Quakers Bring Potent Offense to Harvard Today

For years the University of Pennsylvania, its alumni and the rest of Philadelphia's upper crust have been clammoring for only one thing--a football rival for the Penn Quakers.

Penn's public relations men always try to make something of the Penn-Princeton match-up, but it's almost always half-hearted. And anybody who's ever attended a Tigers-Quakers match-up at Franklin Field, would usually leave the game muttering something about misnomers as the Tigers assumed the pacifist role while the Quakers were easily the most carnivervous animals on the field.

Tried and True

But this year there need be no deception--the Quakers have finally found their true rivals. It's not the traditional homecoming type battle, not is it one of the geographic cross-town genre. Rather it is purely a circumstantial challenge--a game which in the last few years has evolved into a bout to meet the champ, a chance for a shot at the Ivy title holder--the Harvard-Penn match-up.

It's not just the similarity of the team record--Harvard weighing in at 3-0 league play, while the Quakers come in still unbeaten with 2 wins and a draw. What makes this 1:30 p.m. match at Soldiers' Field so special is the return of Adolph Bellizeare to his hometown for one last shot at Hub immortality.

Ivy League followers know Bellizeare. They recognize the Braintree High product not by his number but by his streak--the streak a 4.4 second 40-yard runner leaves when he departs from the backfield or blasts off from deep in his own ground transforming normally fair-caught punts for 60 yards and a t.d.

Sportswriters know everything about Bellizeare from the confident fist thrust in the air before he crosses the 50 yard line to his colorful nickname, Beep-Beep, an epithet so often said that you tend to forget that it was the Roadrunner who originally claimed the title and not Bellizeare himself.

And most importantly, the coaches know Bellizeare. It didn't take long for Coach Joe Restic to notice the 170-pound running back two years ago when Bellizeare ate up 203 yards and pulled down two touchdown passes. "He's the most explosive running back that you'll see on the Stadium this season," Restic said after he made Bellizeare's acquaintance.

Cornell coach Jack Musick is familiar with Penn's Super Gnat. "You can spend 15 minutes with him in a phone booth and never touch him," the Big Red authority acknowledged.

But the man who knows best about Bellizeare's talents is Penn Coach Harry Gamble. It's the Penn mentor however, who is quick to divert all those eyes fixed on Bellizeare to the rest of the Quakers' back field. And he has good reasons to--with quarterback Marty Vaughn and running back Jack Wixted hiding behind the scrimmage line.

Bellizeare may be the leading punt returner in the nation, but it is Wixted who's gaining the ground consistently. He's already passed Bellizeare in total yardage, 515 to 367 yards, and has a 100 yard streak of three games, gaining 123 yards in last weeks 20-18 triumph over Princeton.

But neither Wixted nor Bellizeare can lay total claim to Penn's seasonal ascendancy. Quarterback Vaughn, second in forward passing and total offense in the Ivies, is both the elected and acknowledged team leader. He rounds out his running attack by making a "threat" out of tight end Bucky Bucola with his strong arm passing.

Defensively, the Quakers were supposed to be the embarrassment of the Ivy League, but a strong front three of tackles Dirk Whitehead and Jim O'Leary and middle guard Bill Petuskey, has made the defense prognosticators fairly red-faced.

The offense will be the show however, and if anybody is bound to steal it, the quick-stridding Bellezeare will be the one. The personalities however, can't override the importance of the game. And if Harvard's specialty squads hit right into Bellizeare, and McInally frolics in Penn's admittedly weak secondary, then all of the Quaker's title dreams will be dashed and Harvard will earn the right to meet Yale in a less contrived rivalry for the Ivy League championship.