Davenport's Neck Injury Opens Quarterback Door

Larry Brown, Mike Kelly, Burke St. John. One of the three will be Harvard's starting quarterback against UMass tomorrow afternoon when Harvard kicks off its 1977 home football season.

Coach Joe Restic said yesterday that he will wait until the last minute before naming his signalcaller, but the best bet would seem to be Brown, a junior and baseball pitcher par excellence from Norwood who was drafted out of high school by the New York Yankees.

Brown opted for Cambridge instead and tomorrow, Restic may very well opt for him to replace the injured Tim Davenport, who is out for the season with a fractured neck vertebra.

"You know," Restic said yesterday afternoon while redesigning his offense, "we can feel sorry for ourselves, but I just feel so sorry for Tim. All the time he's put in for two years on the bench. I just hope he can come back and watch and feel involved.

There is no way of telling how Davenport's absence will affect the Crimson's offensive showing. This situation resembles the mess at training camp two years ago when seven players were vying for the starting quarterback slot. Jim Kubacki emerged the victor in that contest, and two months later, Harvard had its first undisputed Ivy title and Kubacki was on his way to becoming the Crimson's all-time total offense leader.

One thing seems to be certain-- the infamous Restic multiflex will be doing a lot less flexing this weekend. A new quarterback will mean a simpler offense, as the green signalcaller needs more than 48 hours to learn Restic's intricacies.

He will at least have the opportunity to do so, however, in a non-Ivy contest, where pride counts more than victory.