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The singular diversion known as Harvard freshman football is on display this week at Soldiers Field. It is the same chaotic show it has always been, primarily because of the recruiting system. Coach Henry Lamar and his players deserve better.

The primary source of material for Yovicsin's varsity squads for the past several seasons has been Harvard's excellent JV teams, and it has been argued, and rightfully, that this is due to the ineffectiveness of the freshman program.

But the blame has too often been put on Lamar, especially by his former players, for "ruining" talent that otherwise would have become effective varsity material. The blame is unjust.

Three years ago, I attended a freshman game at Tufts, the season's opener. Tufts had a 32-man squad. Harvard dressed 120 players, and Lamar used them all including seven different quarterbacks. Harvard lost, 15-9, primarily because the Crimson was sending a different team into on every other set of downs.

This fall, more than 150 candidates appeared the first day of drills, and now three weeks later, there are still over 120 practicing regularly. Lamar has three assistants and two former players helping him, but he admitted last Sunday that he was still far from formulating a starting team. It is not surprising. There are 53 high school captains on this squad, 26 All-State performers, six All-Americans. There are 18 quarterbacks.

Lamar will have to select a starting squad by this afternoon for the Crimson's opener with Columbia tomorrow, and it is likely that he'll change his mind from week to week. He always has. It is likely that by November, many superb players will have seen scant action. There will be mass discontent, a considerable degree of attrition when the squad reports to Yovicsin next year, and a lingering bitterness in several athletes towards Harvard's entire football program.

More Selective Recruiting

But until Harvard becomes more selective in its recruiting, until it prunes the list of high school prospects to a figure that Lamar and his staff can humanly handle, the sad spectacle is bound to continue.

Lamar, it seems, is faced with two possible alternatives. He can either choose the cream of the material he has and play them exclusively, or he can play everybody. Two years ago, he selected a backfield of Bill Kelly, Pete Varney, Richie Szaro, and Tom Miller and stayed with it for the entire season. A group of superb performers, Scotty Guild, Pat Coleman, and Skip Vaccarello, were all but overlooked. Only Guild is still playing football and he still hasn't gotten the chance he deserves.

Three years ago, Lamar used nearly twenty backs, playing them equally. Both methods have proved unsatisfactory, but they are the only methods possible under the present circumstances.

Lamar has been the freshman coach since 1945. He has coached under Harlow, Valpey, Jordan and Yovicsin, but only since Yovicsin's arrival in 1957 has he been faced with the multitudes of "All-Conference" candidates that besiege him season after season.

Yovicsin's system was designed to bring Harvard football back to its feet after the most disastrous decade in its history, and a prerequisite was a drastically increased alumni recruiting program. The program has succeeded, but the burden of keeping the freshmen interested and of developing them into varsity material has fallen heavily on Lamar. He cannot be expected to do both, and the resulting dependence on the JV program, while fruitful, is frustrating for those who must wait three years to play. Mike Georges waited three years and finally got his chance while he was still interested. Some people, like Frank Champs, get tired of waiting, and they can't be blamed.