Stadium Confusion

On Thanksgiving Day, 27,000 fans streamed out of Harvard Stadium after watching Boston Latin lose to Boston English 20-18 in the traditional football battle between two ancient high school rivals. Many of the spectators crossed the Larz Anderson Bridge into Cambridge, intent on taking MBTA subways and buses home. But the buses and subways could not handle the sudden influx at once, and as the largely teen-aged crowd backed up in Harvard Square, it turned into a surly mob. Beatings, purse-snatchings, and acts of vandalism broke out all over the Square, and before a hastily assembled force of policemen from Cambridge, Harvard, the MDC and the MBTA could restore order, seven persons had been hurt badly enough to require hospitalization.

Cambridge's response was not long in coming. City Manager Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 fired off an angry letter to President Pusey asking that the game be henceforth barred from Harvard Stadium. Four days later, it was reported that Boston school officials had blamed the riot on a band of nebulously-labeled "older hoodlums" and had attacked the Cambridge police for being unprepared to handle the crowd.

But both cities are clearly aiming their fire in the wrong direction. The game involves Boston residents on a field in Boston, but rather than appealing directly to Boston authorities to work out a solution, DeGuglielmo bypassed them and demanded that Harvard throw the game out of the Stadium. Boston officials disclaimed responsibility for the mob their game had created, and treated the riot as though it had nothing to do with the students from the two Boston schools.

Harvard has been left in the middle, unable to grant or refuse DeGuglielmo's request without alienating one of the two cities. President Pusey has wisely delayed his decision until he can act as mediator between Boston and Cambridge and work out a solution that will satisfy everyone. A solution does not have to mean banning the game; better crowd control by police and transportation directly from the Stadium are two simple steps that could be taken. But Boston cannot merely throw up its hands, nor can Cambridge dump the problem in Harvard's lap. The issue is between the two cities, they cannot dodge the responsibility for settling it.