Winthrop House Closes Gap on Kirkland In Inter-House Battle for Straus Trophy

In a race described as "unusually close" by Intramural Athletic Director Floyd Wilson. Kirkland House holds a meager three point edge over Winthrop House in the Straus Cup competition.

Sweeping both the hockey and basketball league this winter, Winthrop cut 50 points off Kirkland's lead in the fall standings.

Invitation

Winthrop president Howe McCarthy sees no end to Winthrop's surge:

"Tell 'em that we'll invite Kirkland House's Athletic Secretary to our Straus Cup victory banquet in Winthrop this Spring."

The Kirkland House athletic secretaries, golfing in Florida, could not be reached to return the insult.

McCarthy cites Pete Cairo, "the best shot in the University." and Vince Lackner, a sophomore transfer ineligible for varsity play, as the stars on the Winthrop basketball team that "reeled off 15 straight and crunched" Kirkland for the championship.

Eliot House athletic secretary Mike Brody described Eliot's winter performance as "not too good." In second place after the fall competition, Eliot now stands third, eighty points out of first. But Brody is still pretty optimistic.

The Volleyball Trounce

"Our volleyball team is about to trounce all competitors, like it always does," he said. Eliot's baseball team features several ex-varsity pitchers. Brody added, and the track team's Scotty Guild is worth about "four firsts in every meet."

Quincy House finished third in the winter competition, but still stands fourth over all. "We lived up to our tradition of doing well in the individual sports, finishing first in the wrestling and second in the boxing," commented Quincy athletic secretary Doug Bromley.

Quincy did not do as well in team competition as in the individuals. The hockey team struggled into the play-offs and the basketball team recovered from an early season slump to take a thrid, but their efforts failed to threaten the league leaders.

According to Bromley. Quincy's "success" in hockey was due almost entirely to the performance of Jim Baldassari, a ringer imported from the JV.

Mediocre

Leverett House athletic secretary Dave Martin described Leverett's winter performance as "mediocre." The athletic secretary of sixth-place Dunster House. Tim Beckett, praised the basketball heroics of 6'8" sophomore Ken Bollin, but not much else.

The athletic secretaries of the last three Houses in the standings, Lowell, Adams and Dudley, did not answer the phone.