Bingham's Penalty Box

Harvard hockeydom is today the scene of what must be classed as, among other things, a very unfortunate incident. Coach Hodder, for allowing a training-break after the Princeton series at Lake Placid, has been de-portfolio-ed by Director of Athletics Bingham, and several judgments may fairly be made of the move. First is the fact that Hodder has been pilloried for the indiscretions of his players. By personal talks with both coach and offenders, Mr. Bingham might have affixed financial responsibility where it belonged for damages rendered, and let the matter go at that, for the present at least. Secondly, by his drastic action upon Hodder, he has laid Harvard needlessly open to the abuse of the sporting world as represented by the public press. Had the affair been publicly left to die a natural death, the course taken by Princeton authorities whose athletes and coach shared in the Placid debacle, a far from unusual collegiate happening would have met its merited fate.

There is also what is perhaps a less vital, but still important consideration. In the midst of what has promised to be the best hockey season since the days of Austie Harding, a demoralized squad is placed is the charge of a new coach who, although very able and a keen student of the game, is unfamiliar with the talents or even the names of his players, and who, because of other responsibilities, must be in New York one day out of every week. The detriment to Harvard hockey and to Harvard sports in general through Mr. Bingham's move is greater than any justification he might have on moral grounds.