Hockey Ace Kinasewich Wins Bingham Award

Eugene Kinasewich '64, captain of the 1964 varsity hockey team and the second highest scorer in Harvard hockey history, last week received the William J. Bingham Award, the University's highest athletic honor. Kinasewich, a Canadian, is the first foreign student and only the second hockey player to win the Bingham Award in its ten-year history.

The honor climaxes a Harvard athletic career that, despite an inauspicious beginning, has become one of the most successful in recent years. Elected First Marshal of the senior class, Kinasewich is a candidate to graduate magna cum laude and has won a Shaw Fellowship for post-graduate work abroad.

Kinasewich's early years at Harvard, however, were darkened by recurrent disputes over his eligibility. His Junior A hockey experience in Canada prompted the Ivy League to declare him ineligible as a freshman, but the League reversed its position the following year.

New trouble arose when the Eastern College Athletic Conference banned Kinasewich at the end of his sophomore year. The ban forced the Crimson ace to miss a few games until Harvard successfuly appealed the case.

During his three-year career, the hard-shooting wing accumulated 61 goals and 49 assists, participating in 59 victories and only 15 defeats. In the final game of 1963, Kinasewich scored three times, including the winning goal in a sudden death overtime, to defeat Boston College, 4-3, for the ECAC championship.

The Bingham award is given annually to "that member of the graduating class who, because of his integrity, courage, leadership, and athletic ability, has best served the high purposes of Harvard as exemplified by former athletic director William J. Bingham." Kinasewich, like Bingham, was from a modest background. Each was First Marshal of his class.

Kinasewich was formally honored and given the award last Tuesday in Dillon Field House where his name will be inscribed on a large plaque.

Previous winners of the award have been John R. Pringle '63 (swimming); Mark H. Mullin '62 (track and cross country): Charles D. Ravenel '61 (football and baseball) and Perry T. Boyden '61 (crew); Langley C. Keyes '60 (soccer and lacrosse); Robert R. Foster '59 (football and wrestling) and R. Dyke Benjamin '59 (cross country and track); Dale W. Junta '58 (tennis); John A. Simourian '57 (football and baseball); James P. Jorgenson '56 (swimming); Robert Rittenburg '55 (track); T. Jefferson Coolidge '54 (football and hockey).