Boston Writers Stymied

Harvard came within three hours of keeping secret the identity of the new football coach until the press conference yesterday afternoon.

At about 11 a.m. yesterday, the Associated Press broke the story that Joe Restic had been chosen. It had a Dallas, Tex., dateline.

"We're mystified by it [the news break]," said associate athletic director Baaron Pittenger last night. "We'll find out eventually how it happened, but it's only a minor irritation."

But attempts at secrecy were generally very successful since no Boston papers were able to find out who the new coach would be. "I don't think anybody had any inkling that he was even a candidate," Pittenger said.

"One writer in the Boston press, Joe Concannon, has always been a security problem," he continued. Concannon was Pittenger's assistant when Pittenger was Harvard's director of sports information. He made "extensive contacts" then.

But Concannon has been vacationing in Miami since December 23, so Harvard's selection committee could relax a bit.

Restic visited Cambridge December 8 for his interview and stayed in the Treadway Motor House in Harvard Square. While walking to the interview that day he was spotted by B.C. coach Joe Yukica, who called out to Restic. Restic explained that he was in town recruiting, and Yukica apparently bought the story.

But on his two subsequent visits to Boston, both after the committee's decision, Restic stayed at Pittenger's home in Winchester.