Springfield and North Carolina also had their worries, however, as they tried unsuccessfully to stop Captain French's and David Guarnaceia's running and lateraling. The line, under the coaching of R. J. Dunne, was proving itself one of the most formidable in years. In the Army game, the forward wall did a splendid job in stopping the Cadets' famed running attack, but fumbles and a weak Crimson pass defense cost Harvard a 15-0 defeat.
Yale Defeated
Dartmouth's highly-rated eleven, however, could not withstand the sustained power of the Crimson and fell, 19 to 7. But then, after the second team trampled Lehigh 39 to 0, the Crimson was outplayed for the first time that season, by Pennsylvania, 7 to 0. A scoreless tie with Holy Cross set the stage for Harvard's first triumph over Yale since 1922.
French and Guarnaccia were the standouts on November 24 for the Crimson. Their brilliance was made possible by the hard-charging line, which, as the CRIMSON reported, "tore the Blue to shreds and paved the way for Harvard's return to football prestige." From the moment early in the first period when Pickard fell on a Blue fumble, the Crimson eleven remained unchecked, and for the only time that fall mastered an opponent's passing attack by intercepting five Yale forward attempts.
Eleven members of the senior class received their letters: Pickard, Prior, T. H, Alcock, John Parkinson, B. H. Dorman, F. A. Clark, David Shaw, S. C. Burns, George Crawford, French, and Guarnaccia.
Winter sports, in terms of victories, did not measure up as successfully as might have been expected, although the polo trio did come through a nine-game schedule undefeated. The squash team was the only other winter aggregate to top Yale. The hockey series with the Elis, though going to the New Haven sextet in three games, will be remembered as one of the closest and hard-fought on record.
The Blue suffered its initial loss of the season to Captain Tudor's six, 2 to 1, in the opener, but them fought back to square the series. Those who saw it undoubtedly still remember vividly the third game played at New Haven. Yale took a 2 to 1 first period lead, but the injury-riddled Crimson without regular goalie O. P. Jackson tied the score in the second. It remained tied through two overtime periods and part of a third before Nelson, and Eli substitute, broke through to sink the winning goal.
Rhinelander Nominated
June of 1929 saw a superb baseball team beaten in two games by Yale despite fine fielding by Captain Donaghy, and crucial hits by Prior and Durkee. Captain Clark's crew had a mediocre season under the tutelage of Coach J. C. Brown, as it twice placed third in triangle regattas. After experimenting all year, Brown finally settled on James Lawrence, an Olympic four oarsman, as his stroke for the New London race.
Half a year earlier, the senior class had voted for its officers. Nine men; Winslow Carlton, Forrester A. Clark, James de Normandie, Arthur E. French, Jr., David Guarnaccia, James L. Reid, Richard A. Stout, John Tudor, and William S. Young-man, Jr. were nominated for marshals; Hulburd Johnston and Alan R Sweezy for treasurer; John K. Fairbank, Lawrence T. Grimm, and Norman Winer for orator; Alan R. Blackburn, Peter J. W. Bove and James H. Sachs for Ivy Orator; Robeson Bailey and Peter I. Dunne for poet; Philip Hichborn and Chauncey D. Stillman for odist; and James R. Carter, Richard S. Holden, and Philip H. Rhinelander for choristers.
Disregarding the CRIMSON's full page ad from "Vanity Fair" asserting that true popularity could only be gained through monthly perusal of the magazine's aesthetic pages, the Class of 1929 chose athletes for the three top posts. French, Guarnaccia, and Clark were elected marshals. For other positions CRIMSON president Sweezy was named permanent treasurer, and Advocate president Bailey, class poet. Grimm, president of the Debating Union, was appointed class orator, while Lampoon leader Blackburn took the Ivy Orator post. Holden was chorister, and Stillman, another Advocate editor, was elected odist.
Ill Fated Fiesta
In the dramatics field, Charles Leatherbee H.D.C. president, recovered from illness in time to take over as director of the club's ill-fated production "Fiesta." Miss Gloria Braglotti has been secured to "execute the exotic, primitive dance which climaxes the siesta scene in the play," and F. A. Pickard was in the cast for the world premiere. Eugene O'Neil bad called "Fiesta" the best example of Mexican peon life he had ever read; the author was even journeying to Cambridge to see his play staged. But the long arm of decency stopped in after several complaints from spectators that the play was "crude and immoral." Three days after it opened, the mayor of Boston banned the production.
The Pudding had its own troubles, but none so serious as those of the H.D.C. The organization first planned to perform one of its old shows, but existing facilities were found to be inadequate, so George Weller agreed to write a new book. The theatrical group, however, was already beginning to be plagued with union expenses. The Pudding was charged $110 after privately transporting its scenery to New York. Union labor halted the Pudding truck outside its destination, the Mecca Temple, and presented the bill for carrying the sets inside, a distance of four feet.
Then came graduation. It was amid the presentation of honorary degrees to Franklin D, Roosevelt, Charles Francis Adams, Senator Kellogg, and Serge Koussevitsky on June 20, 1929, that the largest number of University students ever to receive degrees up to that time marched into the Sever Quadrangle. Among the 1,957 degrees presented, 695 went to members of the Senior Class.
Now, twenty-five years later, many of those 695 recipients have returned to Cambridge for the first time since they graduated. If any bother to recall old days this week, they will be remembering a departed era in Harvard history--an era of eating in Georgians and living in scattered apartments and rat houses--an era the Class of 1929 brought to a close.