Harvard Classics: Fun While Winning

Quick! Which Harvard intercollegiate squad boasts a 20-3 record, ragtime pianist Eubie Blake as an honorary member and a coach's room which is really a broom closet on the fifth floor of the IAB? Well? All right it's the Harvard Classics, renowned round-ballers and resident basketball buffoons of the IAB.

The Classics is the brainchild of former freshman hoop mentor John Harvey. At the dissolution of the J.V. program last year Harvey saw a need for providing intercollegiate competition for a significant group of varsity castoffs and ex-freshman ballplayers.

After contacting various local community colleges, prisons and a handful of Boston area sub-varsities. Harvey delivered a 22-game schedule and a 15-man roster. The Classics were born.

This year the calendar has been expanded to 25 games with the finale being this Saturday's showdown with Mike Jarvis's freshman squad, a warm-up to the Harvard-Cornell varsity contest.

Coach Harvey explained yesterday some of the logistics of the organization. "We're very much a low-budget outfit," he said. "Our expenses have largely been met from guys scalping football tickets early in the fall".

However, sophomore guard Kevin Kallaugher disagrees with Harvey's lowbudget assessment. "I jumped to the Classics precisely because the varsity didn't offer me enough money," he said.

Anti-Orthodoxy

And so the tongue-in-check jocularity continues. According to Harvey the Classics are a protest against the orthodox tradition of the other teams the players have played on. Despite the incredible array of antics and irreverence displayed in the Classics circuit. Harvey said. "The squad is a dedicated ball club of strong players. I'm thoroughly impressed with their ability to rally and play good ball against very good teams."

The scoring book for the team tells the story of the Classics success. Balanced scoring, team rebounds, foul shots mixed and made, all go conspicuously unrecorded. The prevailing attitude of "who cares" dominates the team philosophy, and only the final tallies grace the stet book.

Peter Durgerian, catalyst of capers and part-time harmonica minstrel is largely responsible for the team's indignance with the institution of basketball.

Durgerian is credited with the inclusion of Eubie Blake in the ranks and files of the Classics clan. He presented the 92-year-old Blake with a team T-shirt, thus providing the squad with a much-needed veteran performer.

One of the Classics' premier contests was with the Concord Reformatory. "We went to Concord a little apprehensive," said Kallaugher, "but we received a warm welcome from the inmates. It was a great experience."

Walter Zipps, director of athletics at Concord, concurred. "We enjoy playing Harvard very much. They're real good players and real gentleman," he said.