Gale's Injury Threatens Varsity Eight's First Bid

Just at the time Tom Bolles should be rounding his Varsity crew into final shape for the opening race of the season he has received what he politely refers to as "a kick in the bolly." Jud Gale, all-American veteran from last year's championship boat, has retired to Stillman Infirmary with an infected foot.

Galo may be back on his feet by Saturday, but there is no miracle of science that can put him in the boat that starts against Rutgors, Princeton, and M.I.T. on Lake Carnegic that afternoon.

The gaping hole that the prostrate Gale leaves in this Olympic-bidding Varsity will be filled by Bob Taggart, a six-and-one-half foot sophomore who rowed seven on last year's first Freshman boat.

Bolles made one other recent change, with an eye to packing the powerful Don Felt into his starting lineup. The ex-stroke candidate now holds down the number two position, while that seat's former occupant, Ted Reynolds, is pulling at a starboard oar one slot down.

From bow to stroke, the following eight will launch Harvard's bid for world's championship, barring further pestilence: Mike Scully, Don Felt, Ted Reynolds, Dick Emmet, Taggart, Frank Strong, Paul Knaplund, and Bill Curwen. Sam Mantel will handle vocal duties from the stern.

Bolles has traded his early-season optimism for a gloomier view of life. A month ago, he scarcely deigned to mention anything this side of Juen Olympic trials, and his biggest complaint was that the Schuylkill river's torturous course provided hazardous and unfair proving ground for the champions.

Saturday and Apprehension

Now Bolles seems to view Saturday's approach with quiet apprehension. Doubtless the absence of Gale is the chief contributing cause to this alarm, but the lanky coach also points out that his crews were out one week later this year than last, and that the opening race comes a week earlier.

This will put the Crimson well behind all opposition but M.I.T. in point of experience the day after tomorrow, as both Princeton and Rutgers have already raced. The Tigers, who boast only three returnees from 1947, dropped their opener to a strong Navy boat last week, while Rutgers, never a fear-provoking aggregation, dropped one to Penn by four lengths the same day. M.I.T. is an untested, but usually dangerous, competitor.

Freshmen Muddled

The Freshman crew situation is still in a state of flux, with little more than a week left before the opener against the Cornell and M.I.T. yearlings. Coach Harvey Love wants it this way. With a mass of eager candidates to choose from, the Freshman mentor witholds his final boatings until the week of the race, giving himself the maximum time to scrutinize his prospects, and his rowers the maximum time to prove themselves.

Perhaps all this pessimism has some connection with the fact that on the day this reporter last spoke to the coach, they had just returned from the speetacle of seeing an adroit Freshman coxswain pilot a load of 150's into a passing sailboat. Somehow, the coaches seemed a bit tired of it all. The Varsity Schedule April 24  Princeton, MIT, and Rutgers at Princeton May 1  Cornell here May 8  Pennsylvania and Navy at Philadelphia May 15  Eastern Intercollegiate Sprint Regatta here June 25  Yale at New London