SCRIBE BOOSTS CRIMSON FOR ROSE BOWL GAME

Bill Bingham handed me a clipping yesterday that I am sure would be of interest to everyone who has watched this year's great Harvard team develop during the past month and a half into the leading eleven in New England and I'll pass it on to you first hand--

"Nomination for Eastern team in the next Rose Bowl game: HARVARD.

"Well, why not? Sure, Harvard has been defeated, so has Stanford and Harvard is improving faster than any other team in the East, while the other big once are fading away, except Notre Dame and Minnesota which are out of the Rose Bowl picture anyhow. The way the Lone Star State teams are behaving, anything may happen in Texas before they clean up their regular schedules. Harvard would certainly satisfy any scholastic scruples Stanford might feel about an opponent. Moreover, Harvard has been here once, so that disposes of the matter of precedent smashing. Rah for HAR-VARD!"

The article went on from there to discuss the chances of Fordham's traveling west for the Yule holidays--and gave the definite impression that teams of the present Fordham or old-time Pittsburgh type were no longer welcome in the Rose Bowl.

Yes, Harvard did participate at one time in the Rose Bowl. It was after the 1919 undefeated season that the Crimson eleven went West to defeat Oregon 7 to 6 on New Year's Day in 1920.

Although the Harvard team was not beaten in nine games that fall, it was probably not a great Harvard eleven. There were only two tough opponents on the schedule--Yale and Princeton. The rest of the lineup was as follows: Bates, Boston College (before Leahy), Colby, Brown, Virginia, Springfield, and Tufts. Brown held the Rose Bowl winners to seven points and Yale lost by only a narrow 10 to 3 margin. The Princeton Tigers put the only blot on the 1919 record when they held the Crimson to a 10 to 10 tic.

Practice for that Rose Bowl game against Oregon started about December 1. It is described at length by Robert Fisher '12 in "The II Book of Harvard Athletics" an almanac of Harvard grid, crew, baseball history published by the Varsity club in 1923.

"At first we worked out in the stadium," Fisher writes, "but the ground was frozen so hard that most of the men were bothered with sore feet, and the weather was so cold that it was impossible for anyone to keep his hands warm enough to handle the ball.

"Consequently we asked permission to use the Commonwealth Armory and practiced there daily until we left for Pasadena on December 20--the first day of the Christmas holidays. There was no scrimmaging of any kind from the day of the Yale game until the start of the Oregon contest.

"We arrived in Pasadena on December 26 and started at our practice twice daily. We soon found that all the men were losing weight because of the excessive heat--so we cut it down to one workout a day.

Bowl Opponent Confident

"Fortunately New Year's day was a little cooler--about 70 degrees in the shade. It was evident from the start that the Oregon eleven had every confidence of winning--and all through the first quarter things looked Blue for Harvard as the Steers went for long gains on their famous 'Are you hurt?' play. On the second play of the quarter Oregon made their first score on a drop-kick from the 15 yard line, but they didn't hold the lead for very long as the Harvard team fought right back and F. C. Church '21, running as hard as any halfback could run, dashed around short end and carried the ball for a touchdown after which Arnold Horween kicked the goal."

The Crimson team managed to hold on to its slim lead throughout the second half, although the Steers came back and added three points with another field goal making the final score 7 to 6.

Three years later--in 1923--post season games of the Rose Bowl type were relegated to the ash can as far as Harvard is concerned. In that year President Lowell got together with the respective presidents of Princeton and Yale and the result was the birth of the notorious Three Presidents' Agreement.

That contract (which, incidentally, I understand has not been signed by President Conant or either of the present heads of Yale and Princeton) was an effort by the Big Three to remove the grave over-emphasis that was being put on college football at the time.

It was aimed particularly at prosolyting and subsidization, but one of the clauses read as follows: "There shall be no post-season contests for the purpose of settling sectional or intersectional supremacy." According to Bill Bingham, that clause is still binding, and still as prohibitive as its authors originally meant it to be.