Jayvees Always Fight For Boston

There's an old saying that quarterbacks don't make coaches, but at Soldiers Field Dick Harlow's quarterback of the late 30's has for the last two years held sway as the spirited and successful coach of the Junior Varsity football team. Now one of Harlow's senior lieutenants, Chief Boston is a sizeable cog in the Crimson athletic picture--operating at jobs as scout and head wrestling coach besides at his weekday Jayvee command.

But the Jayvee are his current big-time worry. Out at the blood pit, as the Jayvees call their practice field, the air rings with piercing cries of "Go, go, go" or "Get blocking in that line" as Boston gets his charges cracking. By the end of the year the backs usually are going, the line usually is blocking, and the team wins.

History Made in '46

"You have to like to play football to be a Jayvee," Chief says, "because there's no glory involved." Apparently the Jayvees like to play under Boston for they play and scrimmage three hours an afternoon at the blood pit and haven't lost a game since 1945. Last year's Jayvees piled up the best record in Harvard history, ending the season by blasting an unbeaten Yale eleven, 26 to 0.

Boston explains it by saying that last year's Jayvees were something of a freak. "We had a lot of veterans and Seniors who for various reasons didn't get on the Varsity squad. When they got on the Jayvees they just clicked. They wanted to win, so they did."

And in the process they built up a spirit and tradition that seems still to linger. The veterans of the 1946 team still tell the stories of their battles with and for Boston.

The one they like the best happened shortly after the kickoff in the Maritime game. Boston had told them before the game to play conservative, tight football, but in the first quarter the Jayvees found themselves stalled with a first down on their own four. The quarterback called for a double reverse pass, trickiest play in the book, and on the end of the reverse Dave Farrell, the team's passing star, threw a long one to Bill Fitz on the 50-yard line. Fitz went all the way for a touchdown.

Back on the bench, everyone but Boston was cheering. When the shouts died down they saw him looking down the field at Farrell and heard him murmur: "The dumb Irishman."

Before the Dartmouth game Chief gave his usual pep talk: "This is the toughest game we'll face all year," but ended it with an especially fervent, "I've never been on a team that's beaten Dartmouth and I've never coached one that has. Let's win today."

Down on the Green

The Jayvees rolled to a 11 to 0 win, but for the whole second half Chief didn't speak to anyone and an assistant coach did the substituting. The Jayvees would not stop scoring and Chief was a friend of the Dartmouth coach.

Football went commercial shortly before the First World War and since then refinements have accumulated by the year. Scouting is perhaps one of the most potent of the refinements, and Chief Boston is one of the Crimson specialists in that art. Last year he was one of the scouts on Princeton, Holy Cross, Brown, Dartmouth and Yale, and apparently did fairly well, for the Crimson won four of five, "But," Chief adds with no comment, "I looked at Virginia for two weeks this year."

When scouts--they usually work in pairs--go to a game they sit in seats provided by the other team (coaches scouting Harvard sit on the 45-yard line in the colonnade) and take down as many plays and defensive formations of the future opponent as they can. "We also look for individual traits," Chief adds, "such as a guard that charges high or a reckless end."

"Back in 1938 Yale had a blocking back named Caldwell who used to space his position in the backfield differently on each type of play. He helped Harvard and a good many other teams."

Straight from Providence

A four-sport schoolboy athlete in Providence, Clarence Boston came to Harvard in 1935, the year Harlow arrived, and after playing fullback on the Freshman team, he played blocking back on the Varsity for three years in the days when Vernon Struck made his name as the magnificent faker. Boston was mentioned on the Colliers football All-American team in 1937, and a year later he took the heavyweight division of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Championship in 1938.

After a year of coaching at a prep school in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Boston came back to Cambridge as the Freshman coach in 1940 and 1941. "We played a lot of football those years," Boston says, "but I hope the won and lost records are well buried in the books by this time." Cleo O'Donnell, last year's Varsity captain, played on one of his teams.

After four years in Patton's third army as a major in the Field Artillery, Boston returned to Soldiers Field in time for Spring practice in 1946.

In the winter time Chief forsakes the turf for the mat and turns out the Crimson wrestling team.

But just now the emphasis is on the pigskin and the Jayvees won their first game for 1947 on Saturday, Elijah the prophet had plenty to say about the future but Elijah Boston, in the tradition of a football coach does not. "We may win some, but last year was a freak," he says.