ECAC Punishes Yale For Defying NCAA

The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference voted 104 to 50 yesterday to place Yale on probation until June 1971 for its decision to allow Jack Langer to play in the Maccabiah games against NCAA regulations.

Langer, a 6'8" reserve center on the Eli basketball team, began practicing with the team again this Fall after playing in the Maccabiah games in Israel during the summer.

As part of its continuing battle with the AAU for control of international basketball, the NCAA denied its sanction to the basketball division of the games. Yale supported Langer in his decision to accept a bid for the games and vowed last month to fight the possible NCAA punishments.

The disciplinary action came as no surprise to the Yale athletic department, the Yale Daily said last night, although the number of votes supporting Yale was less than expected.

The punishment parallels one handed out against Yale by the NCAA last month.

Yale hoped that distributing an eight-page position paper would convince members of the ECAC to "condemn the NCAA for overstepping its bounds." Instead, a strongly worded resolution was adopted citing Yale's "continued defiance" in using Langer when it had been ordered by the NCAA not to.

Harvard basketball coach Bob Harrison yesterday termed the action a "slap at the Ivy League" and a "definite miscarriage of justice."

"There is no doubt that a rule was broken," Harrison said, "but the whole thing is unfair." This was the chance of the small schools to get at a school like Yale. The Ivy League is not too popular," he added.

"It's especially unfair to the boys who compete in other sports at Yale-boys who have nothing to do with the basketball team. I'm with Yale all the way," he said.

The ECAC sanctions apply to all Yale athletic teams. However they do not apply to ECAC-affiliated events such as the Eastern Sprint Regatta and the Eastern Seaboard Swimming Championships.

The ECAC council was to rule on the case Monday night but decided to put it before the entire membership because of the decision's controversial nature.