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Harlow's Tactics Set Up Two Touchdowns In Last Crimson Victory Over Yale In '41

Coach Ordered Old Play to be Revived

By D. DONALD Peddle

To date the best Harvard football team during the Harlow regime was the 1941 eleven, the last Yale game victor. The score was 14 to 0 that year in a game in which there was no question about who had the better team.

The season began inauspiciously with defeats at the hands of Penn and Cornell, and articulate Bill Cunningham felt moved to dub the play "pantywaist pigskin pushing."

Came four successive victories and then the Elis somewhat outmanned but ready for a last ditch fight. Harvard's main offensive punch in 1941 was Don McNichol, a low-slung bucking back of the Lazzaro type and with a gift for passing. McNichol, in fact, was the only genuine offensive weapon that the team had to offer. In order to produce some semblance of the outside threat which the halfbacks could not provide, canny Dick Harlow devised a series of endaround plays featuring Loren MacKinney. Rugged Defense For McNicol

Yale was fully aware that if it could stop McNicol over the guards, it could probably stop Harvard. The Eli defense was designed for that purpose, with its linemen bunched together and ganged up on the two great Crimson guards, Peabody and Dick Pfister.

This alignment was sure to cause a traffic jam for McNichol and his spinners over the guards, and it did for about 15 minutes. The bunching of the Yale linemen had left their left end and left tackle in an untenable position. The weakness was soon spotted, and out came the order to pull an old play out of the mothballs. It was a play not intended for Yale game use, McNichol going inside his own right end.

And inside his own right end he went to the tune of two touchdowns on long marches in the middle of the game. Yale's end and tackle were unable to cope with the pressure levied upon them.

If a sudden change in tackles will turn the tide of Saturday's game, count on Dick Harlow to come up with the answer.

Yale was fully aware that if it could stop McNicol over the guards, it could probably stop Harvard. The Eli defense was designed for that purpose, with its linemen bunched together and ganged up on the two great Crimson guards, Peabody and Dick Pfister.

This alignment was sure to cause a traffic jam for McNichol and his spinners over the guards, and it did for about 15 minutes. The bunching of the Yale linemen had left their left end and left tackle in an untenable position. The weakness was soon spotted, and out came the order to pull an old play out of the mothballs. It was a play not intended for Yale game use, McNichol going inside his own right end.

And inside his own right end he went to the tune of two touchdowns on long marches in the middle of the game. Yale's end and tackle were unable to cope with the pressure levied upon them.

If a sudden change in tackles will turn the tide of Saturday's game, count on Dick Harlow to come up with the answer.

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