A crew that has been called the greatest ever assembled, races Yale at New London Saturday in the climax to a big week of sports for Harvard teams.

In other events, the Crimson baseball team faces Yale at Soldiers Field Wednesday afternoon, and eight members of the Heptagonal champion track team travel to Berkeley, Calif., for the NCAA track and field championship.

But most eyes will be on the Harvard eight, prohibitive favorites in the 100th renewal of the Harvard-Yale regatta, America's oldest college sports rivalry.

The crew that has smashed records for the Charles and Lake Carnegie courses is in excellent shape for its meeting with a Yale eight that still has not reached top form this year. The Elis lost two early-season races, won only one, and failed to reach the finals of the Eastern Sprints, Harvard won the Sprints by a record margin and led Yale in the morning heat by three-and-a-half lengths.

Standard Shell

Harvard will be racing in the standard American Pocock shell instead of the Swiss Stamlli it has used in all but one of its races this year. The Pocock will be rigged in the German style, however, with the two, four, five, and seven oars on the starboard side.

The Swiss shell is being shipped to England for use at the Grand Challenge Regatta at Henley, perhaps an indication of coach Harry Parker's confidence about the Yale race.

Eli coach Jim Rathschmidt still Isn't certain which eight men will row for him. Injuries and Illnesses--three men became sick on the morning of the Sprints-have forced Rathschmidt to juggle his boat all season long.

The baseball team, like the crew, has already beaten Yale once. That came on May 15 when Jim McCandlish, a left handed sophomore, pitched the Crimson to a 3-1 win over the Elis.

This year's Harvard team, however, isn't the same as the one last year's reunion class saw hammer out a 3-2 win over the Bulldogs in a game called after six innings on account of rain. That team won 21 games, lost two and tied one, and went undefeated in Eastern League play, for Harvard's best baseball record in 80 years.

Not Last Year

But the pitcher who won that game, Paul Del Rossi, has graduated into the Yankee farm system. Del Rossi, who compiled a 29 % record in three seasons of pitching, beat Yale five times in a row after losing one game to the Elis. McCandlish's win in April has given Harvard a six-game win streak.

This year's Crimson team has a 6-4 Eastern League record and was 10-9 overall. The team tied for first in the Greater Boston League.

The track team, undefeated in dualmeet competition, won the Heps in a runaway and took third place in the ICIA Games--the Eastern championship--although only eight runners could make the trip in mid-exam period.

Croasdale Took Third

The best for a championship among those traveling to Berkeley for the NCAA's is Tony Lynch, IC4A champion in the low hurdles. Tony's 61.6 clocking was the best in the East until Larry Livers of Villanova sped to a record 61.0 in winning the U.S. Track and Field Federation Meet in California Saturday. But Livers has never beaten Lynch over the low hurdles, and it's notorious that Eastern runners improved their times on fast surface Western tracks. Lynch's best low hurdle time, for instance, was his 51.4, good for fifth place in last year's NCAA's.

Art Croasdale, Harvard's captain, took a third place in that meet at 189 ft., 10 in., then the best throw of his life. 189 feet might not even win a place this year; seven hammer throwers have gone over 190 feet, and one, Alex Schulten of Bowdoin, reached 202 ft., 4 1/2 in.

But Croasdale had improved too, and if he equips his season's best, 194 ft., 5 in., he'll be in contention.

Sprinter Wayne Andersen reached the semifinals of the NCAA indoor 60-yard dash, but he still hasn't hit his peak outdoors. He has run the 100 yard dash in 9.6 and 9.7 with the aid of slight following winds. In the IC4A finals, however, he tripped at the start, and finished last, leaving his official best time at 9.8.

Chris Parade was another place winner in last year's NCAA's, when he high-jumped 6 ft., 10 1/2 in, and took fourth place. Pardee injured his ankle this winter and didn't jump outdoors until May, however. His best effort this spring has been 6 ft., 9 in.

Discus thrower John Bakkensen has won the IC4A title for the last two years and holds the Harvard record at 179 ft., 9 in. With Texas A & M's Randy Matson out of the meet with a pulled muscle, a throw in the mid-180's could win for Bokkensen.

Walt Hewlett, a mercurial distance runner who has lost only one dual-meet race in his life but who sometimes collapses in big meets, will run in the sixmile. Hewlett was fifth in last fall's NCAA cross-country championship and 21st is the Boston Marathon.

The other two Harvard entries will be 220-yard runners Mike Hauch and Joe Sam Robinson. Hauck won the Heps championship in a record 22.1 around a curve. Robinson has run a 21.4 on a straightaway.