Yardling Eleven Faces Tufts Today; Game Marks Debut of Coach O'Neill

Harvard's yardling football team opens its six-game season today at 2:30 p.m. against Tufts on the Jumbo's Medford field in a game which marks the debut of the Crimson's new freshman coach Chester O'Neill.

O'Neill, who left the chief varsity assistant, job at Colgate to come to Cambridge, has been working with a squad of 71 freshmen for the past 12 days. This season the team will be executing the multiple varsity offense and varsity defense, which O'Neill and assistant Loyal Park have been forced to introduce on short notice.

"It'll be interesting to see how the boys run it off the practice field against a real opponent like Tufts," Park said last night.

"For once we have depth like we've never had here before on the freshman program. There are more linemen this year than I can ever recall."

The line is a definite strong point for the freshmen this season. Besides having lots of depth the Crimson is blessed with good size. The starting tackles, Dan Jiggets from Long Island and Rich Lowry from California, are both 6'7" and tip the scales to the tune of 270 lbs.

The game today against the Jumbos shapes up as a match between the depth and size of the untested Crimson against a local passing combination which has already given Tufts one win against no defeats.

Last week the Jumbos beat Andover, 26-20, for its first victory over the Blue Preppies in a decade. The team is already being billed as the best freshman team Tufts has fielded in 20 years.

The main reason for such optimism lies in the arm of quarterback Bob Byrne from Malden and the hands of split and John Rosa from Lexington. Against Andover this passing combination connected for four touchdowns, all of the Jumbos's scores.

Against this duo, Harvard, who best the Jumbos, 36-14, last season, will send a squad which O'Neill characterizes as "the most enthusiastic group of boys I've ever worked with. Their attitude is fantastic and after only 12 days they seem to be working very well."

Mike Lynch from Swampscott will probably start at quarterback today for the Crimson, who follow this game with a contest next week at B.C. Schedule: Oct. 13  Boston College  2:30 p.m. Oct. 27  Dartmouth  2:00 p.m. Nov. 11  at Princeton  11:00 a.m. Nov. 17  at Brown  2:00 p.m. Nov. 22  Yale  1:30 p.m.