Harvard to Provide Training For Minority Group Officials

The Harvard Athletic Department, in conjunction with the Harvard Administration, will conduct a football officiating clinic for minority groups this Fall.

The clinic, which will begin September 20, will be organized and run by the Athletic Department with funding allocated by Mass Hall.

The course will be geared toward preparing its participants for the football officials' qualifying exam given in November and will feature on-the-field training at Harvard freshman, J.V., and intramural games, as well as a weekly schedule of lectures. There will be openings for 20 prospective officials in the two-month clinic.

The program's original impetus came from Harvard and other Ivy League administrators--President Bok and Robert B. Watson '37, director of Athletics, among them--and students concerned with the small number of minority group members involved in college athletics in positions above the player level.

Watson, who will oversee the program, said that Harvard's program was founded "because nobody's doing a damn thing about the situation."

"We felt 'Yes indeed, we ought to get some black officials.'" Watson said last week. "But nothing seemed to be done about it. So we decided, okay, we are going to do it ourselves."

Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to President Bok, who is helping to coordinate the minority training program, said last week that the establishment of a program such as Harvard's is the result of rising concern about the small numbers of minorities in college athletics.

Watson said that he solicited Leonard's help to find people who would be interested in such a program. "I didn't feel that I had the right contacts to find out who would be interested in this," Watson said. "We went to Leonard to see if he could find young, able people who would be interested."

Watson said that while Harvard isn't rigidly screening applicants for the clinic, the University hopes that applicants will have at least a high school education. And he said that the program is aimed primarily at the 22-24 age group.

Whether or not the program will continue beyond this year is still up in the air, Watson said. "We are terribly hopeful that this will be successful," he said, "but right now we have to wait and see."