Ten Lettermen Return to Weak Line

If spirit or aggressiveness won football games, Harvard's 1951 linemen might compare favorably with, say, Notre Dame's famed Seven Mules.

Unfortunately, it doesn't and they don't.

A total of ten 1950 line lettermen returning makes it impossible for line coach Ted Schmitt or end coach Joe Maras merely to weed out inexperience--a rife and rampant malady on this fall's squad. These ten, a handful of former substitutes and jayvees, and five promising sophomores must be woven together into a series of well-integrated lines. Lloyd Jordan has his weaving cut out for him.

The losses through graduation--Dike Hyde, Jerry Kanter, Paul O'Brien, Bill Rosenau, and Phil Connelly--hurt, particularly in the middle of the line. Although the 1950 line was offensively nothing to rhapsodic about, defensively, with O'Brien and Phil Isenberg as line- backers, it had a strength through the middle that could in the coming weeks prove lacking to a more or less tragic degree.

The two ends of the front wall are its only reasonably solid points. The 1950 starters of offense, Paul Crowley and Fred Raverby, will both be available this fall. Crowley last year caught 14 passes for a gaining total of 250 yards, and Raverby gathered in an equal number for 218 yards.

Hyde had been used principally as a defensive left end, to relieve Crowley. This season the assignment may fall to six-foot-two Fritx Drill, former junior varsity end, Freshman standout Bill McCourt injured a knee during the summer in California and did not report for the first couple of weeks of fall practice.

Ravreby, who hurled the javelin with the track team at the time of spring practice, injured his hip early in the fall, but did not seem to be seriously slowed. Last spring the vacancy was filled pretty well by junior Hank Rate, an aggressive player who has developed fast since his third-string freshman days. As last year, Rate will see considerable defensive action, at least. Starting '54 freshman Harvey Popell has also presented a tall and talented target in practice. Senior Don Cass, another letterman, was held back by injuries for most of 1950.

The tackle situation, an inside and outside-tackle between the strong-side guard and strong-side end, is less promising. John Nichols and Arnie Horween, weighing a total of 430 pounds, have been running mates in early practice with a tentative first line. Horween, son of the former coach, is the slower and less experienced of the two. Letterman Hank Toepke played more or less regularly last season, and Bernie O'Brien is a fair sophomore prospect.

Huge and strong Bob Stargel received honorable mention in a United Press All-America last year, but his slowness has held him back in fall practice. To bolster the tackle ranks, Dick Heidtmann has been switched from guard, but was put temporarily out of commission by a shoulder injury early this month. Nick Culolias is academically ineligible.

Heidtmann's position as left guard was taken over in early September by Art Pappas, a junior inexperienced in varsity play. Appendicitis pulled Pappas out of pre-season practice last year, and his efforts were confined to kickoffs and jayvee play. Pappas was a fullback with the '53 freshmen, and he may be used as a running guard in some formations. Behind him are former Jayvee Joe Shaw and Si Bunce.

Eli Manos may go both ways at right guard, although Thayer Fremont-Smith, who has never played intercollegiate football, has been impressive on defense.

Of '54 players, guard Jerry Miller has transferred to Ohio, and guard Bob McDowell, end Tom Kennedy, and tackle Bill Frate (220 pounds) are in the Army.

Neither Buddy Lemay nor Red Lewis is a second Paul O'Brien as a center or line-backer, but Lemay alternated with O'Brien last season and, at this writing, seems slightly ahead of the hard-working Lewis for the starting berth. Bainy Frothingham has been having trouble with a trick knee, so 202-pound sophomore Tom Coolidge should see some action.

The 1951 line may do well enough offensively to give fairly effective support to a number of newly-acquired fast backs; but that inhaling sound audible in the stands when Harvard is on defense will be the coaching staff holding its breath