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The Yovicsin Years: Good, Better, Worst

This time, the dream really had ended. The Elis were just too good for Harvard. It was 22-6 at the half, and 29-13 with three-and-a-half minutes left. A couple of moments later. Harvard had scored on an 86-vard drive and had added two points. There were 42 seconds left in which to score eight points.

Frank Champion was throwing the ball, scrambling like a madman. Somehow, Gatto finally caught a touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone as time Tan out. Championship had to do it again, and he did, as Varney grabbed the pass and it was done. One of the most incredible games of all time and, almost incidentally, a third Ivy championship.

Then 1969. Yovicsin had gotten a bit older in recent years, and the enthusiasm which had so characterized him at first, had faded a bit. He and Cramer could not fire up the team, and the material never gelled. Even Yovicsin's heart was telling him that it was about time to do something else.

It's the heart condition which has supposedly ended his career at this point. He was hospitalized for eight days two months ago, for he has never fully recovered from the open heart surgery done in 1965. Yovicsin's medication has brought problems of its own. But it's hard not to speculate on other reasons for his departure.

Yovicsin has earned much of the derision he's received in the last year or so. It seems that the talented players he has helped make so matter-of-fact around here have helped cover up some of his other failings in recent years. But Yovicsin's probably gotten more criticism than he deserves.

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Ten consecutive winning seasons is no small feat, especially when compared to the mediocrity of the past. As Harvard people think excitedly of the next coach, they should remember that even Dartmouth's Bob Blackman produced a loser two years ago- before Yovicsin.

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