Cheer Magnate Spear Heads For Last Whoop-up at Yale

Every winter inhospitable winds drive the football hot-stove league to lamentation, as it sadly contemplates how many "irreplaceable seniors" are leaving the College eleven.

Another, and perhaps more irreplaceable, gap, will also appear in the Crimson lineup when the 1947 grid campaign recedes into history. Unsung will be his memory, for his job is to shine in the reflected glory of others.

Gerald S. Spear '48, head cheerleader, led his last rally last night, and for the last time he sung out for "a regular cheer for the team." Faus only know this jocular Spear, the dancing figure on Saturday sidelines, or the fancied director of rally parades.

Fights Indifference

But the real Spear is a man weighted down by the responsibilities of a task that was created especially for him, by the Undergraduate Athletic Council. In three years of cheerleading, as the first non "H" man to assume the job, he has steadily assumed his personal battle against legendary "Harvard Indifference."

For a man who has fought the good fight against deans, local police, and the CRIMSON, one might expect to find the College head cheerleader an embittered misanthrope. Such is not the case, however, and Spear has only praise for "the terrific cooperation of everybody, the coaches, the players, and the student body."

That the milk of human kindness still flows within Spear is all the more surprising since University Hall has traditionally regarded him as the hostage of College rallies.

This led to uncomfortable situations on occasions, Spear recalls. Once in 1946, one of the lean years of "informal" football, the Pepman was bound for his home in Providence despite the scheduled rally the same evening.

"If any damage is done," was the University Hall ruling, "we will direct the sheriff's posse to your home address."

As casual as rallies may appear to the Hibernian scoffers along the route, plenty of groundwork must be done by Spear before the parade begins. At least six different authorities had to be cleared for last night's rally, for example.

"I am very said that our rallies have always been orderly," said Spear last night, but he was not thinking of himself. "It would be a great blow to College spirit if rallies were outlawed as President Sermour was forced to do down at Yale."