Jordan Opposes Spring Football For Freshmen

Football Coach Lloyd Jordan yesterday indicated strong disapproval of current proposals to move the freshman football season from the fall to the spring.

Asked what he thought of the plan, which would eliminate fall football for freshmen, substituting in its place a full schedule of games in the spring, Jordan replied shortly: "Not much."

"Competitive football in the spring would be out of place," he said. "It would conflict as a scheduled activity with other spring sports, and besides would be unfair to upperclassmen who are now denied spring practice."

Jordan does not think that spring freshman football can be justified by saying that it will ease initial freshman orientation. Friends of the plan claim it would remove the pressure of football from the student's early weeks at college.

"If you had the freshmen playing in the spring," he said, "you would have to start at least three weeks before the first game. Figure on a four-game schedule after that, and you have a season which extends almost into exam period. That certainly would not be good.

"Competition means pressure, and I do not think that spring--which is not the traditional season for football--is the time for such pressure.

"Intelligent scheduling is the answer to the problem of acclimatization in the fall."

Proponents of the plan, including Dartmouth Coach DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry, have hold that freshmen would benefit because they would be under the immediate close supervision of the varsity coaches. In the fall, the varsity staff has little or no time to devote to the freshmen.

"I don't agree with that," Jordan said. "What about the resentment you would stir up among varsity and particularly J.V. players who are not permitted to take part in spring drills?"

Jordan, who has long been on record as favoring controlled spring practices, drew a careful distinction between this proposal and his own views.

"Development out of season is good," he said. "Competition out of season, though, is bad. This calls for out of season competition."