There was a time when a national collegiate squash championship for the Crimson didn't mean much. Squash, after all, was a gentleman's game, and where were there any gentlemen except at Harvard?

Perhaps it still is a gentleman's game, but the Big Three have found that the upstart gentlemen from Army, Navy, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Williams and Cornell have begun to muscle in A championship nowadays is an accomplishment.

Nevertheless, Coach Jack Barnaby has brought the championship to Cambridge three times in the last four years and no one will say that he won't do it again this year. Seven of his last year's team graduated in June while Princeton has lost no one. The squad that barely lost 5 to 4 to the Crimson last year is back intact. And Navy, second only to the Crimson last year, is supposedly stronger than over.

"Well," Barnaby said yesterday, "No coach can complain about his graduation losses. He knows the boys are going to leave, and if he doesn't build for the next season it's his own fault."

Barnaby, for one, has been building carefully grooming his lower players, coaching individually, building their morale, sending them out in the B and C Metropolitan League contests. The seven newcomers this year are by no means inexperienced.

What's more, they've been getting the best coaching in the game. Yesterday was typical at Hemenway. Barnaby and three of the top players in the area were working on the team. Barnaby himself worked with Batts Wheeler, number eleven last year, number five now. For an hour he went over corner shots, feeding him the ball time and time again, soft, fast, high, low, patiently building a put away shot.

In the next court Hugh Nawn, fourth ranking New England player, was playing Guy Paschal, varsity third man.

Heckscher Plays Mateer

A little later, Henri Mateer, the national champion, went into the court with Ben Heckscher, the sophomore in the Crimson number one position. Barnaby watched from upstairs. For the rest of the gallery it was just excellent squash by two of the best, but for Barnaby it was needed information and for Heckscher it was the best possible preparation for the matches he will have later with the other top college players.

It was a fairly normal afternoon at Hemenway. Yale, Princeton, and the upstart gentlemen may just have to let Barnaby make it four out of five.