Harvard Team May Visit China In Early June

The men's varsity basketball team will probably visit the People's Republic of China in early June to play a five-game exhibition series with the Chinese national and provincial teams, coach Frank McLaughlin said Wednesday.

William L. Wall, executive director of the Amateur Basketball Association of America, invited the Harvard team to make the tour on behalf of the Chinese government.

Wall said Wednesday he chose Harvard to go to China because Ivy League schools have not sent many teams abroad recently. He added that about 70 American basketball teams travel overseas each year.

"Harvard will be the first American university to send a men's basketball team to China," McLaughlin said, adding that many schools had sought to gain this distinction.

There is an 80 per cent chance that the Harvard team will make the trip, John P. Reardon, director of athletics, said Tuesday. He added that the Chinese will be paying for the team's expenses within China, but he still must raise at least $20,000 for the transportation costs to and from China.

"I think we have a reasonable shot at it," Reardon said, adding that with the help of alumni and the Friends of Harvard Basketball he hopes to raise the funds. The athletic department will not sponsor the tour, he said.

Reardon said that the Harvard team must also still secure the permission of the Ivy League and the National Collegiate Athletic Association before they can travel abroad.

The Chinese attach a great deal of importance to athletic exchanges, Jay Henderson, program associate of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, said yesterday. "They tend to see sports as a mechanism of conducting competition, but also a mechanism through which they can accomplish the political goal of establishing friendship," he said.

The Chinese have a center who is seven feet eight inches tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, Henderson added. The Chinese call him Iron Man Mu, he said.

Lamar Flatt '83, Harvard's center, said Tuesday he thinks Mu will will be a tough challenger. "I'm definitely going to have my work cut out for me," he added.

Previous basketball teams to visit China include the Washington Bullets, the American national team, two women's college teams, and several college All Star teams. Henderson said the Chinese are excellent basketball players and that their national team defeated both the All Star teams and the Washington Bullets at least twice.

The team's tentative itinerary includes Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, and Peking, McLaughlin said. He added that he hopes the exhibition schedule is limited enought to allow the team the chance to sightsee.

Henderson said the teams which have already gone to China have visited many historic sites. The Harvard team can expect to visit the Opera and the Circus while in Shanghai, and the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, and the Forbidden City during their visit to North China, he added