Harvard Cuts 1952 Journeys To Princeton

Harvard will not meet Princeton next season in soccer, squash, wrestling, or fencing, and probably not in baseball, it was learned yesterday. The decision to limit the traditional Big Three rivalry in minor sports came by mutual agreement at the December scheduling conferences. The two schools have faced each other regularly in almost every sport since the mid-1930's.

The move came about in an effort to cut down on expenses in the face of rising deficits and the prospect of reduced incomes and enrollments. "We're all in the same boat," explained William J. Bingham '16, Director of Athletics. "We're being realistic and seeing what can be done to cut back in order to maintain the major sports."

Therefore, all minor sport trips have been dropped except in those cases where Harvard has been committed to visit another school, and vice-versa. Wherever possible, New England teams have been booked to complete minor sport schedules.

The difficulty in meeting Princeton teams is that the distance is too great to drive and play in the same day, necessitating train transporation, which is costly between Cambridge and Nassau.

Harvard's national champion squash team will make only one trip next year-- to West Point. The wrestlers, who defeated Princeton this year for the first time in approximately two decades, will face only New England opponents except for Columbia and Army. Columbia visits the Blockhouse and the Crimson owes the Cadets a match a West Point

According to Princeton's Director of Athletics, R. Kenneth Fairman, the Eastern Soccer League (including the Ivy League teams plus Army and Navy) will be "put on the shelf until we can carry it financially." The Tigers will play only Penn, Navy, and Yale of the league teams and fill out their schedule with local teams such as Rutgers and Lehigh. Most of Harvard's competition will come from New England opponents.

Next year the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League will be divided into northern and southern divisions. The New England teams and Army will comprise the northern group. Since the division winners will not come together in a championship game, the Crimson and Tiger baseball teams will not face each other unless Harvard makes a spring trip and stops at Princeton.

Home-and-Home Series

Harvard will try to schedule home-and-home series with nearby teams like Brown, but it will play a double-header at West Point, and Dartmouth will come here on the same basis.

The Harvard-Yale-Princeton cross-country meet will be continued and an effort will be made to keep the tennis rivalry going. The teams do not meet in lacrosse or track. None of the major sport schedules will be curtailed. Since relatively few schools compete in crew, it would be difficult to cut down here, and the teams will continue to race for the Compton Cup.

Fairman commented that Princeton will still oppose Yale in all sports, although the Tigers plan to travel by bus and car in many instances to cut down travel expenses.

Dartmouth is forcing athletes to buy some of their equipment this spring, a practice which Harvard has followed for a number of years.

"A Crying Shame'

Jack Barnaby, varsity squash coach, commented last night: "This is a crying shame, but naturally I see the point of the authorities. Harvard-Princeton is an extremely cherished rivalry which we would very much like to maintain. Maybe we'll cook up an informal match."

Wrestling coach Bob Pickett reported he had considered trying to fill the open date with Navy, Cornell, or Rutgers but admitted he would run into the same travel difficulties here. Bruce Munro, soccer coach, was not available for comment