Standing in the large--very large--shadow of Harvard boxer Doug Clarke, it's hard to believe what he says.

He insists that he won the super heavyweight division of the local Golden Gloves tournament this past Spring with his quickness and agility, but at 6'3', 220 lbs., the Eliot senior seems disingenuous in describing himself as "not very powerful."

"[Harvard Boxing Club Coach] Tommy Rawson was a great lightweight himself, so he's always taught us a quick style of fighting," Clarke says. "I beat other guys because I can dance, move, you know--do things other heavyweights usually don't.

You don't feel entirely comfortable disagreeing with the sturdily-built Clarke, so his words pass at face value.

Okay how about an easy question for this year's president of the Harvard Boxing Club. What's the club really like?

"Well boxing is not a very PC sport," Clarke begins. "It's a little too violent for Harvard's tastes, and so the University doesn't really like us."

He speaks fluidly and with candor, and there isn't even a sliver of personal animosity in his voice, but it's easy to detect the contempt with which Clarke views Harvard's institutional opinion of boxing.

"Boxing's been around a long time and is rally popular, and we have a great coach in Tommy, but if [Harvard] had a chance, they'd wipe us out," he says.

The club is not allowed to participate in any actual competitions out-side of Harvard. Clarke's individual exploits began on his own initiative.

As a junior, the Massachusetts native entered himself in the novice division of the local Golden Gloves tournament. He easily won the superheavyweight class, and his success encouraged him to quit the Harvard football team, for which he played three seasons.

This past spring, with an entire year of training under his belt, Clarke decided to take a chance and enter the open division of the same Golden Gloves tournament.

It wasn't an easy commitment to make.

"In the open division, you can fight a real stiff, or you might fight an Olympic hopeful," Clarke says.

He weaved his way through a few early matches, winning them all, and found himself in the finals against John Campbell, a "real bruiser with a nasty reputation," according to Clarke.

Despite a howling crowd cheering Campbell on, Clarke managed to box his way to the victory. It was--lest we forget--his quickness that earned him the win.

The quickness, unfortunately, could not prevent a later loss in the New England championships to a nationally-ranked fighter.

Despite the loss, Clarke now views his boxing career as "one of the highlights" of his time at Harvard. He points proudly to his association on with Rawson and with fellow senior Lauren Gwin, the first female vice-president in the boxing club's history.

"I'm not a very profound guy with quotes, but Tommy Rawson has been a real inspiration to me," he says. "Lauren, too. She's worked and worked and done really well in the club."

Clarke will move on next fall to the University of Michigan Law School and perhaps eventually to the FBI, and you sense that Harvard is losing one of its truly unique personalities.

When Clarke drives down Massachusetts Avenue for the last time in his beat-up 1984 Bronco--"a real piece of --," as he describes it--who else will float like a butterfly and string like a bee?