Too Many Stars Plague Crimson Squash Season

Squash coach Jack Barnaby has a problem: too many good players.

To begin with, his team has lost only one game in the last four years, and is unbeaten since 1961. And to add to that, the coach has 10 lettermen from last year's unbeaten squad back, plus a raft of talented sophomores.

For instance, there's senior John Francis, a three-year letterman whose thrilling comeback victory gave Harvard a 5-4 win over Yale's best team ever in 1962. Then there's Dinny Adams, top man on last year's freshman squad, who demolished the national junior champion 3-0 in a match last year.

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On most squads, Adams and Francis would be challenging for the number one position. At Harvard, they're the last two players on the team.

Who's on top? Well, there's Vic Niederhoffer, currently the third-ranked amateur player in the United States. In fact, Vic just may be the country's best amateur at the moment--he beat national champion Ben Hecksher in a Massachusetts "A" League match Tuesday.

After Niederhoffer, and before Francis and Adams come six other veterans of the squad that won the national team title as well as the Ivy League championship last year.

So all this is a problem? It sure is, according to Jack Barnaby. For one thing, the coach says, the team may be overconfident as it enters its opening match with Army today. "We know we've got them beat to a frazzle on paper," Barnaby says, "but now we've got to prove that we can do it on a squash court."

Then, for another thing, every squash team the Crimson meets will be gunning for a victory over Harvard. Barnaby well remembers how his teams won two years in a now from highly favored Yale squads.

And today's match may be one of the toughest of the season. The drive to beat Harvard at squash, added to the difficulty of playing an Army team on Navy week-end, should make it a close match. And Army's players, led by the veteran brother team of Al and Richie Oehriein, are a strong, experienced group.

Crimson Favored

Still, the Crimson has to be favored. Niederhoffer is a cinch to win the number one match, and after him come Bill Morris and Lou Williams, both of whom beat their Army opponents last year. Ed Robinson, John Vintom, John Thorndike, and junior Alan Terrell, along with Adams and Francis, round out the team.

Lurking in the background is Romer Holleran, number three player in 1960 and just returning from three years in the Army. Holleran was playing number two before he injured his leg in a tournament in New York recently. Initial reports had said that he would be out until February, but Barnaby thinks he should be back much sooner. That will make an incredibly strong team even stronger.