THE PEOPLES' CHOICE

With the resignation of Eddie Casey as head coach of Harvard football, the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports is confronted with the immediate problem of selecting a coach to fill the position now left vacant.

Two courses lie open to the Committee. It can step outside of the present coaching ranks and bring in a newcomer as the guiding light of the Crimson's football forces next fall. Or it can select one of the men who have served under Casey in a subordinate position. Those are the alternative solutions.

There seems to be little doubt but that Harvard's next head football coach will not be a Harvard graduate. Only in football does the precedent of a Harvard graduate remain. There is, at present, no available Harvard man qualified to assume the position as head coach.

If the Committee decides to follow the first possible choice--that of going outside of its coaching staff in a search for a head coach it will mean an entirely reorganized set-up, from the lowliest Freshman line coach to the very top. No self-respecting and capable coach would accept the position at Harvard without this concession. It would mean that the Committee could expect to have little voice in the matter of the choice of assistant coaches. It would present the possibility of a coach--perhaps Freshman coach, or perhaps Jayvee--who was ill-adapted to the Harvard attitude toward football.

The Committee might be forced to resort to that policy, if there were no one on the present coaching staff who could be regarded as a potential head coach. However, there is a general feeling that Harvard now has such a man on its staff.

From an informal canvass of football players, it is quite evident that they believe that the next head coach can be found in the present coaching staff. The players feel that Adam Walsh is capable of holding down the position, and that he deserves serious consideration by the Committee.

CRIMSON representatives, and many others who have watched the team in its practices and games this season are likewise convinced that Harvard need not risk the dangers of "block-booking," to which it most certainly would be exposed if a new coaching staff were imported. The CRIMSON has no intention of acting as campaign manager for any coach who aspires to the vacant post. It speaks merely to express what appears to be the consensus of opinion among players and followers of the team.

To no one is the choice of the next head coach more important than to the men who play the game of football at Harvard. The students and graduates, who purchase tickets are entitled to consideration. But the opinion of the men who are most intimately connected with Harvard football--the players themselves--should be taken into account. They feel that a man who was worked with them this past season; who has watched them develop as football players; and who knows their capabilities will have a greater chance of success than an outsider, who may be brought to Harvard from another college to take over the work. They feel that Adam Walsh has the ability and the personality and the qualities of leadership to direct their play on the football field next fall.

Walsh's dynamic personality was one of the outstanding features of the Harvard coaching corps this past autumn. He developed a strong rush line from material that, at the start of the season was acknowledged to be green and unseasoned. His work and proved ability, coupled with the desires of the men who played under him to a trial of at least a year. If the experiment is not a success, it will then be time for Harvard to weigh the advantages of a clean sweep at Soldiers Field.