Stadium Repair May Displace Harvard Football Home Games

The Harvard football team may have to play its home football games away from Soldiers Field next fall if planned reconstruction work on the stadium is not completed by September, a Harvard athletic official said yesterday.

Harvard is considering the possibility of playing at one of several area colleges in case the stadium is not ready next fall, including Boston College, Boston University and Holy Cross, Joseph D. Bertagna '73, director of sports information, said.

He said B.C. and B.U. are attractive alternatives because they are close to the Harvard campus, but he added that Holy Cross is the closest available stadium with natural grass.

The University reportedly may also consider Shaefer Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, as a possible site for next year's Yale game.

Although work on the 81-year-old facility may be finished in time for the scheduled September home opener against Columbia, Bertagna said that he has "no faith" that a construction company will finish the project in time for the opener.

"I just have a gut feeling that it would be foolish to try to meet the September 15 deadline," Bertagna said.

Harvard will consider bids from several area contracting firms later this week, Bertagna said, adding that the bids may suggest various deadlines for the job, including before the season opener, during the middle of the season, just in time for the Yale game, or not until after the season is over.

Out of Touch

John P. Reardon '60, director of Athletics, was attending a national meeting of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in Houston yesterday, and could not be reached for comment.

Robert J. Burbank, assistant manager for new construction and overseer of the stadium reconstruction, refused to comment last night.

Bertagna said he is pessimistic about the chances for completing the work because of the delays which have occurred during the reconstruction of the Briggs Cage Athletic facility. Briggs Cage, which was originally set to open for the beginning of the men's and women's basketball teams last November, may not be ready until February or later, he said.

Football coach Joe Restic said that although he hopes the stadium will be ready by September, "You've got to be ready for the worst. "Any situation that would have us playing away from home would hurt us, but you have to respond well to the situation or use it as your excuse," he added.

Gregory Brown '83, who will take over as football captain next year, said, "Of course we'd like to be playing at home, but I don't think it would hurt the team that much if we couldn't.