1958 Varsity To Play Nine Grid Contests

The football team will play a nine-game schedule next Fall, as all other Ivy League schools now do, Thomas D. Bolles, Director of Athletics, confirmed yesterday.

This new schedule will give the varsity "the same gate experience as our sister opponents," Bolles explained. Harvard is presently the only Ivy League school which does not play a nine-game schedule.

The team's present eight-game schedule has been in operation since 1953, when, it is understood, the University hoped to persuade the other schools in the Ivy League to follow its reduced schedule. The new nine-game decision indicates that this attempt has been given up.

Next year's season will begin on Sept. 27, the end of the first week of classes, and will continue through the Yale game, the week before Thanksgiving. Varsity coach John Yovicsin is known to favor the revised schedule, but was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The names of the Crimson's two non-Ivy League opponents have not yet been disclosed, but they will in all likelihood be teams of the strength of the University of Ohio, which lost to the varsity several weeks ago.

The change in schedule has been under contemplation and discussion by the Committee on Athletics for some time. It was the committee's feeling that, although the added week of practice gave the varsity opportunity to examine other teams, it is more beneficial for the Crimson to engage in actual play at the same time as other Ivy League teams.