Teams Won Five Yale Contests Last Year

Great were the athletic achievements during the academic year 1938-39. For the first time since the World War Harvard defeated Yale in all five traditional major sports football, hockey, track, baseball and rowing.

The football team was "Big Three" champion for the second straight year; the soccer team was Eastern Intercollegiate champion; the crows swept the Yale regatta for the second successive year and the varsity crew later won the Grand Challenge Cup in the Henley Royal Regatta at Henley, England.

The parade of triumphs over the Elis started on a rainy afternoon in the grim, gray Yale bowl, when a favored Crimson eleven finally struck down a particularly tenacious bulldog. Torby Macdonald, captain of the current eleven, snatched a pass over the goal line in the gloaming and "Chie," Boston executed a miraculous place-kick of a wet, muddy ball to give the Crimson victory, 7-0.

Hockey's Triumph

The grand triumph of the hockey season was the play of Captain Austic Harding. One of the greatest of all Harvard ice stars, Austic shone on a mediocre team. After a fair-to-middling season, the six captured the objective series with Yale by tying the Blues at New Haven, 3-3, and crushing them, 7-3, in Boston. Harding closed his collegiate career in a blaze of glory by tallying four goals in the final Yale game.

The assault on the battered bulldog was resumed in the spring when an outstanding track and field team rolled up a record score at New Haven, 91 2-3 to 43 1-3. The track team beat Holy Cross, Northeastern and Dartmouth and placed second by a fraction of a point in the Heptagonal Meet, but lost out when it combined with Yale to meet an Oxford-Cambridge squad at White City, England, on July 15.

Spring Victories

The baseball team's string of three victories was the big surprise of the year. Yale was reported to be strong, and the Crimson was coached for the first time by Floyd Stahl. The Crimson won behind "Slim" Curtiss at New Haven, 3-0, behind big Tom Healey at Cambridge, 8-1; and behind Sophomore Charlie Brackett and Curtiss at New London, 5-4. It was the varsity's first series victory over Yale since 1932, when legendary Charley Devens hurled for the Crimson.

Grand and colorful climax to the onslaught against Yale was the second straight sweep of the four-race regatta on the silver River Thames at New London, Ct. All the crews--combination, freshman, junior varsity and varsity--won handily under the masterful coaching of Tom Bolles. The varsity's triumph was its fourth straight over Yale.

A few days after the Yale race, the varsity eight, with sophomore Jack Wilson replacing Bill Rowe at the vital stroke oar, sailed for England to compete in the Henley Royal Regatta. The varsity easily led London Rowing Club, Jesus College of Cambridge and Argonauts Rowing Club of Toronto in successive heats to win the great silver mug exactly 25 years after a Harvard junior varsity eight captained by Governor Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, had captured the old cup.

Record of Minor Sports

Outstanding minor sport achievement of the year was the soccer team's championship. The booters, coached by Jack Carr, won eight games and tied one. Princeton was tied, 3-3, and Yale was defeated, 2-1, in a thrilling battle at New Haven.

The varsity cross-country team was undefeated, and led both Yale and Princeton in the annual triangular hill-and-dale grind. The swimming team lost only to Brown, Yale and Princeton. The basketball team fared poorly. The tennis team had a mediocre season, but during the summer combined with Yale to defeat an Oxford-Cambridge squad at Eastbourne, England.

Outlook for This Year

Prospects for the coming year are best in rowing. Only stroke Bill Rowe and Captain Dudley Talbot, workhorse number three sweep-swinger, will be lost from the eight which defeated Yale. The six returning oarsmen and coxswain; plus the wealth of material from the freshman and junior varsity squad, give a basis for optimism. This is the Olympic year in rowing, and Bolles and the oarsmen would like nothing better than to have the Crimson colors carried abroad