Athletic Facilities Open to Freshman

An athletic plant of the first magnitude will be open to incoming Freshmen this fall in Harvard's 60 acre establishment, comprising 21 competently coached sports.

Dillon Field House, with its ample locked facilities and static gymnasium, is the center of fall athletic activity.

Over a hundred Yearlings respond each year to football coach Skip Stahley's "Come one, come all" invitation. After a few days of conditioning and drilling in fundamentals beneath the warm gun on Soldiers Field, the first squad is selected, the remainder being shunted into Clark Hodder's experienced bands. The first squad's schedule includes top-notch prep-school elevens and several college first-year teams.

Other Fall Sports

Soccer enthusiasts kick the ball around across the street on the Business School fields, under the direction of John McDonald. This sport offers the beginner a good opportunity to earn his Yearling numerals, as few veterans report.

Leather-lunged Yardlings range the length of Soldiers Field Road fall afternoons with Jaako Mikkola, sturdy Crimson track coach, cracking the whip. Others, not seeking numerals, engage in informal track practice under Bill Neufeld.

Long-limited, long-sinewed crew men row during the fall and winter to develop form and stamina for the gruelling spring schedule. When ice-breaking becomes too hazardous for the frail prows of the Crimson shells, Coaches Harvey Love and Bert Haines bring their charges indoors in Newell to practice in the tank.

On and in the Water

Despite the preponderance of veteran material, beginners try out and often comprise a substantial percentage of the top Freshman boats. Crew is the sport most often associated with Harvard.

For those less team minded, there is Weld Boat House with its wherries, camps, and singles. Expert Blake Denison is on hand to coach the landlubber. This sport, less popular in the short, often frigid aurum season, comes into its own in the spring.

Whether they like to get wet or not, incoming Freshmen have to swim two lengths of the 75-foot pool. Failure to do this by the Senior year means no A.B. degree. The pool, one of the fastest in the country, is open during the whole school year, with the team, coached by Larry Peterson, operating during the winter.

Winter Facilities

Another perennial favorite is tennis, coached by Jack Barnaby in the spring. Limited facilities for indoor tennis are available to the winter. Freshman tennis courts are located on Soldiers Field.

With the approach of winter, the $1,200,000 indoor Athletic Building teams with the exception of hockey crew, squash, skiing, and riflery center there.

Above the pool are located three basketball courts, which can be converted into indoor tennis courts. Skip Stahley will direct the '43 dribblers, and the odds are that he will held another fine team.

Pat Johnson shows the boys how to tie each other into pretzels in the wrestling room. For those who follow the physical contact sports, this provides an opportunity to develop muscle and bodily coordination, and to engage in intercollegiate competition.

Nearby, Henry Lamar sends his eager boxing recruits through their paces. Lamar is a popular coach; boxing, though intramural, is a popular sport.

"Stand Up Straight"

Calisthenics attracts a good number of men. This form of exercise is well-suited to the needs of the lab man, who can make the 5 o'clock classes. Corrective exercises, despite the stigma of the name, are often enjoyable, and many men continue to do them long after their defective condition--usually posture is removed.

Epee, foil, and sabre flash under the supervision of Rene Peroy, coach of fencing. Owing to the lack of experienced material in the first-year class, the beginner often makes the team.

Squash, under the direction of Jack Harnaby, is one of the top winter sports. The Linden Street courts are open to Freshmen, who may make, any of the four teams. Providing all-around exercise in a relatively short time, squash plays an important part in House athletics.

Hockey, Track, Skiing

Freshman hockey, last year under Al Dewey, benefits this year from the beginning of the season from the rink at the nearby Boston Skating Club, located west of Soldiers Field on Soldiers Field Drive.

Meanwhile, in glass-roofed Briggs Cage, Jaako Mikkola and Bill Neufeld speed their large Freshman track squad through its routine, as the long season officially begins.

Skiing, with no official coach, and Riflery, conducted under the ROTC, complete the winter sports roster.

Young Men's Fancy

Dillon comes into its own with the coming of spring, as baseball, track, lacrosse, spring football, and tennis headquarter there.

Intramural athletic director and ex-Harvard athlete Adolph Samborski coaches the Yardling baseball team.

The Stadium now echoes with Jaako's barked commands as trackmen eat up lap after lap, having deserted the hot-house atmosphere of Briggs Cage for the cold oval.

Three heavies and two 150's are selected from the Freshman crew squad soon after the leg breaks up on the Charles. There are other crews, called divisionals, but they are primarily class crews, and therefore unofficial.

Spring Grid Practice

Spring football annually draws many of the gridmen from the fall's Freshman squad. Varsity Coach Dick Harlow now takes charge of 1943.

Butterfly chasing is an official minor sport at Harvard in the form of lacrosse. The squad is composed of soccer players who, armed with a new weapon, chase the pellet about the Business School Field.

Clark Hodder, fresh from coaching varsity hockey, turns in the spring to another specialty of his, golf. The squad practices at nearby courses, the University maintaining no private links.

Polo, under Major Sargent, swimming, a gle sculling, and tennis complete the list of spring sports, in all of which Freshmen may participate.

In addition, there is a well-organized program of dormitory athletics, running throughout the year, affording to the less experienced a chance to meet their classmates and have fun and exercise.

Making Your "1943"

Major numerals are awarded in football, basketball, baseball, crew, hockey, swimming, track, and cross country. Minor numerals in soccer, swimming, lacrosse, tennis, golf, polo, track, wrestling, squash, 150-lb crew, fencing, cross country, and skiing.

Although there is no charge during the Freshman year for the use of the vast athletic facilities, Freshmen must take some form of regular exercise three times a week. For the same privilege, upperclassmen must pay $10.

Harvard's Freshman teams range in such a manner that there is a place for beginners as well as veterans.