Sports Scene Points to Flush Year

Lake the slow return of washing machines and Buick convertibles to the American seene, College athletics are still throwing off the traces of wartime curtailment to their quest for the clusive goal of "normality."

This fall, for the first time since formal athletics were resumed on a large scale a year ago, that goal is definitely ins sight. coaches who last year were starting from scratch in building new teams out of new talent will have a chance to go much father this year with a solid foundation.

20 Lettermen Return

When Dick Harlow greeted the 1947 football squad a little over two weeks ago on the opening day of practice, he found a nucleus of 20 returning lettermen and strong prospects from last fall's Freshmen and Chief Boston's undefeated Jayvees. Twelve months ago he made his long awaited return from war service to Soldiers Field on a similar mission to find a maze of unfamiliar talent interspersed with a smattering of 1942 players and members of informal wartime squads, and the opening game scarcely a month away. The resulting seven wins out of nine after such a precarious start were a pleasant surprise to all.

Other sports were better able to make the transition from war to peace, although many faced particular problems of their own. Hockey, basketball, and baseball teams carried over many players from informal squads of 1945. The skaters, however, ran afoul of Yale and Dartmouth, two faster-developing post-war aggregations which they will have to be pointing for this winter, and the basketball and baseball squads had to become familiar with two new coaches.

A new wrinkle last winter to accommodate oversized basketball crowds which could not be squeezed into the Indoor Athletic Building was the scheduling of more games in the Boston Garden.

Crow Prospects

A bright light in the new ora of Crimson athletics is Tom Bolles' crew, which rose last spring from its previous informal status to establish itself as one of the top boats in the country and a good bet for the 1948 Olympics.

New to the College are many war-time transfers who are making their weight felt on the various teams. This situation, prevalent throughout the United States, has caused an unprecedented distribution of fine players among colleges great and small, and produced, according to Dick Harlow, the large number of football upsets last season.

Schedules were another wartime casualty, particularly for the football team. When the Crimson eleven returned to active duty last fall, many familiar opponents were caught without an open date, and it is hoped that such Ivy League rivals as Penn, Columbia, and Army will be worked in soon again.

The second season of the post-war rennaissance to about to get under way. We are waiting patiently and hopefully for the last wrinkles to be smoothed away.