Unbeaten Tiger Eleven Battles Crimson Today

For the last three years, Princeton teams have come into the Harvard game with perfect or near-perfect records. For three straight years they have been among the country's top teams on offense when they met Harvard. For three straight years they have been on top of the Ivy League when they played the Crimson. And for three straight years, Princeton has lost to Harvard.

This year the Tigers are as good as ever. They have won six games in a row. They have run up some incredible scores. They have given up just four touchdowns.

Princeton plays Harvard at Princeton at 1:30 p.m. today.

There can be no question that the for this game. A good group of Princeton seniors who have never beaten Harvard will have their last chance today.

The seniors include all-Ivy fullback Cosmo Iacavai, the Ivy League leader in scoring and rushing; Don McKay, the tallback who has ranked high in the league all year in passing and total offense; wingback Doug Tufts; and seven other starters in Princeton's two units.

Last year Harvard stopped the Tigers by choking their running game. This year they can't concentrate only on the ground attack. McKay can pass, and his substitute, Ron Landock, can pass even better. The Harvard pass defense, which looked awful early in the season, hasn't been tested recently.

Furthermore, everyone who has seen Princeton play agrees that this is the best Tiger defense in years. With guards Stas Mallssewski and Paul Savidge as bulwarks of a line that averages 210 pounds, the Tigers have shut off every running game they have met.

The oddsmakers looked at all this, and then at Harvard's wishy-washy 4-2 season, then made Princeton a 12-point favorite.

So can Harvard hope to beat the Tigers?

Well, to begin with, John Yovicsin's teams have a fantastic defensive record against Princeton's single wing.

The single wing, far more than the T, depends on a line that can open holes and keep them open. And today, for the first time, Princeton's offensive line will find itself outweighed (Harvard averages 213 pounds up front to 204 for the Tigers).

Perhaps it is asking for too much to hope that Harvard's offense will jell this week after four-and-a-half erratic games and one good second half against penn.

But the offense looks better right now than it has all year. Wally Grant last week looked like the Wally Grant of 1963 as he carried for 91 yards in 15 carries. Conway will be back this week and Dava Pos, Grant's running mate, turned in a fine job against Penn to prove that he has recovered from his serious concussion a month ago.

Almost unnoticed, quarterback Tom Bilodean has compiled a spectacular passing record. He is 35 for 53 in the air, a 66 per cent record that would make any quarterback envious.

He has thrown for four touchdowns and been intercepted only once. Meanwhile Grant, with 16 receptions, is approaching the Harvard season record of 19.

Balance will be the key against Princeton. Harvard must move both on the ground and in the air, and keep control of the ball more easily than they have recently. If Princeton has the ball often enough to keep probing Harvard's defense for weak spots, the game may be over early.

But Harvard may have one other thing going for them. In today's game psychological factors may well make the difference. Princeton caught Dartmouth on a bad day and beat the Indians 37-7. Dartmouth caught Harvard on a worse day and won 48-0.

The only Harvard films the Tigers have seen show the Dartmouth game. The Tigers would be almost inhuman if the comparative scores and the films did not make them overconfident. And if Princeton doesn't take Harvard seriously today, Princeton has had it