Varsity Managers: The Indispensable Men

Managers at Harvard do an enormous amount of work for the University's athletic program. Their task is "to conduct the team's business to such a degree that the players and coaches are entirely free to concentrate on the competition."

Managing at Harvard is distinctly different from the stereotyped impressions of a high school manager. Here the manager is neither locker room attendent nor water boy. Rather, he is equivalent to the business manager of a professional team.

In relieving the coach of administrative duties, the manager alone is responsible for business and travel arrangements. He makes hotel reservations, charters busses, plans the time and location of meals, handles miscellaneous tasks necessary to keep the organization of the teams functioning smoothly.

Managerial duties vary with the individual sport. The football manager for example, does no varsity scheduling but supervises the activities of I6 assistants. The baseball manager plans the annual Southern spring trip; he handles all schedules and business arrangements. The crew manager schedules races for the second and third boats only.

Despite these particular differences, each manager does basically the same things for his individual teams. All head managers of major sports schedule junior varsity and Freshman events. All managers take over the burden-some off-the-field duties that hinder a coach. This special assistance given to the coach promoted John Yovicsin to say, "The work I did in the past is done by the managers here."

This work is centralized in two offices, one at Dillon Field House and one on the top floor of the H.A.A. building. At this office the managers have a secretary who handles their clerical work. It is through the H.A.A. office that all correspondence is handled. The on-the-field-work is done from the office at Dillon.

In addition to this, the managers are bound together in the recently rejuvenated Undergraduate Managers' Council. This group meets monthly to discuss common problems of managing and also to make any recommendations about athletics in general to the Undergraduate Athletic Council.

Thus the manager is more than a glorified janitor. Any man who has managed a Harvard team will proclaim the advantages of his job. More than any other single group, the managers are in constant contact with coaches and athletic directors here and at other schools. They are the direct liason between the team and the Department of Athletics, for it is the manager who has contacts with both the players and administration. Managers feel they have a grave responsibility for team spirit. Sloppy arrangements of a trip may wreck the spirit of a team. Above all, managing is one way "to get out of a rut" by assuming some worthwhile responsibilities in a valuable extra-curricular activity.

This is not to say that there are no disadvantages involved in managing. One which immediately comes to mind is the rigorous and complicated competition required to become a head manager in any major sport. Also, only one student in each class becomes head manager of a given sport and deriving all the benefits of his job. The others are left in subordinate positions and have to retire before their senior year.

Freshmen who compete for the experience alone always do the most menial tasks available in each sport. The average Yardling may not get along with older players with whom he often comes in contact. Because he must be on the job before, during, and after every practice, a manager works more time than the players.

By far the greatest of the disadvantages is the fact that, at heart, any manager would rather be playing. Some managers are, in fact, players who failed to make the team. They want to identify themselves with a sport, and so they turn to managing.

Nevertheless, all things considered, the head athletic managership at Harvard is a most desirable position. He receives invaluable training in assuming business and executive responsibility. Law and Business Schools look with favor upon candidates who have been athletic managers and the experience itself is extremely useful in later life. If a student has the ability to administer the affairs of a large organization, the desire to learn the inner workings of a team, and the talent to become the head manager, he will find that this experience is rarely equaled by student positions at Harvard.