Out of Their League

There was no summer respite for the hard-rooting Crimson fan--especially in the aftermath of the most successful year in Harvard sports history (12 Ivy titles and two national championships). After the June 9 Commencement ceremonies, the crew team snagged the national title, while several recent and current Crimson grads turned pro or trained for the Olympics. But the major news of the hottest months came not from the athletes but from the athletic bureaucracy: the first signs of a long-simmering feud emerged which could dissolve the Eastern College Athletic Conference hockey league--which Harvard plays in--after this season.

Officials at the six hockey-playing Ivy schools are unhappy with the length and intensity of the ECAC's season, as well as the inefficient scheduling of long road trips--a major problem for Cornell and Princeton. Mid-week, reading-period road trips to places like Maine and Colgate also caused inconveniences. Academic differences between the Ivies and some other ECAC schools further split the circuit. Brown Athletic Director John Parry explained. "We got concerned when some Eastern schools were practicing in mid-September and playing their first games in October," at least a month before the Ivy schools." And their answer always was, 'We need the money,''' Parry said, adding, "We would have to lower our standards to keep competing with those schools."

Jim Litvack, executive director of the Ivy League, concurred that academic standards might suffer if the six teams continued to compete with "schools that were too dissimilar."

Discontent has come even for the teams currently holding their own. "This hockey division has become wound up; it's very good," said Harvard Athletic Director John Reardon '60. "Harvard has a great hockey tradition, but for some of the other teams it's a problem." And when discontent first surfaced in the Ivies roughly three years ago. Harvard had one of those weaker squads that had trouble with a high-powered schedule.

An Ivy proposal at a 1981 ECAC meeting to let the Ivies play more games against each other and fewer inter-divisional contests lost along party lines--the 11 others outvoted the six Ivy schools. That convinced the Ivies that their hockey future lay outside the ECAC.

This summer, the Ivies extended invitations to four schools--Colgate, Army, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Vermont--to join them in a new league.

To avoid being left in the cold, Boston University Athletic Director John Simpson hosted a meeting with his counterparts from Boston College, Providence College, Northeastern and New Hampshire, with the aim of forming a new league, to begin play in 1984-85. The five a.d.'s chose unanimously to invite St. Lawrence, Clarkson, and Maine to round out the octet.

This past July, ECAC Commissioner Scotty Whitelaw called a meeting of the two factions, trying--in vain--to heal the rift. Relations between the groups have turned adversarial, with little talk since the meeting.

The forthcoming hockey season will be the last under the current structure--neatly arranged three divisions of six teams each with eight going to the playoffs--unless it is saved at the ECAC meeting in Hyannis, Mass., in early October.

The future of the ECAC post-season tournament is also unclear; the Ivy teams and Commissioner Whitelaw seem for it while the other eight would prefer playoffs of their own.

* * *

In other hockey news, the brothers Fusco, Mark '83 and Scott '85. made the preliminary Olympic squad in June. (See story, p. I.) The Canadian Olympic squad, however, found no room for senior Shayne Kukulowicz or junior Greg Chalmers.

Three seniors from last year's team donned skates at June's National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, but no Olympic bids materialized for Greg Olson. Greg Britz or Neil Sheehy. The last two are now taking shots at the pros. Britz is chasing pucks at training camp for the Toronto Maple Leafs this week. while defenseman Sheehy, who has already signed a contract, hopes to crack the lineup of the Calgary Flames, a club conveniently short of blueliners. The NHL took an active interest in two other Crimson pucksters in the June amatcut draft Philadelphia took the rights to incoming freshman Allen Bourbeau and Calgary drafted last year's star goalie. Grant Blair '86.

The varsity crew also made headlines over the summer. After suffering a stunning upset against Yale June 5 in New London, Conn., the varsity heavies knocked off the Elis, Brown, and Washington on June 18 in the Cincinnati Invitational Regatta, which annually determines the national champion. The Pac 10's best led most of he way; the Crimson caught the Huskies with 25 meters left and won the two-kilometer race by two feet.

The victory gave the Crimson eight a free trip to the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta in London, but half of the boat, along with Coach Harry Parker, opted to stay home and train for the national team. The others rowed as a four at Henley, falling in the semifinals of their event.

But the freshman heavyweight crew, coached by Ted Washburn, grabbed the only American victory at Henley. The Yardlings was the Lafles. Plate Challenge Cup with a two-and a-half length triumph over Oxford's Isis Beat Club on July 3.

A number of Parker-bred rowers competed earlier this month in the world championships in West Germany. Andy Sudduth '84 rowed in the four-without-coxswain that finished a disappointing seventh.

In other news:

*A pair of Harvard baseballers moved up in the ranks during the summer. Mike Stenhouse '80 became the second Crimson graduate ever to make the major leagues (the other was Pete Varney '71) when the Montreal Expos called him up from the farm in August. He later returned to the minors. finishing as the American Association's MVP, with a .353 batting average; he's back with the Expos for September. Vinnie Martelli '83, a second-team All-American, signed with Cleveland; he's playing for the Indians' Midwest League team in Iowa.

*The Crimson basketball team lost a player in tragic fashion when John Harnice '84 drowned on July 30. A reserve forward with the varsity who played relatively little last season. Harnice died after an 80-ft. dive from a bridge near his Frankfort, Ky. home.

*Hockey players weren't the only Crimson standouts at the National Sports Festival. Junior Jenny Stricker finished second in the 3000 meters, timed in 9:11.5, boosting her hopes for making the Olympic team: she's taking this school year off to train.

*Harvard's best tennis player in the last four years. Howard Sands '83, had his troubles in pro competition. Bounced from the U.S. Open qualifiers in the first round, he's now playing on the satellite tour.

*Crimson Squash Coach Dave Fish led a victorious national junior team in the Bermuda Invitational Tournament in mid-July. Incoming freshman Kevin Jernigan, brother of Kenton '86. last year's top-ranked collegiate player, played for the squad.

*On June 8, the Bingham Award for the top male graduating athlete went jointly to star quarterback and outfielder Don Allard and Mark Fusco, while the equivalent award for women's teams went to lacrosse standouts Maureen p n and Francesca DenHartog.