Egg In Your Beer

Aldo T. "Buff" Donelli leaned back expansively in his swivel chair, laced his stubby fingers behind his head, contemplated, something in the vicinity of his belt buckle, and spoke form the right side of his mouth in all seriousness, "Why would I want to fool you fellows? These program weights were all taken last sprig and are about ten pounds more than they should be."

For months now, at the drop of a sportswriter's participle, the diminutive Boston University coach has been singing the "Harvard is out of our class" blues. Crimson musical experts feel that he is slightly out of tune. It isn't that Donelli is not a completely honorable citizen-it is just that they feel that he is not above a small tactical exaggeration.

Donelli likes the label of underdog, and, if he has anything to say about it, that is the tag that his Terriers are going to wear out onto Soldiers Field tomorrow. It is improbable though, that he will find Dick Harlow on the other end of the leash. There are too many gridiron "giants" still shaking the cobwebs from their heads after dismissing Donelli with a paternal pat on the head.

In 1925 a Freshman coach, at Pitt achieved the dubious honor of first underrating Donelli. He told the 155 pound kid from the mill town of Bridgeville. Pennsylvania that he was too small to play football. Buff got a laugh out of recalling the incident in his Newbury street office this week but Pitt grads still shudder when they think of all the football talent that was chased over to their intracity rivals at Duquesne University. The shudders turn into positive symptoms of delerium tremens when they recall the two tremendous upsets that Donelli-coached Duquesne pulled on the then potent Panthers.

The Pitt victories are highspots in a career that has brought Donelli from the freshman coaching spot at Duquesne--a position at that time just slightly less important than an assistant librarian--to the point where he is recognized as one of the game's better creative minds.

While compiling this record Buff became involved in a coaching setup as intricate as any of his winged-T offensive maneuvers. He opened the 1941 season as head coach of both the Duquesne eleven and the professional Pittsburgh Steelers, staying at the head of the pro team until the last game of the season. At that time however when he traveled to the coast to lead the Dukes against St. Mary's, thereby stranding the Steelers in the east, the professionals decided to part ways.

A year later when Duquesne gave up formal football because of the war, Buff moved into the play for pay league once more. He served as an assistant in Brooklyn and then had a successful year as head tutor of the Cleveland Rams. He was drafted into the navy in 1945 and assigned as in instructor in the V-12 unit at Columbia where he helped Lou Little as backfield coach. Last year, after his discharge from the service, Little kept him on as first assistant and indicate that he was slated as the next boss of Morningside Heights.

It is certain that the Boston University offer had to be very attractive to lure Buff away from Columbia. Ominously for Harvard, it is equally certain that when Buff Donelli arrived on the B. U. scene top notch football was only a half step away. Maybe less.