The Ivy League is succumbing to the Cult of the Personality. Games are becoming personal contests between two supposed supermen rather than 22-man affairs. Cornell didn't play Columbia two Saturday's ago: Gary Wood fought Archie Roberts. Cornell's game with Dartmouth this week is primarily interesting because it brings together Wood and Bill King.

It is a little hard to say what effect the presence of these highly publicized boys have on their respective teams. The effect on sportswriting is much clearer, and it is not desirable.

Last Sunday the New York Times ran a half page article on young Archie Roberts (whom the New York Herald Tribune had previously called the greatest young athlete since Joe Dimaggie broke in), which generally conveyed the idea that God, or a reasonable facsimile of Him, was now a student at Columbia College.

According to the normally caustic Times writer Howard Tuckner, there isn't a thing Archie does wrong. His only fault--a slight sloppiness in the care of his room--turned out to be a quaint sort of virtue.

Archie not only is about the best passer over to throw a football, he is also an ideal young man. He rises early each morning to deliver papers, chats with students and helps them with homework, modestly removes signs saying "We Love You, Archie," drinks milk, studies hard, is friendly, brave, courteous, helpful, obedient, cheerful, reverent, and lots more.

While he is aware of the fact that most students hold him in absolute awe, Roberts is always eager to talk to them, has conversations with homely girls, dresses casually, and generally has everyone at Columbia U. feeling human flesh was rarely more perfectly conceived. It all sounds a bit fantastic, and he did loss 42-0 to Dartmouth and King.

The stories of Bill King are a bit different. No one can claim that a Dartmouth student is a model human being, but King does leave his biographers with the impression that no one was ever more eager to improve his football.

A confident, but not arrogant, young man, King is anxious to see that all his teammates have a chance to shine, and has earned their undying gratitude.

There is no halo yet shining above Gary Wood's head, but nearly everyone agrees he is "wonderous." The Cornell Dally Sun summed up its school's football prospects with a heartfelt "Knock on Wood."

I have yet to find out if Gary is as an exemplary student as Roberts, but I suspect that by next year, when he is a senior, the whole truth will come out. Perhaps the isolation of Ithaca has prevented biographers from bringing his success story into the open. One thing seems plausible: Archie may talk a lot to homely girls, but Wood is a much better quarterback. After all, anyone who can defeat Princeton all by himself must have a lot going for him.

Other Ivy schools, while not blessed with such great personages, have tried the same approach. The Brown situation seems to be neatly summed up by just mentioning Jim Dunda, the "surprising" sophomore quarterback who has almost made football respectable in Providence.

Yale, which lacks a lot of things, also seems to lack a big name star, and that may be its problem this year.

Harvard, as usual, is a special case. It is not that we do not have fine boys on our team who are also good football players--we obviously do. The problem is that no one has been able to sparkle in an overtly obvious way.

Mike Bassett, while he is no Wood or King, is a pretty fair quarterback. He did lead the team to the Ivy Co-Championship last year as a sophomore, and this season he seems to be directing the Crimson to another late surge. Bassett, however, does things like hand-off to other players, and he is not a great passer. This automatically removes him from the glamor-boy race.

Bill Grana, I suspect, is every bit as good a student and as pleasant a person as Archie if not more so. He is also one of the best football players in the League. But, Grana, who makes as many contributions to the team with his superb blocking as with his ball carrying, lacks the celebrity aura.

As with many things, Harvard seems to be a last stronghold of sanity in the League. Hopefully the other schools (or at least the sports writers) will return to a team approach. In the long run it's much more sensible, and much healther