There were at least 200 athletes in the Union last night--some of them gray-haired crew men from the years of the First War, and others such recent football figures as John Culver, Bob Cochran, and Jerry Marsh. It was the first annual dinner of the Harvard Varsity Club, preceded by cocktails at six in the Club House next door.

While the varsity football team was getting ready for today's encounter with Brown, the men who have done so much to support and encourage Harvard football, dressed in business suits, sat around the head table and smoked their after-dinner cigars.

President Pusey and Lloyd Jordan were at the head table, but two of the expected speakers, Brown football coach Alva Kelley and football Captain Bill Meigs were unable to attend. In Meigs' case, Jordan decided that today's game was too tough and Meigs too important to allow him to go to the dinner last night.

In a short after-dinner speech, Jordan paid warm tribute to his Captain, saying that he wished "the country could meet this representative of Harvard and the Ivy League." The Crimson football coach also lamented that men like Meigs are ineligible for post-season contests like the Shrine game in San Francisco because of the recent Ivy League rulings.

"It is sad for me," Jordan said, "that this young man--as great as he is--doesn't have the opportunity to play in the Shrine game."

At the conclusion of Jordan's talk, Club President Richard P. Hallowell, II '20 made the coach an honorary member. In presenting the Club plaque and tie, Hallowell called Jordan "one of the most loyal Harvard men we have ever known," and a standing ovation greeted the presentation.

The atmosphere of the Union was far from the hostile one that has sometimes been portrayed by the Boston press. In the standing ovations and in the friendly reception of Jordan's talk, there was a marked feeling that "we like what you have done." One could not miss the impression that Jordan would be a speaker at the annual dinners for a long time to come.