The uniforms have escaped the moth balls. And today Harvard athletes escape the realm of the hypothetical for the world it wins and loses.

Joining the gridders in New York, the men's soccer team will also face Columbia, the defending Ivy League champion (sic). Coach George Ford's booters are coming off a disappointing year and will seek to avoid the abysmal start that chilled last year's title hopes.

The women booters, on the other hand, now sit on top of the hill and will spend the year defending their Ivy crown. Thirteen and one last year, the team has lost few to graduation, and rate as favorites for a repeat. First challenger: (non-Ivy) Bowdoin, in a 2 p.m. Soldiers Field encounter.

John Murphy, Thad McNulty and Reed Eichner form the core of the men's cross-country unit, and they will have to register impressive performances if the harriers are to live up to coach Bill McCurdy's glowing forecast. The squad debuts, along with the junior varsity, today at Franklin Park, where it will take on Northeastern at 4 p.m.

New coach Edie MacAusland will lead her field hockey team on its second game today, when Northeastern's stick-women come to Soldiers Field for a 4 p.m. start. In that perennial plaint--endemic to field leaders at Harvard and around the world--MacAusland promises a rebuilding year.