Yovicsin Will Coach Football

Gettysburg head coach John M. Yovicsin was appointed Harvard's twenty-second football coach yesterday, just nine weeks after his predecessor, Lloyd Jordan, had been dismissed.

Yovicsin, 38 years old, has coached at Gettyburg College since 1952. Using T-formation, his teams have compiled a record of 32 wins and 11 defeats.

"I'd like to play the orthodox T-formation with a balanced line next season," Yovicsin said last night in Gettysburg.

Thomas D. Bolles, Director of Athletics, announced his appointment shortly after noon yesterday, following a morning vote of the Board of Overseers. Yovicsin himself was only officially notified a few minutes before the public was, when Bolles telephoned him.

His appointment culminated a long search for a replacement for Jordan, a search that sent officials of the Department of Athletics across the country. Ninety-five men applied for or were recommended for the post, and 26 of them were interviewed. Yovicsin was recommended for the job by former Crimson coach Dick Harlow, who retired in 1948.

Yovicsin himself was here twice, his most recent visit being on Thursday and Friday of last week.

Members of the Faculty Committee on Athletics were highly impressed by Yovicsin and predicted that he would have a long tenure. While the terms of his contract were not disclosed, it was for more than one year. Bolles said yesterday that Crimson coaches ordinarily are given three-year contracts.

One committee member said of Yovicsin, "He is accustomed to training People himself, and teaching them the elements of football," and called him "engaging, earnest, with a good sense of humor."

One member said, "I think he's going to make football fun instead of just a business for his players."

Another important factor in Yovicsin's selection was his commitment to the standards of the Ivy League. "I am very strongly in favor of the Ivy philosophy on athletics," he said last night. If he were to leave Gettysburg, he continued, he had wanted to go to an Ivy League school.

In addition to football, Yovicsin is track coach at Gettysburg. He graduated from that school in 1940 and later played professional basketball, and football with the Philadelphia Eagles. He coached football and basketball at several schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey before taking an M.S. at Pennsylvania and returning to Gettysburg in 1948.

He served as assistant football coach, until he was elevated in 1952. His football teams there never lost more than three games in a season. He has been track coach since 1951.

Yovcisin (pronounced yah'-vis-sin) has not met any of next year's Crimson football players, but on one of his visits he watched motion pictures of the Harvard-Dartmouth game of last fall. He expects to come up to Cambridge again late next week, but not to move permanently for more than a month.

The new coach is married and has three sons and a daughter. He enjoys golf as a hobby and also likes to fish for trout and bass.