Maryland's Tatum Hits Ivy For Athletic Scholarships

Ivy League alumni are interested in getting athletes, not scholars, Maryland football coach Jim Tatum told the CRIMSON yesterday.

"There is no difference," Tatum said, "between the Ivy League's academic scholarships and the South's athletic scholarships. . .I don't think your alumni are particularly interested in getting academic geniuses. . . ."

Tatum added, "Just check up on the Harvard football team--see how many of the boys on the roster have scholarships. The only difference is, they're not called athletic scholarships.

At a Football Writer's Luncheon Monday in New York, the Terrapin coach opened a large-scale controversy by charging a member of the Big Three with luring a football star off the Louisiana State University campus. The player is Phil Tarasovich, a lineman on the Yale freshman team.

Hall Denial

Eli Athletic Director Robert A. Hall. supported by spokesmen from Columbia, Dartmouth, and Brown, immediately branded as untrue the charges made against Yale and the Ivy schools.

Yesterday, Tatum denied ever having made the statement. He said, however, he strongly objected to having the label of "pro" slapped on his Maryland eleven by the New England press. This, he added, was the reason for his citing the case of Tarasovich.

Tatum mentioned the case of a 6 ft. 8 in. basketball player from Pelham, N.Y., who he claims is now at Harvard. "I'm sure that if he hadn't been 6 ft. 8 in. tall, Harvard alumni wouldn't have chased him. Why, I was in that boys's house the same night some alumni from Harvard and Princeton and Yale were. Harvard get him . . . and that's no special case, either."

"Any school," Tatum continued, "that has a football team will send alumni out to recruit players. But up there, they have to send alumni out to find men because they can't say 'athletic scholarship,' and down here we can send coaches out to get players. We see to it that we wind up with two good guards and a big line, in addition to a good backfield. But alumni send in flashy backs and big ends, mostly, for the football team. So in the end, we wind up with a better balanced, more solid team. That's the only difference. . . . That's why I don't like those newspapers calling us pro's and them amateurs. . . . It just isn't true."

Tatum outlined a theoretical case. "Can you tell me the difference here: Take, let's say, Bill Jones, a good athlete, who applies for Harvard. He has the qualifications and gets in--with a scholarship, and studies history. Then there's Bill smith, also, a good ball player, who applies for Maryland. he has the qualifications--it's a C average down here--and gets in with a scholarship and studies to be a physical education teacher. Is one a pro and the other an amateur? It's only a difference in degree. . . . I can't see a single distinction, except we admit what we're doing and they use a different name for it in the Ivy League.