2,000 Throng Gym Steps for Rally

More than 2000 students--the biggest rally in nearly a decade--marched and sang and cheered through Cambridge streets last night to greet Art Valpey on the eve of his first game as Harvard's head coach.

Led by the Band, the block-long march line, wound from the Yard through the Houses and up to the Indoor Athletic Building to hear three speakers and sing the whole repertoire of football songs.

Valpey, whose appearance brought the evening's biggest cheer, had strong medicine for the student throng. "This team will give a good account of itself. It has all the qualities of greatness."

Eddie Davis, tackle on the strong team in 1946, invited his listeners to "come on out tomorrow--you'll see the new look; the kind from Michigan. They're in the habit of winning out there."

Chet Pierce, another ex-tackle, had a pertinent fact to quote: "Columbia has never beaten Harvard"

Director Malcolm Holmes '28 put the band through its paces on the gym steps. The crowd, pressing around the steps for half a block each way, refused to let the musicians go home until they played the perennial favorite, "Wintergreen."

Two thousand fans went home after that, bearing Valpey's closing words in mind: "Bottle some of those spirits and bring them to the Stadium."