FISHER COMPLETES THIRD YEAR AS UNIVERSITY COACH

With this afternoon's struggle Coach Robert T. Fisher '12 will bring to an end his third successful year as Head Coach of University football. During the seasons that he has wielded supreme power in the Stadium, his gridiron men have played 27 games, of which 22 have been victories, three ties and only two defeats. Under his mentorship, Yale has been defeated twice, 10-3 and 9-0, while Princeton has tied the Crimson twice and defeated them once.

It is due to his great familiarity with the game that Coach Fisher owes his success in football coaching. Graduating from Andover in 1908, he had already played several years on the school team before he came to Harvard in the following fall. In college his success was immediate. He gained a place as guard on the Freshman team and starred in every contest of the season.

The following autumn he went out for the University team, performing so creditably that he immediately landed one of the regular guard berths, his work proving so excellent that at the end of the season Walter Camp gave him a guard position on his mythical "All-American" eleven. During his remaining two years, Coach Fisher retained this same position, gaining both times the highly coveted "All-American" rating, and in his last year, 1911, captaining the team that fought the Elis to a 0-0 tie.

His playing days over when he graduated from the University in 1912, Mr. Fisher did not desert the game of football but the following fall came back to the Stadium as head line coach under the leadership of Head Coach P. D. Haughton, a position which he retained during the University's years of triumph from 1913 to 1916.

Due to the entrance of the United States into the war and the consequent organization of the S. A. T. C. with its transformation of the University into a military camp, there was no organized first team football during 1917 and 1918, but in the fall of the following year, with the return of somewhat normal conditions, Coach Fisher was again called in, this time to assume supreme command of the Stadium forces.

Two years of war had sadly disturbed the football system and Coach Fisher needed all his powers of organization to get the vaunted "Haughton machine" into action again. Fortunately a great many of Coach Haughton's most brilliant pupils, such as Mahan and Hardwick, were willing to aid, and with their enthusiastic help the new director soon built up his own organization closely modeled on that of his former chief. The first season under the new rule was most successful, for on successive Saturdays, Bates, Boston College, Colby, Brown, Virginia and Springfield were blanked with overwhelming scores, the powerful Princeton machine was fought to a 10-10 tie, while in the final game of the year, Yale was sent back to New Haven, after a thrilling battle with the short end of a 10-3 tally.

Last season was hardly less successful. A hard fought 3-0 victory over Holy Cross in the opening game of the fall was followed by five successive triumphs including a battle with the "mystery team" from Valparaiso against whom the Red-jerseys piled up 21 points without being scored upon, and a tussle with the picturesque Centre College eleven which came up from Kentucky to break into Eastern football for the first-time. Though fighting through four periods to another tie with the Tiger, Coach Fisher again had the pleasure of seeing the Elis defeated, this time by a score of 9 to 0.

The system of football used by the University today is modeled very closely upon the plan which proved so successful under Mr. Haughton. Though realizing the importance and usefulness of the star player it puts its chief reliance in teamwork and in a large group of substitute players who are nearly equal to the first team men and who can replace them without serious loss to the organization. The value of this plan is shown by the outcome of the Penn State game where an entire backfield of second string ball carriers were able to hold to a tie an eleven which is admitted to be one of the most powerful in the East.

Coach Fisher believes in the efficacy of a few elementary plays well mastered. The complicated shifts and trick formations of the West and South have never found a welcome in the Stadium. Due to the fact that the line material this fall is below the standard of former years, the Crimson this autumn has came to place increased reliance in the forward pass.

Coach Fisher's record at the University during the years that he has been head coach: 1919 Harvard,  10  Bates,  0 Harvard,  53  Boston College,  0 Harvard,  17  Colby,  0 Harvard,  35  Brown,  0 Harvard,  7  Virginia,  0 Harvard,  47  Springfield,  0 Harvard,  20  Princeton,  10 Harvard,  10  Tufts,  0 Harvard,  23  Yale,  3 1920 Harvard,  3  Holy Cross,  0 Harvard,  41  Maine,  0 Harvard,  21  Valparaiso,  0 Harvard,  38  Williams,  0 Harvard,  31  Centre,  14 Harvard,  24  Virginia,  0 Harvard,  14  Princeton,  14 Harvard,  21  Brown,  0 Harvard,  9  Yale,  0 1921 Harvard,  10  Boston Univ.,  0 Harvard,  16  Middlebury,  0 Harvard,  3  Holy Cross,  0 Harvard,  19  Indiana,  0 Harvard,  10  Georgia,  7 Harvard,  21  Penn State,  21 Harvard,  0  Centre,  6 Harvard,  3  Princeton,  10