Yardling Grid Series With Exeter Temporarily Halted

Exeter, long a traditional rival of the freshman football team, does not appear on the Yardlings' schedule this year, and will bot for the next few years, Martin L. Souders, Athletic Director at Exeter, revealed yesterday.

At Andover, meanwhile, Athletic Director Edward Shea said that Andover would continue to play the freshman eleven. The Yardlings usually open their season against Andover. This year the Blue will play college freshman teams exclusively, with the exception of the traditional Exeter game.

"For the at few years," said Souders, "freshman teams from such major colleges as Harvard and Yale have been bigger and heavier than any teams which we could field. We have been forced, for purely physical reasons, to try to narrow the gap between our teams an dour opponents' squads.

"We dropped the Yale freshmen form our schedule last year, in keeping with this policy. Our 1950 opponents include freshman teams from smaller college like Bowdoin, Williams, Tufts, and New Hampshire; teams more nearly in our physical class." Souders emphasized that the break did not extend to sports other than football. He added that Yardling and Exeter football teams might meet again in two or three years.

"Exeter has much in common with Harvard," he said. "We have had a long relationship which we hope to and want to continue."

Souders explained that Exeter was not in any way trying to de-emphasize football.

"Formerly," he said, "we used to have a great many boys who were the physical equals of almost any freshman team. Now, we find a large number of our boys graduate when they are 17; or barely 18. When we get back to a physical par with the freshmen, we will be able to play any freshman teams.