Yale-Connecticut, Columbia-Brown Play Ivy Openers

Nearly 30,000 football enthusiasts will file into the Yale Bowl this afternoon as the Ivy League teams begin their respective seasons. In New Haven, Yale opens against the University of Connecticut, while Brown and Columbia oppose each other in Providence.

The Brown-Columbia contest will open the second official season for the Ivy Group colleges.

The Yale-Connecticut game will be of special interest since the entire League will be waiting to see to what degree Yale coach Jordan Olivar has been able to rebuild his championship squad.

Connecticut retains most of the regulars which held the Elis to a 19-14 score last year, falling short of an upset when time ran out on them in the dying seconds of the game with the ball on the Yale three-yard line. The game is rated a toss-up.

Brown Favored

Coach A1 Kelley's Bruin team will rate a 13-point edge over the Lions in a game which should determine whether or not the Brown squad will be able to challenge seriously for the Ivy League Title. The Bruins have 16 returning lettermen from last year's squad which finished fifth in the League, led by captain Gil Robertshaw, an all-Ivy tackle last fall, and they have hopes for pressing Princeton in the race for the championship.

Columbia, sixth in the standings last year, has lost its one-man team, Claude Benham, by graduation, and seems destined to drop even lower this year. With Aldo (Buff) Donelli taking over the coaching job from Lou Little who held it for 27 years, the Lions will have very little to throw against Brown, which has been made a 13-point favorite.

Next weekend, the League will send all its teams into action, with Brown opposing Yale at New Haven, Columbia playing host to Princeton, Harvard opening against Cornell in the Stadium, and Dartmouth playing at Penn.