Home-Team Sympathies Come First

Home-team sympathies resigned supreme last Thursday as 40 Harvard and Radcliffe athletes signed a letter urging the administration to appoint one of two well-known Harvard administrators as director of athletics to succeed Robert B. Watson '37.

Responding to reports that Harvard might name a member of the Williams College faculty to the post, the athletes said they favor either Baaron B. Pittenger Jr., associate director of athletics, or John P. Reardon '60, associate dean of admissions and coordinator of the program for athletic facilities, for the job.

Jeffrey W. Hill '77, captain of the men's varsity basketball team and a co-sponsor of the letter, said yesterday the athletes want to make sure the new athletic director will not de-emphasize intercollegiate athletics while building up the University's intramural program.

Both Reardon and Pittenger "are concerned with stepping up athletics for all athletes"--women as well as men, and intramural hopefuls as well as varsity stars, Hill said.

The athletes' action followed The Boston Globe's report last Saturday that Harvard would name Robert Peck, chairman of the Williams College Physical Education Department, to run the show at 60 Boylston St. Peck would say only that he believes he is under consideration for the job, and University officials insisted that the post is still open.

Robert E. Kaufmann '62, chairman of the search committee, said Thursday that the fears of the 40 athletes--most of whom are varsity captains or porminent names on the Harvard-Radcliffe roster--are groundless.

"There's no attempt here to do anything to change the intercollegiate program," he said, adding that even the new athletic director would be able to do very little to break the control that the varsity coaches and athletic recruiters in the admissions office now exert on the athletic program.

Neither Reardon, who divides his time between admissions duties and fund-raising for the new athletic complex, nor Pittenger, who over the years has developed a reputation as a champion of Harvard's women's athletic program, would comment on the student's action.

But Stephanie A. Walsh, coach of the Harvard women's swim team, said she thinks the athletes might be pressing too hard. "It's going to be harder now, because people are getting edgy," Walsh said.