A boisterous group of townies, looking for some New Year's Eve fun, attempted to mug two sophomores in the Harvard Square MTA station late Thursday night.

The students, Timothy D. Ellard '56 and Edward E. Furash '56, returning from celebrating in downtown Boston, were assaulted "by at least five guys and a couple of more or less interested bystanders" as they attempted to leave the subway station.

One boy held Furash, while several other grabbed Ellard. Then one assailant threatened Ellard and told him what he'd do, if he, Ellard, weren't wearing glasses. Furash broke loose and fled up the stairs yelling for the police. Several minutes later, he returned with a detachment of Cambridge police, who were stopping a near-riot in a Harvard Square restaurant.

When the police arrived, Ellard was bleeding badly from a head wound. He was taken to Lehman Hall and turned over to the Harvard police, who took him to Stillman Infirmary.

Ellard's scalp wound was only superficial. Nurses patched him up and released Stillman's only New Year's Eve patient an hour later.

The group had followed Furash and Ellard onto the subway at Boylston St. and crowded around them, preventing their exit from the Harvard station. After "brow-beating" the boys, the group started to have when one of the on-lookers shouted, "hit 'em one for good measure." Ellard fought back, but was injured when one of the assailants hit him from behind. Furash escaped uninjured.