Princeton game.
Varying reports, cryptic and contradictory, have issued forth from Soldiers Field concerning the type of attack and the personnel to be used.
Clasby Not to Start
The latest has Dick Clasby out of the starting lineup because of bruises suffered against Davidson. But although Clasby has taken light workouts, authorities have insisted all week that he would be in the lineup today. Yesterday, Jordan told reporters that Clasby will not be in the starting lineup.
"At this minute I wouldn't consider Clasby," Jordan said yesterday. "If it's the difference between Clasby and the football game, don't think for a minute it will be anything but Clasby." But the feeling is that if he doesn't actually start today, Clasby, Ivy League rushing record holder, will probably see close to full time service. Jordan has also remained silent on the possibility of using Clasby and former Captain Carroll Lowenstein in the same backfield. There is no hiding the fact that Lowenstein, who passed for five touchdowns last Saturday, must play today if the varsity is going to beat Princeton. The Tigers have been somewhat week on pass defense; last week Brown scored twice through passes. May Use T Read more in News
