Lacrosse League Tying Ivy Teams Rejected by HAA

Heavy expenses which the Harvard Athletic Association cannot pay will force the Athletic Department to turn down a proposed Ivy Group Lacrosse League for the 1955 season, Thomas D. Bolles, director of Athletics, said yesterday.

Bolles stated, however, that he liked the idea of a lacrosse group very much and that he hoped to see it formed within the next two or three years.

The poor financial situation in the athletic league is the sole reason for the College's declining participation, Bolles continued.

H.A.A. losses amounted to $456,000 and $466,000 during the last two fiscal years.

Coaches Asked for League

The 1954-55 athletic budget, which has already been submitted to Lehman Hall, could not support the long trips which the proposed league requires, the athletic director said. The new organization, he explained, would make trips necessary every other year to Philadelphia and Ithaca.

Coaches of Ivy League schools sponsoring lacrosse have repeatedly called for the new league. The group would include Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, Pennsyl- vania, Princeton, and Yale. Columbia does not field a lacrosse team and Brown is not considered strong enough to compete on even ground with the other six teams.

Bolles said that he hoped the new Ivy group might be able in the future to sponsor a fencing tournament and to reactivate the old Soccer League. The latter organization was terminated after the 1951 season.

The trend among Ivy League schools, the athletic director explained, is to schedule as much competition among the eight member teams as possible.

The proposed League would not force the lacrosse team to abandon its spring tour, Bolles said. The southern trip is supported, for the most part, by the players themselves, he said.

The Ivy Group schedule might, however, force the College to drop some nonmember schools from its schedule