Freshman Coach Lamar Molds Crimson Gridmen

When Hal Moffle snagged a Jim Kenary forward and scooted 30 yards to set up Harvard's first win in a month Saturday, the coaching prowess of Freshman mentor Henry Nicholson Lamar as well as that of Dick Harlow came in for a put on the back. For the Kenary-Moffie combo first clicked in last Fall's yarding eleven, which catapulted a record seven players to this year's Varsity ranks.

To Lamar, that tall Southern gentleman who exhorts his charges with an intense, pleasant voice blending a Dixie drawl and Bostonian, it is that kind of exhibition that makes his task worthwhile. "It's a tremendous thrill to see the boys you've coached as Freshmen make good," he beams. An unusually high percentage of Lamar-coached footballers have received letters in their sophomore year.

Born in Washington, D. C., Lamar first broke into the athletic world as a high school senior, when in 1925 he won the A.A.U. junior light-heavyweight boxing title. That fall he entered the University of Virginia.

Sticks to Ring...

At Charlottesville, he joined the Freshman grid squad, but his chief interest lay with boxing. "Just to see if he could do it again," he entered the A.A.U. tournament once more and "did it again" by copping the National Open Championship.

On the Virginia Varsity, coached by Earl "Greasy" Neal, Lamar was "just one of the boys" in the line, doing most of his work at tackle. The Virginia team, unlike today's Cavaliers, were "an average squad" that tied Princeton once while Lamar was in the line.

Lamar received a degree in Architectural Engineering in 1929 "which I never used." A heavyweight then, he turned pro and won his first bout which was all he had intended to fight.

It was 30 fights and two years later, however, before Lamar hung up his gloves. In the interim he defeated all but one of his opponents, and in 1930 was considered one of the ten top heavyweights in the nation.

Succeeds Conley...

In the fall of 1931, L. J. Conley, Harvard's head boxing coach, died and Lamar came to Cambridge to take his place. He coached the Varsity teams until boxing was abandoned as an intercollegiate sport in 1937, and since then has been teaching ring principles to Harvard pugilists.

Meanwhile, the football department has been keeping him busy in the fall. Although he made his niche on the canvas, his first love is football. "It's a funny thing," Lamar muses, "when I boxed they called me a football player and now that I coach football they call me a boxer."

Before the advent of Harlow, Lamar coached the Freshman line, and in 1935 Harlow shifted him to Jayvee coach. The next year he mentored the Freshman group that included Torby McDonald and Tom Healey, and in '37 was shifted back to the Jayvee post which he held until 1942.

In 1942 Lamar fused the Freshman and Jayvee squads under the wartime rulings that allowed Freshmen to play on Varsity teams, and when Harlow joined the Navy in 1943, Lamar enjoyed two years as head coach of the highly informal eleven. Last year, after more time working with the Varsity line, he returned to his Freshman job. Today, he has been at Harvard longer than any other football coach.

As might be expected from a dozen years of association, Lamar is an ardent disciple of Dick Harlow. "I learned most of my football around here with Dick," he declares and even during his two year wartime stint as head coach, he still considered himself an assistant carrying out the master's principles.

Aids Varsity Also...

As such, he is a vital part of the whole football picture, scouting for the Varsity with the rest of Harlow's assistants and working out the Varsity line in spring practice. But Lamar is still happiest sorting the varied grid talents which confront him each September and melting them down into a Harvard team.

In his eyes, the most important phase of Freshman coaching is "getting the boys into the system of football that the Varsity will play," and making sure that none of his charges fall by the academic wayside.

More interested in his Freshmen as individuals than as holders of high school records, the coach "goes to them first," rather than waiting until some dejected Yardling comes to him with a note from University Hall in his hand. Last year, not one player was put on probation, a phenomenal record considering the number of hours per week a football player spends on Soldiers Field.

Fundamentals...

In the football teaching department, Lamar believes proper blocking and tackling to be of the essence, and holds that position is the vital factor. "If you can teach a man position, the man can do the rest of it if he wants to play. Knowing how to play a man, knowing angles of pursuit and angles of power are very important."

Timing, or leading for a tackle, is difficult to teach, Lamar maintains. "Like shooting at a moving target," it has to come more or less naturally. "Some men have it, and some don't."

Quarterbacking, Lamar believes, is the most difficult job on a team. He lets his quarterbacks call most of the plays from the field, sending in instructions occasionally. "A quarterback has to know every assigment on the team and must decide how to capitalize on defensive weaknesses."

Offensive power depends on "how hard and fat the team runs," Lamar continues, pointing out that this includes interference as well as ball carriers. Constant running is the only way to acquire this power, he claims and so his teams seldom move from one field to another at a walk.

Each Freshman practice session concludes with the backfield racing up and down the length of the practice field three or four times and the linemen pushing Lamar and an assistant around on the dummy blocking frame to avoid the natural practice "slump off."

A Family Man...

Back in 1931 Lamar married a Radcliffe alumna and now has two daughters, rapid Harvard fans, at home in Belmont. In '37 he found time to go to B. U. Law school at night but did not complete the course.

The six-foot boxer, footballer, and swimmer who likes basketball and goes skiing on winter weekends, regrets that he has no time now to finish his law. "I don't think I'd ever use it, but I'd sure like to do some more studying there."