I have to finish this article so I can rush off to see Clinton White speak in Lowell Lac on the so-called Jesus Revolution. Well, actually I'm not really going, but I was almost fooled by the propaganda passed out at the dining hall. In case you failed to get a souvenir copy, the flyer had pictures of four crowded auditoriums, which, after a closer examination, turned out to be two different shots of the same two halls. Jesus, quite deceiving.
When we last left our hero he was talking about the swimming season, remember. As I was saying, the team ended January with a 4-1 record. But after exams Princeton, Penn, and Yale came in rapid succession, and people tried to make me believe that we would lose all three.
Princeton came to Cambridge looking as much like preppies as I used to(sic), yelling and cheering and generally turning everybody off. The Tigers were supposed to run away with the meet. But Harvard, which did a little atypical yelling of its own, made their task a lot more difficult.
Curtis Haydon, Princeton's freshman hotshot, or should I say, hot dog, came into town undefeated in the 500-yd. and 1000-yd. freestyles. He must have felt like a wet noodle when he left, golf hat and all, with two seconds, as Rich Baughman touched him out in the 1000-yd. free, and captain-elect Fred Mitchell bunted him a second time in the 500. Unfortunately Princeton, on the strength of their equally obnoxious divers, won the meet.
After a close call, or should I say, shave, at Cornell, and about three days of solid pinball, the Crimson hosted Penn, a team which much like Harvard's has its head into a lot of different things. The Quakers, who last year won the Eastern League in the regular season and the Easterns in post-season, were hurting. Harvard caught them napping, and, with the help of a bungled Quaker relay, upset them. Typical of the kind of effort that the Crimson displayed all season was their unwillingness to give up when behind. They took three straight sweeps for the come-from-behind victory.
A blasting by a senior-dominated Yale team that, not surprisingly, gets up for Harvard more than any other team, ended the dual-meet season on a somewhat sour note. The best was yet to come.
At the Easterns, well, I've said enough already about them so I won't continue. The team, without a doubt, had a great weekend.
All in all, it was a very successful season for coach Don Gambril. His first year in Cambridge, which must have the weirdest weather in the whole country, should make him forget sunny California, at least until a couple of weeks from now when he goes back to coach his AAU team.
"There wasn't anything we could have done this season that we didn't do," Gambril said Monday. He is the first to admit that this year's team may pale by comparison with the team he will be able to attract to Harvard next year. If this year's freshmen stay out for the squad he may be right.
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