Record Breaking Fall Season Looms for All House Sports

A record number of students is expected to participate in the fall intramural program of seven sports. A reorganized Inter-House Athletic Council, the new Law School Athletic Committee will interest about 1300 members of the University in the competition in football, touch football, tennis, golf, rowing, cross country, and track.

Eight House football squads begin practice Wednesday under eight coaches who come from seven different colleges and Universities. These men are graduate students at Harvard. Obviously a variety of systems will be on display when the schedule of games begin on Thursday, October 7. There will be 28 inter-House games and about four contests with neighboring preparatory schools and college class teams. On Friday, November 12 the championship House team will journey to New Haven to play the Inter-College Champions of Yale.

Freshman intramural football will begin as soon as Coach Stahley makes a definite division in his Freshman squad. Clark Hodder, freshman hockey coach, and an assistant will supervise the work of this second Freshman squad. In addition to scrimmaging with the first Freshman and House squads, the second Freshmen will play four or five games with neighboring school teams.

Touch Football

Touch football players will take possession of every available spot on Soldiers Field. In all there will be around thirty touch football teams--eight from the Houses, eight or ten from the Business School, six from the Law School, and six or eight from the Freshman Halls. In other years there were enough Business School teams to warrant a division into two leagues with the provision for a two out of three series between the winners of each league. The same procedure will be followed this fall should there be more than eight team entries.

The Freshman Inter-Hall League will be new this fall. Last year a Freshman committee recommended that inter-hall competition be organized in touch football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and soft ball in the spring. These activities will be conducted on a voluntary basis and apart from the physical training program. The dormitories in the Yard will be represented in this Freshman league. In the case of some of the larger halls it may be necessary to divide the players into two or three teams. Some games will be arranged with the different House teams.

Law School competition is also new this fall. In the past the Law School students have limited organized competition to the winter season when there is less pressure from studies. Last spring a Law School committee was organized to urge more participation not only in the winter season but also in the fall and spring. This committee will promote touch football this fall among the various Law School Dormitories.

In the fall intramural season as well as the touch football season will come to a close with the contest between the Harvard House Champions and the Yale Champions. This game will be played on Soldiers Field on the morning of the Yale-Harvard football game.

Tennis

Tennis has always been the most popular fall sport and this year it promises to be even more popular. In all there will be twelve tournaments--a University Tournament for the Philip Nathaniel Jackson Cup, open to all members of the University; a freshman and a freshman novice tournament; a Business School Tournament for the Harvard Cooperative Society Cup; and eight House Tournaments.

The University Doubles and the University Singles B tournaments have been discontinued. In the past three years it has been necessary to start the Doubles at least a week later than the Singles tournaments, with the result that the tournament remained unfinished. This fall with an increase in the number of singles tournaments, the doubles would suffer a great deal more than in the past. With the added tournaments the Singles B tournament appears to be unnecessary for the House tournaments will easily absorb these formerly interested in the Singles B.

Play in all the tournaments will begin on Monday, October 4. The winner of the Singles A tournament will have his name engraved on the original Philip Nathaniel Jackson Cup and will receive a photograph of the cup. Some of the Houses present cups to the winners of the House tournament. This year the eight House winners will enter an Inter-House Championship tournament. This arrangement of fall House tennis competition should prove very effective. Not only will it organize well the fall competition, but it will enable the tennis managers to observe the players from the point of view of selecting a squad for the spring inter-House league.

Rowing

The feature of the fall rowing program will be the Thomas W. Slocum Cup race for Freshman intramural crews to be held during the first week of November. The names of the winners are engraved on the cup. There will also be two singles regattas one for the Houses and one open university regatta. What there will be of rowing eights will be informal and will have as its aim the development of oarsmen for the spring House boats.

The Annual Handicap Cross Country Run will be held on Wednesday, November 10. The winner of this event is given a photograph of the Gruggs Richard Trophy and his name is engraved on the original. For the Houses there will be a two and a half mile run on Wednesday, November 10.

In fall track there will be a newcomer--the Inter-House Fall Track Meet. This meet will consist of variously modified and unusual events. If one may consider the winter and spring meets of last year as indications of track interest among the Houses, the fall meet promises to be very popular. A week later, on Friday, November 12, there will be a fall handicap open to the entire University. A revival of this event seems advisable in view of the growing interest in intramural track.