The ironies surrounding Jim Curry's departure from Cambridge and the Harvard football team last Wednesday are many.

For one, this is the same Jim Curry who a year ago led the Crimson receivers with 32 catches despite the fact that he missed two games. One of those games was against Boston University, which just happens to be Harvard's opponent today.

Secondly, this is the same Jim Curry whom UMass head coach Dick MacPherson last week classified as being "in a class by himself." Curry's departure was brought about by violations which he committed in the classroom.

Finally, and this is more sad than ironic, this is the same Jim Curry who required more space in Harvard's 1976 football brochure than any other player.

For openers, Curry had the best single game of any receiver in the nation by snagging nine passes for 214 yards against Cornell last October. He led the country in yards per catch, he was the subject of an ABC-TV halftime feature, he also punted and kicked off, and if there is a better athlete in the Ivy League, then that person must also moonlight as the Bionic Man.

Before the season Joe Restic said that he had the potential to be the best wide receiver in Harvard history, so don't kid yourself into thinking that he won't be missed. "Jim Curry will always be missed" Restic said following the UMass game.

Whether he will don his familiar number 89 again next fall remains to be seen, and it's really irrelevant at this point, for even if Curry should return next season, he'll return to a different cast of characters. Those with whom he's been playing for the last three years will have long since departed.

Now if this sounds sort of like anobituary, that's because in a sense it is. As far as the 1976 version of Harvard football is concerned, Jim Curry no longer lives. He was supposed to leave by catching a touchdown pass against Yale in six weeks. Instead he just faded out on an innocuous Wednesday afternoon in September.

For all anyone knows, Jim Curry might just pop up again next fall on national television wearing a Miami Dolphins uniform. He's probably got the talent, and if this season of strange twists of fate is to serve as an indicator of things to come, why not? Anything's possible, as we learned last week.

Anything is indeed possible, as evidenced by the fact that Tom Aronson picked seven winners out of seven in this column last week. In other words, a one-for-six showing wouldn't be too surprising this time around:

COLUMBIA at PENN - The Lions have the momentum, the Quakers do not, but a Columbia victory would mean two successive triumphs this year, and two wins in a row over Penn, and since when does Columbia football ever win two straight of anything. PENN 22, COLUMBIA 19.

BROWN at PRINCETON - A good upset pick here. The game is at Princeton, and the Bruins looked anything but impressive against URI last weekend. But that was last weekend. BROWN 16, PRINCETON 9.

LEHIGH at YALE - I was all set to pick Lehigh until a friend who used to go there transferred to NYU. YALE 26, LEHIGH 20.

CORNELL at RUTGERS - Cornell has lost nine games in a row; if the Big Red doesn't increase that streak to ten, then Lester Maddox will surely be President. RUTGERS 33, CORNELL 12.

DARTMOUTH at HOLY CROSS - If the Big Green is looking too far ahead (let's say, for example, to its games with Yale and Harvard the next two weekends), then the Crusaders could surprise. If not, they could surprise anyway. DARTMOUTH 13, HOLY CROSS 10.

BU at HARVARD - Take that, Peter Brown, Mike Eruzione, the Meagher brothers, and Brian Durocher. HARVARD 40, BU 19.

Last Week: 7-0 (1.000)

Season: 10-1 (.909)