President Rules Out New Sports Complex In Immediate Future

President Pusey said Wednesday that construction of a new indoor athletic complex has been put off indefinitely.

Though University officials admit that the Indoor Athletic Building and other winter sports facilities are antiquated and need to be replaced, Pusey said there are no plans to begin fund raising for a new indoor sports building

"It's not near the top of our thinking at all," Pusey said of the new center, adding that too many other projects take priority over the sports building.

Research continues, however, into the feasibility and demand for a new indoor sports center, first proposed in a 1964 Athletic Department report.

A new basketball court, hockey rink, indoor track, swimming pool and multi-purpose auditorium have all been mentioned as possible features of the proposed center. Estimates of its cost range from five to seven million dollars.

A New York management consulting firm, Cresap, McCormick and Paget, submitted a report on the Athletic Department to the administration in 1965 that was devoted in part to the need for new construction. The report has never been released publicly.

A second study is now being prepared by Adolph W. Samborski '28, Director of Athletics, and members of the Athletic Department. Dean Watson, chairman of the Faculty Committee on Athletics, said the new report should be ready for presentation to Dean Ford and the Committee within the next two weeks.

IAB for Intramurals

Watson said that the inadequacy of the IAB has led the Committee to consider the possibility of using it for intramurals alone. In planning the new center the Committee is assessing the demand for sports facilities by faculty, graduate students and Radcliffe as well as by Harvard undergraduates; and popularity trends for participation in various sports, both at Harvard and nationally.

The Athletic Department has also collected a file of coaches' reports describing requirements of their individual sports and facilities that they have seen during trips to other colleges.

The IAB now serves for both intramural and intercollegiate sports, housing facilities for swimming, basketball, wrestling and fencing.

Obviously Inadequate

"Obviously, right now our facilities aren't adequate for what we want," Watson said.

Most of the other Ivy League colleges have either completed or are beginning construction on new athletic facilities. Dartmouth has finished a three and one-half million dollar sports center, Princeton has completed a three million dollar outdoor complex and plans to spend five million dollars on an indoor building, and Brown, Cornell, Penn and Princeton either have spent or are planning to spend substantial amounts on new sports buildings.