Street Fighting, Window Breaking Mark Weekend Town-Gown Friction

Post-game revelry flared into violence early yesterday morning when three University students and group of Cambridge youths met in a brief but vicious free-for-all in front of the Hayes-Bickford Cafeteria.

Police arrived a few seconds after the fighting had stopped, but did not hold any of the combatants. Most seriously injured was one student whose nose was broken. Others suffered only superficial cuts and bruises.

The brawl culminated an exchange of insults which began inside the restaurant when an undergraduate accidentally jostled a town boy. The Cambridge boys followed the students outside and assaulted them on the sidewalk in front of the building.

Earlier in the evening several undergraduates had noticed a car full of youths parked on Massachusetts Ave., in front of Hayes-Bickford's. "They were racing their motor and shouting, "Come on and fight, Harvard chickens!'" one reported.

Another group of town boys gathered on the Boylston St. side of Eliot House at about 11 p.m. Saturday and broke several windows with rocks. House residents called Cambridge, police, but again patrolmen did not arrive until the disturbance was over.

Saturday night's incidents were the first manifestations of town-gown friction so far this year. In the spring of 1953 a University graduate was stabbed and seriously injured by a group of boys right off Harvard Square.