Ivy Rivalries Resume as Cornell Enters Stadium

The Crimson faces the revamped Big Red today in a game that should make Harvard Stadium look like an explosion in a tomato cannery on a sunset evening.

Both teams come into the game with their attacks in midseason form as Cornell comes off a 24-0 rout of Bucknell, their first shutout since 1974, while the Crimson are riding high after routing Colgate last Saturday.

Harvard's multi-flex should be in its full kaleidoscopic splendor as Joe Restic is planning to unveil a couple of new offensive sets in an attempt to dazzle Cornell's defense. "It could be very exciting," Restic says with tongue in cheek.

Sabbatical

Under Bob Blackman, who was the winningest coach in Ivy League history before he left. Dartmouth for a sabbatical at Illinois, Cornell has gone undefeated this season with only one tie. The Ithacans have been averaging 227 yards a game rushing and have only thrown a piddling 29 passes.

Blackman says, "I have great respect for the Harvard team. Harvard's altogether different from anything we've faced before. I tell my players there's a difference between playing against a fair, a good, and a great quarterback and I certainly put Larry Brown in the great quarterback category."

The vital cogs in Cornell's attack are sprint-out style quarterback Jim Hofer and blithe tailback Joe Holland, who graduated last year but is still eligible because of his transfer status from Michigan. Holland has been a one-man dynamo so far with 369 yards carrying in 67 rushes, compared to 34 carries in all of last year. "Quite frankly," says Blackman, "we didn't expect that much from him because he just wasn't that impressive when he carried the ball last year."

Holland's father Jerome "Bud" Holland starred for Cornell in 1937 and 1938. One of the first blacks to play in the Ivy League, Bud Holland was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965 and is now the U.S. ambassador to Sweden.

Cornell's other leading rusher is Ken Talton and the leading receiver is tight end Brad Decker. The only important player who will miss the game for the Red is offensive tackle Rob Ainslie, who is ailing with pneumonia. Craig Beling and Paul Sablock are hobbled for Harvard and not expected to play.

Defensively both squads have proven secondaries, but Harvard must stymie Cornell's multiple-I running game for a surefire victory. Crimson captain Steve Potysman says, "once they settle down they run right at you." Restic adds, "if Holland carries the ball 30 to 40 times it will be hard for us to stay with them."

Today's game is the first of six consecutive Ivy League showdowns for the Crimson and after an opening day loss to Columbia, Harvard cannot afford to be upset again. "We just have to win every game," says Restic, "because I don't see anyone taking Yale for quite a stetch and it just might come down to our game."