UPON TRANSFERRING TO HARVARD in the fall of 1969, I went to visit "Honest Yovy" to tell him that I wanted to play football for Harvard. I showed Yovicsin my scrapbook from Drake to let him know that I was a football "super nigger". He asked me why I left Drake. I told him that I had had racial difficulties at Drake--that the coaches disapproved of my politics, heard and dress. Yovicsin assured me I would have no such difficulties of that nature at Harvard. Then he proceeded to tell me "some of my best friends are colored".

Yovicsin told me that he "even" had a "colored friend who was a psychiatrist", and that during his athletic career he had played on many teams with "colored boys". At Harvard, he said, some of his best players had been "colored boys". He then told me how he was sure I would like Harvard football and attending the school. After Yovicsin finished telling me about his "colored boys" and "colored friends" I asked him if it would be possible for me to meet the other coaches. He said it would, and directed me to the other side of the IAB where his assistant coaches had their offices.

The first coach I met was Jimmy Feula. Jimmy's scalp-revealing crewcut and voice reminded me of Gomer Pyle's sergeant. This was understandable, however; as I later found out. Feula had had a long Army career. After nearly breaking my hand with his handshake and a few minutes of small talk. Jimmy too asked me why I had left Drake. I repeated much of what I had previously said to Yovicsin. Then Feula told me how "fair and honest" he was and how he had had "many great colored guys" play for him at Harvard. After talking with "fair and honest" Jimmy, I went next door to meet the backfield coach, Tommy Stephens. Tommy also had a close crewcut, As I entered Stephen's office, he removed his feet from his desktop and stood up to shake my hand. Tommy told me that Yovy had just called him to say I was coming over. As he puffed on his cigar, he asked me how much I weighed, the times in which I had run the 40- and 100-yard dash, and what positions I had played. I told him I weighed 210 pounds, had been timed at 4.7 seconds in the 40-yard dash at Drake, and had run a 9.9 hundred as a senior in high school. I told him I had played halfback and fullback at Drake.

Stephens had me fill out a football form which inquired about my previous athletic career and asked the questions he had already asked. As I went about completing the form I noticed that Stephens was studying me, my clothes and the medallion around my neck. He seemed fascinated by my appearance.

When I handed Tommy the completed form, he asked me how I could get a football helmet on "with that beard". I told him I didn't think I would have any problems. He then looked down at my Navy surplus bellbottom trousers and asked me if I had been in the Navy. I answered, "no". Then he said, "Well, why then do you wear those weird clothes?"

I told Stephens that I was sorry he didn't like my clothes, but that I liked them and they were all that I could afford. I told him that if he had an aversion to what I was wearing. I would gladly go with him to J. Press or Saks Fifth Avenue--which were nearby--and wear anything he bought for me. Tommy asked me if I was "some kind of a wise guy". I said that I wasn't, but that I didn't think looks had anything to do with the way a man played football. Stephens replied. "Here in the Ivy League we like our players to be cleancut and respectable."

Leaving Stephens's office I began to walk down the hallway and passed a red, white and blue sign on a door which read. "America, love it or leave it". As I left the IAB I questioned if coming to Harvard had been the right move. I wondered if I had escaped anything at all.

DURING THE YEAR I met the rest of "Fair Harvard's" coaching staff and found them all to be of a similar nature to Yovicsin, Feula and Stephens. In the spring. I reported for Harvard's day of football where the newcomers to the Varsity are timed, and run through drills. I ran a 4.8 in the 40-yard dash. The other halfback prospects--Ted DeMars and Richie Gatto--ran the same time for the 40. But at 210 pounds I was larger than both, outweighing DeMars by 15 pounds and Gatto by 35 pounds. I was pleased with my time because I had been away from football for three years and was not in the playing condition I had planned to be in the following fall. The only thing that gave me cause for concern was the obvious difference in the way the coaches were favoring the white players as opposed to the blacks. Attention seemed to be focused on Gatto, DeMars and Eric Crone in particular. Black players like Rod Foster, Bill Craven, and myself seemed to receive little notice, and in many cases, blacks were totally overlooked.

Before I left for summer vacation in 1970. Ralph Jelic, the defensive coach who was the only coach who had spoken to me regularly during the year, asked me "what was going to happen in Chicago over the summer". I asked him what he meant. He said, "You know. Do you think there's going to be any trouble?" I asked him what he meant by trouble. He replied. "Are there going to be any riots or demonstrations?" I told him I didn't know. Then he said, "Well, if there in, I hope they let the police and the National Guard use their bullets and beyonets." I went home wondering what horrors lay in store for me in my upcoming season of Harvard football.

When I returned in the fall for football camp, I found myself as a fifth-string halfback. I was not surprised. I expected to be there because I had not played at Harvard and it wouldn't have been fair to place me above players who had proved themselves here. Still I knew that physically I had shown just as much, if not more, than the other new candidates at the halfback position.

Pete Varney, the huge All-Ivy tight end, was at the first string halfback position. Watching Varney going through drills made me wonder why they had ever switched him from tightend to halfback, and why, being new to the position, he was automatically given a first-string position. The coaches now more than in the spring were favoring certain white players, especially seniors. Seeing Varney, a senior, at halfback, and watching what appeared to be a deliberate passing over of more suitable players for first-string positions. I began to question the judgement and ability of Yovicsin and his staff.

Harvard's football camp was incredibly lax and low-key. It was nothing like the brutal, competitive camps I had been through at Drake and in high school. I couldn't believe that I was preparing to play college football. Drake's workouts were long and hard. Everyone was out to knock the hell out of each other, and to win someone else's position. I knew things would be easier at Harvard but not as easy as I found. Yovicsin seemed to be running a "gentleman's" workout as opposed to the do-or-die competition I had come to know. There was no way, really, to beat out a player ahead of you, and it appeared as though the coaches had structured it that way.

STILL I KEPT TRYING and eventually moved up to a third-string halfback position. Rod Foster and Bill Craven also moved up. Foster was alternating with Eric Crone for the first-string quarterback position and Craven was now a third-string flanker. Stephens, the backfield coach, continued to show no appreciation for my talents and hustle. Many players like Tom Miller and Varney would walk through plays and rarely went all out in drills. That would have never been tolerated from any player at Drake. Miller and Varney felt safe doing so because it was obvious to them and to everybody else that they had the positions won from the outset of camp.

Yovicsin, I found out, was derisively called "YoYo" by the players. Both the players and coaches considered him to be the laughing stock of the camp. One day Yovicsin called me into his office and told me that Stephens had suggested that I be moved to defensive end. That I was the only backfield man who had the "size, strength and agility" to shift to that position from the backfield. I asked Yovicsin why, if Stephens could see that I possessed these qualities, that they could not best be utilized at a halfback position. After establishing the record I did as a halfback at Drake, I asked why was I even being considered for any other position? And why was I not being given a sincere opportunity to beat out the other halfbacks? I admitted that my blocking was a little off and I was having some difficulty adjusting to a new system, but I said that if I was given a fair chance to carry the ball more and learn the plays, I was sure that eventually I would prove myself to be the best halfback.

Yovicsin didn't even pause to consider my questions. He just told me that if I wanted to make a "contribution to the team," I should move to defensive end. Reluctantly, I agreed to do so. Throughout the previous year. Stephens and I had exchanged many harsh words. I knew he hated my guts and I'm sure he knew the feeling was mutual. I was not surprised to learn that he had been the one coach strongly recommending my removal to defense--away from him.