Schollander, Undefeated Yale, Invade IAB

Varsity Meet 4 p.m.

Freshman Meet 2 p.m.

In late summer, 1964, millions of Americans watched over Telstar as Don Schollander won four swimming gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics. This afternoon Harvard fans can watch the phenom in the flesh when he leads unbeaten Yale into the IAB.

At Tokyo, Schollander outclassed the rest of the world in the 100, 200, and 400-meter freestyle events and anchored the U.S. team to victory in the free relay. Last Saturday, in a crucial meet against Princeton, he showed he was a fast as ever.

The 5 ft. 11 in. "golden boy" won the 500-yd freestyle, swam a leg of the free relay and turned in a swift 51.2 clocking for the butterfly leg of the medley relay. Yale took both relays and churned to its 13th straight win.

The night before the Princeton meet, Schollander had expressed a slight concern about its outcome. Straight through the dark passageway connecting the swimming locker room to the Yale training table, Schollander mentioned a few of the toughest Tigers but then smiled confidently as he thought of his own powerful team.

Besides Schollander the Elis have seven sub-1:50 200-yd. freestylers -- enough to stock most countries' Olympic teams. Sprinter Mike Ahearn ranks with the nation's best. In a recent relay, he roared through 100 yards in 46.3 -- 1.7 seconds under the Harvard record.

Unnameably Numerous

There's no point in naming all the great Yale performers. Eli coach Phil Moriarity has so much depth and talent that superstars like Schollander will probably be called on for only one event this afternoon.

Schollander sat down to his training table meal of roast beef and marble cake, and told why he has continued swimming--this is his 12th year of practice.

"It would have been really easy for me to quit after the Olympics," he said, "but I wanted to prove that I could do what other champions couldn't -- stay on top for more than two or three years."

The reduced athletic emphasis of Ivy schools -- even one so much in the swim as Yale -- is bound to hinder Schollander in his quest for future Olympic medals. At the University's of Southern California, for example, they spend four hours a day in the pool.

"I get in no more than two hours a day," the world recorder-holder at 200 meters explained, "but I came to college to learn not to swim. A life of absolute swimming is behind me."

To make up for the practice time he loses during the winter, Schollander spends his summers training with the famed Santa Clara Youth Village swim team. His performance in last year's Amateur Athletic Union meets showed the value of his California summers.

Travel is Fun

In the indoor meet -- held shortly after the college swimming season -- Schollander won only his favorite event, the 200 free. But outdoors after two months with Santa Clara he sped to three first place finishes.

Whether he makes as big a splash at Mexico City in 1968 as he did at Tokyo, Schollander has reaped fantastic benefits from his six or seven years in international competition.

During Christmas vacation, the 20-year-old North Carolina native toured Ireland, swimming in several exhibition meets. It was Schollander's sixth or seventh trip to Europe -- he's lost count.

Last summer Schollander took a trip to the Soviet Union for the first U.S.-Russian swim meet. He was struck both by the bleakness of Russian life and the swift improvement in Russian swimming.

"The weather was overcast most of the time we were there," he said, "and the gray weather sort of symbolized the whole country. The people don't seem aware that there are better things to be had."

Copycats

In swimming, the Russians have done what they have in many other sports -- copied American techniques to improve or start their own programs.

The Soviet government subsidizes the program. The swimmers have "no constraint on time or money -- they're just training," Schollander said. "We were lucky to get pretty good performances or they might have beaten us," he added.

And the Russians will be tough at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, he predicted, because their swim team is practicing now in the 10,000-foot high Ural Mts. Schollander himself will pass up a fourth trip to Japan this summer to get some practice at Mexico City's 2000-ft. altitude.

Serious Bill

As he relaxed with his second piece of cake, Schollander observed that former basketball All-American Bill Bradley was "too serious about everything." Schollander said he would not apply for a "Bradley-type Rhodes," because he wants to start work on the stock market as soon as he graduates from Yale.

Unfortunately for the other Ivy schools, Schollander's graduation will not mark the end of Yale's freshmen, called by many the best first year team in the nation, are undefeated and unmenaced. John Nelson, the star of the freshmen, was a silver-medalist freestyler at Tokyo.

Today's meet will be the last dual effort for Harvard's All-American breaststroker Bob Corris, captain Jim Seubold, sprinters Bob Padway and Andy Grinstead and marathon-man Dick Smith.