All-Ivy Grid Selections Add Insult to Injury

Now I don't want to give Loyal Park or anyone else the idea that football is my favorite sport, but the old plasma came to a near boil yesterday when I checked out the Coaches All-Ivy football team for this past season.

Now maybe the coaches thought to themselves, "Well, Harvard had a lousy year, so we'll put Bob Baggott on the first team and that should make them happy. Then we'll fill in the other spots with guys from Penn."

I'll try to keep my beefs brief. First, Baggott is on the first team, where he belongs, but that's where the smart moves end.

How about Brown's Mark Whipple and the Crimson's Larry Brown? Both quarterbacks were made only Honorable Mention, despite the fact that Brown led the Ivies in both passing and total offense and Whipple was right behind him in both categories.

Yale wins the title and everyone assumes its quarterback is the best in the circuit. That kind of logic will get you kicked out of group therapy.

Stats don't lie. Ask Jim Kubacki, who made total offense his empire two years ago and wound up first team All-Ivy, All East, and All-New England.

Gripe number two: Not one member of the Harvard offensive line got so much as honorable mention. All you have to do is see Mike Clark play guard for one game and then hear Joe Restic talk about him for five minutes to realize that he is a blue-chipper up front. I think I'm going to buy Mike a bright orange game jersey for next season so the other coaches in the Ivies will notice him for a change when voting time comes around.

The final, and perhaps ultimate, crime committed against Harvard by the Coaches was dropping Russ Savage, a second-teamer last year, to honorable mention after an even better season this fall. I don't even want to go into that.

By the way, other Harvard players to make the various squads were as follows: Second team: Jim Curry, Steve Kaseta, and Paul Halas; Honorable mention: Joe Goodreault, Craig Beiling, Steve Potysman, and Paul Sablock.

If I may shift my bad mood about 110 miles south of Cambridge, it seems that John Pagliaro will not be playing in this year's East-West Shrine game. For some reason, the guys who wear the funny hats and build all the hospitals think that only two people per year from the Ivy League should be allowed to play in their classic. Dartmouth's outstanding defensive lineman Greg Robinson and Curry are this year's due. Where does this leave Pagliaro? I'll tell you where, home in Derby watching Celebrity Bowling after being one of the premier backs in the East for two years.

Boy, this is depressing. I should save my arguments for the guy who grades Astro 8 quizzes.

A couple of random thoughts to fill up the ever-present white space:

I don't know what makes me feel worse, watching the hockey team lose close games or seeing Bobby Fowkes having to spectate instead of backcheck until February 4.

I'd love to see the basketball team open with a win tomorrow night, but UMass is tough and I'll settle for a packed house, a couple of Brian Banks's slam dunks, and just one Glenn Fine behind-the-back fastbreak assist.

And good luck, Frankie McLaughlin. Digger is with you in spirit.