Navy Rooting Section Offers Unique Exhibition of Card Stunts for Today

All week there has been an unusual demand at the H. A. A. ticket office for tickets on the Harvard side, and the Harvard side only. Offers of seats on the Navy forty-yard line have been refused in favor of the goal line on the Crimson side.

This sudden surge of loyalty to Dick Harlow's squad is not explained entirely by their improved work the last two games. There is a baser reason than that. For it develops that the football fans are eager to see the famed Navy card stunts, the like of which hasn't been displayed in Soldiers Field within the memory of oldest observers.

A common way of passing the 15-minute interval between halves at Pacific Coast football classics, the card stunts are a comparative rarity in the East, and Navy boasts the most proficient set of colored card spinners cast of the Mississippi.

The stunts, for the benefit of the uninitiated, are conducted in the following manner. Each Middie is given a set of colored cards with detailed instructions, worked out in advance, as to what color he is to display when the cheer leader displays a number.

When the number is displayed, each member of the rooting section holds up the proper colored card just under his eyes and the entire section (if every Middie has carried out his assignment) presents a colored pictorial representation of some familiar face, scene, or some lively sentiment, calculated to arouse friendly feeling on the opposite side of the stadium.

Usually an afternoon's entertainment consists of eight or nine separate stunts, generally accompanied by suitable cheers. The machinations of the Navy rooting section, are naturally visible only from the Harvard side. Those behind the goals just get a confused impression of changing color, and those on the Navy side see only the cards being turned. So until the H. A. A. teaches the Crimson cheering section to flip cards as well as they glide paper airplanes into the end zones, there will always be a great demand for Harvard side seats, and a great void on the opposite side as long as the Harlowmen meet teams whose followers spin cards.

Nor will this be the only attraction provided by the Naval Academy. Over 1150 Middles will march into the Yard at about 11.15 o'clock, and then after lunch at the Union, they will follow the same line of march that the Army did. That is, down De Wolfe Street, across the Weeks Bridge and into the Stadium at 1.15 o'clock. Only 20 minutes has been assigned for manouvering on the field.