Crew Drills for Next Spring

Three months ago Tom Bolles' Varsity crew was knocking itself out in the United States Olympic trials. Most normal men would still be recovering from the ordeal of the four-mile Yale race and four Olympic sprints within a ten-day period, but today Harvard's crews are plying the waters of the Charles once more.

Five veterans of the near-Olympic boat are back again--stroke Bill Curwen, Captain Frank Strong, Ted Reynolds, Don Felt, and Mike Scully. Or, putting it the other way round, there are blank spaces where Paul Knaplund, Jud Gale, and coxswain Sam Mantel once rowed.

With more than six months until the season's opening race, Bolles in hardly committing himself on the subject of a prospective first boatload. He will not even guarantee that his five returnees can hold down their jobs next year.

Although he refuses to make any definite statement, Bolles has mentioned Bob Taggart, who spent the early part of last season at the Varsity number five slot, as distinctly eligible for promotion. George Lodge, who held down a position in the jayvee boat last year, has also been looking good at port oar. Bill Leavitt would seem to be in line for cox.

The fact in that Bolles has a wealth of material to choose from. Seven men are back from last year's jayvee boat, and the entire combination crew is still around. Sometime between now and next April 23, sufficient replacements should appear.

Nor does the string run out with this group. Harvey Love is working overtime these days with some 240 Freshman aspirants. In short, the way things look now, the golden age of Harvard rowing seems assured until at least the spring of 1953.