WARNS AGAINST OVER CONFIDENCE TODAY

This afternoon Harvard and Yale will play their 40th annual football match. It will refresh the memories of older graduates to look back over the scores of those years and it will make undergraduates who did not see or read of those games realize that in that long stretch of years Yale has displayed an almost astounding superiority.

The number of games won by Yale as compared to those won by Harvard should certainly disperse the great wave of over confidence which, since the Princeton-Yale game has swept over Harvard graduates and undergraduates alike.

Anyone who knows the detailed storeis of those Harvard-Yale games will testify that when these two ancient rivals clash upon the gridiron, respective season's records, betting odds, and dope must be absolutely disregarded.

Too many Harvard teams have gone into the final game of the season, picked to win upon the season's record, only to find that Yale had reserved her best for Harvard, playing even beyond the expectations of the Yale coaches themselves.

I am not a pessimist with regard to Harvard's chances today. I recognize that Harvard has a better record for the season; that Harvard has shown a more consistent and better developed offense than Yale; that Yale displayed noticeable weaknesses against Princeton both in generalship, team play and individual performance. On the other hand I cannot overlook the fact that, in the Princeton game, Yale got a great deal of bad football out of her system and learned lessons which will not permit of the repetition of these errors in her final game of the season; that the individuals including substitutes who will face Harvard today are superior physical specimes, possessed of power and determination, with their backs against the wall, with everything to win and nothing to lose, and that the likelihood of a wet field is a more serious disadvantage to the team with the more highly developed offense.

I expect Harvard to win and I confidently believe that Harvard has the power and the ability to win, but I am certain that Harvard cannot win unless they play superior football beyond what they have yet displayed. This will require not only the same grim determination that has characterized the play of recent Harvard elevens but also the absolute support of graduates and undergraduates alike in the realization that Yale can only be beaten by Harvard's best football.