As dusk fell over London's White City Stadium last June 10, Harvard's Joel Landau stood at the starting line for the 4 X 110 relay with the failure or success of the Harvard-Yale track team's mission in England hanging upon what he and three other runners did in the next 40-odd seconds. As it turned out, the four determined sprinters--Landau and Frank Yeomans of Harvard and Jay Luck and Jim Carney of Yale--won the final relay and gave the Americans a thrilling 8-7 victory over the combined forces of Oxford and Cambridge.

With only the relay to be run the Americans had fought back from a 6-4 deficit to tie the score at seven first places each. Also, in 36 previous Anglo-American contests over a span of 64 years, Oxford and Cambridge had won 17, and the American universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Penn, and West Point) had taken 17, with two meets being tied.

Thus, much was at stake as Landau took the mark against Oxford's Ian Taylor. already the upset victor in the 100 and 220. After one false start, Landau shot out of the blocks and opened up a two-yard lead on Taylor.

Running second against Rex Van Rossum of Oxford, Yeomans really turned it on and gave the baton to Luck with a six-yard margin. Luck and Carney added two yards to the final eight-yard edge. The time, a meet record, was 42.4.

Just five events earlier, American prospects had looked bleak indeed. Taylor's two sprint victories and a surprise triumph by Cambridge's Jim Parker in the high hurdles had given the English a 6-4 lead. The Americans were faced with the task of taking four of the last five events to avoid defeat.

Landau came through with a win in the low hurdles, setting a new series record of 23.9. Then Yale's Bill Markle momentarily evened the count by winning the shot put with a 52 ft., 2 in. heave. But Stephen James of Oxford turned in a record 4:06.3 clocking to take the mile and gave Oxford and Cambridge a 7-6 lead.

Yale's Jim Stack made use of a dazzling kick to win the 440, tying the meet once again and setting the stage for the relay. Stack's time, 49.0, was less than sensational, but he needed a desperate finish to overhaul Harvard captain Albie Gordon and Mike Riegels of Oxford.

The Americans got off to a good start in the meet when Yale's Tommy Carroll breezed home in the 880 with a meet record time of 1:51.3. Harvard's John deKiewiet tied the series mark of 6 ft., 3 in to win the high jump. Two more quick victories, by Yale's Mike Pyle with a 157 ft., 2 in. discus throw and Harvard's injured Tom Blodgett with a 12 ft., 6 in. pole vault, gave the Americans hope for an easy victory.

But Oxford's David Churchill leaped 22 ft., 4 in. to edge Harvard's Liles by one-quarter of an inch in the broad jump, and Roger Lane of Oxford hurled the javelin 206 ft., 9 1-2 in. for another British triumph. Taylor tied the meet mark of 9.8 to win the 100, as Landau, Yeomans, and Cambridge's Dewi Roberts all ran 9.9.

Parker then took the high hurdles, equaling the meet record with a time of 14.8, and Oxford's Kevin Gilligan won the two-mile in 8:57, another series mark. Finishing second in the two-mile, the Crimson's Dyke Benjamin chopped a half second off his University record with a 9:08.0 performance.

The British went ahead 6 to 4 when Taylor took the 220 in 21.9. Yale's Dave Bain was leading with 70 yards to go but pulled up with a muscle strain. The absence of Eli Steve Snyder, out with glanduler fever, hurt the Americans here and in the 100.

After Harvard and Yale took three of the next four events, the relay team composed of two men who had already run two races (Landau and Yeomans), a freshman who had never been in a relay (Luck), and a footsore hurdler (Carnev) gave the Americans a glorius victory.

For many, it was the end of a psychological battle that had been going on ever since the Americans had arrived in England. The British constantly regaled their visitors with tales of drinking and smoking during training season, and nearly every night they conducted the Harvard and Yale men on a tour of the local pubs in an effort to substantiate their stories.

Not all the Americans were convinced despite the considerable quantities of beer consumed. Blodgett remarked. "They're just trying to psych us. The ones we see drinking and smoking aren't the ones we'll be running against, but they don't tell us that." The psychological warfare reached its peak the Sunday before the meet, when Oxford's Gilligan took his workout with two Yale men and ran them into the ground, and Harvard's Benjamin retaliated by doing eight consecutive quarter miles under 60.0, two of them faster than his previous personal best.

The victory in White City Stadium marked the end of an internal clash as well. During the tense Harvard-Yale workouts charges like "Harvard (or Yale) isn't training" gradually turned into even more bitter remarks such as "Of course we want to win, but we want the first places to be Yale (or Harvard) first places." This bickering continued right up to the day of the meet, but by the time the final relay was run off, the honor of America had overshadowed all other concerns.