Bucknell's Passing Game Will Test Crimson Today

In 1891, Bucknell beat Cornell in football, 4-0.

Since then it's been a rough road for the Bisons against Ivy League clubs. The Lewisburg, Pa., squad has tried 44 times in the last seven decades to beat an Ivy team. They have 43 losses and a tie for their effort.

So can this year's Bucknell team, 12-7 losers to Gettysburg last week, beat the Harvard team that looked so good against UMass?

Well, they just conceivably may Bucknell, you see, has the kind of offense to take advantage of the weaknesses Harvard displayed against Massachusetts last week.

That means that they have a quarterback who likes to pass, ends who catch well, and a fair running attack as well.

Jerry Whelchel of UMass drove the Crimson crazy with short passes and gained 68 yards running when his receivers were covered. Bucknell's offense, which relies on Bob Marks's passing, largely from roll-out patterns, specializes in just the sort of plays UMass looked best on.

Marks has one high-quality receiver in end Tom Mitchell, the best pass receiver in the East last year with 43 receptions. He started out well again this year, catching five passes last week and hauling in three others that were called back by penalties. End Ron Kisey can catch too--he nabbed two last weeks.

And Marks, a sophomore, can run as well as Whelchel, and probably better. An all-Pennsylvania halfback in high school, he was converted to quarterback by Coach Bob Odell, who didn't want to start the season with Bill Lerro calling signals. Lerro, a better passer than Marks, should see some action, but his lack of speed keeps him off the first string.

The rest of the backfield, Captain John Barron at fullback, Bob Laughton, and Hal Riley, hasn't had the coaches turning somersaults with joy. In fact, Bucknell's leading ground gainer against Gettysburg was Don Cook, a defensive back who was only left in on offense until Odell could get him out under the new substitution rule.

The line is good, but it's much smaller than Harvard's, 204 pounds to 211 on the average.

On defense the Bisons use a "monster" linebacker, who jitterbugs around the line depending on where he thinks the play is going to come and hopefully manages to frustrate the opposing quarterback. Andy Dzurinko, a 195 pounds guard, fills this role.

The Bisons will probably have to do lots of scoring, because Harvard's offense, which scored 20 points against UMass, should go well against a team that gave up 215 yards through the air alone against Gettysburg.

John Yovicain has promised to go to the air more, but it's still uncertain who will be doing the passing. John McCluskey's leg injury has not healed completely and Yovicain may decide to go with Tom Bilodeau, who led Harvard to the winning touchdown last week, at quarterback.

McCluskey was only one of a very distinguished list of names on the "med list" after the UMass game. Tackle Steve Diamond, end Ken Boyda, defensive back Jerry Mechling, fullback Pat Conway, and several others were on the list with minor injuries, as well as Neil Curtin, the 240-pound tackle whose knee injury will sideline him this week.

On the positive side, halfback Bobby Leo and guard Bob Barrett returned from the injured list, and just in time, too. Sophomore Leo, who is thought in some circles to be the best thing to hit Harvard football since shoulder pads, will give Yovicain's desperately shorthanded second backfield the experienced halfback it needed to run alongside John Dockery.

The injuries may hamper Harvard and it would be remarkable if the Crimson didn't make a few more mistakes this week. There were no fumbles or pass interceptions last week, no serious mistakes at all except John McCluskey's bobble. That kind of errorless ball just doesn't happen two weeks in a row, no matter what team you play for.

Local sporting gentlemen, however, know all about this. They know about Mitchell and Marks, and they know about Harvard's injuries. And still, you can't bet on Harvard without giving away 10 to 14 points