He primarily does advance maintenance work, but during the celebration. Fleming moves into the ring to help the competitors.

And on at least one occasion, and animal got the best of Fleming. A bull rider was sitting in the chute waiting for his turn and his best started thrashing around. When Fleming looked over, the bull had pinned his rider against the back of the chute.

"I thought the guy was going to die, so I tried to pull him out. The guy ended up being fine, but the bull smashed my hand with the side of its head and I needed 20 stitches."

Growing up in the West, Fleming never really thought about coming to Harvard until his senior year at Cheyenne Central when someone suggested that he would make a good candidate for admission.

But the suggestion didn't come until February, so Fleming had to wait a year, which he spent, on the advice of admissions officials, at the prestigious Deerfield Academy.

"The whole thing was kind of shocking. I worked harder there than I've ever worked in my life," he says, recalling his prep school days. "I couldn't believe how fast everyone out here talked, and they all thought I talked funny, with a twang. I guess I picked it up at the rodeo, hanging around all those cowboys."

"We have all these pictures that say Joe in front of Widener Library at age seven or Joe at age eight in front of John Harvard.'" Margolis says. "My did used to take us to foot-ballgames when we came up here, and he always took us to games that Harvard was guaranteed to win, and so I always saw them killing people. I don't think I realized that Harvard had ever lost a football game until I was about 17 to 18."

Ever since he joined the team himself, Margolis has impressed other members of the squad with his drive.

"He has to be the most intense and energetic athlete I've ever seen," says Crimson middle guard Scott Murrer. "But Joe is like two different guys when he approaches a game Monday through Friday, he just works on the game plan, learning a whole new scheme of assignments and then when it comes to Saturday, he has it all learned and he thinks only about peaking at the highest emotional level."

Though they come from different ends of America, and hold down different ends of the line, the pair's styles of play mesh seam lessly, much to the dismay of opposing ball carriers and quarterbacks.

In the Crimson's upset of Holy Cross two weeks ago, the Crusaders had Fleming double teamed most of the afternoon, and yet he still managed to defend his corner and on occasion his lethal pass rush

Meanwhile, Margolis was turning in what his coaches considered Harvard's finest individual defensive effort of the season. He graded out at 97 percent on the films--a figure that linebacker Andy Noian matched in fewer plays but no one has surpassed. And one particular Margolis play that afternoon had Coach Clemens raving.

But the doesn't mean there isn't slight friendly rivalry involved. At the beginning of the season, the two placed a bet on which would finish the year with more tackles, and which would come up with more sacks. A dinner goes to the victor in one category, drinks to the winner in the other.

At this point, Fleming says he has conceded the tackles race to Margolis, but the sacks winner could be determined tomorrow--at Yale quarterback Joe Dufek's expense.