While You Were Gone...

So how was your summer? You think the Cubbies still have a shot at it, huh? Well, not too much has been happening around here. Oh yeah, there was that Barry Manilow concert in Harvard Stadium in July, but when that's the most exciting Crimson sports event for three months, you can see how things were pretty dead. There were some newsmaking items, though, so listen up.

First off, the baseball team did not win the World Series in Omaha. They didn't even get to Omaha when Delaware and St. John's defeated the Crimson on successive days in the regional NCAA tourney, held at the end of exam period.

Larry Brown lost his only game of the year, 1-0 to Delaware in a rain-shortened six-inning game called after a six-hour rain delay. Brownie's 10-1 slate and second-in-the-nation ERA (just under 1.00) earned him third-team All-American honors, though. And lefty slugger Mike Stenhouse earned a berth on the first-team All-American squad for his record-busting year.

Baseball didn't have a lock on all post-season honors, as three Crimson lacrosse players were tabbed as All-Americans. Rising junior Peter Predun won a spot on the third team, while rising seniors Mike Faught and Ken First received honorable mentions. Graduated tennis captain Todd Lundy picked up All-League honors, as well.

Coach Harry Parker's heavyweight crew salvaged something from the least successful year in recent memory by gutting out a decisive victory over Yale in the four-mile race in Connecticut.

Harry will be joined by a lot of new faces at the varsity club this fall. A total of 10 new coaches will make the Harvard scene this year, most of them assistants.

The main man is Alex Nahigian, who succeeds Loyal Park as varsity baseball coach and will help out with football, too. A reportedly solid teacher, Nahigian has coached hardball at Providence College for the last 19 years, taking the Friars to postseason play nine times. He'll be expected to do the same with the '79 Crimson, as all but three varsity batsmen return for the spring season.

Mac Singleton, an ex-Patriot and head football coach at Boston State College, will take over Loyal Park's freshman football coaching job, while former women's crew coach Peter Raymond takes over for John Higginson at the helm of men's lightweight crew.

Other new coaches are: Mark Panarese (asst.squash), Benny Sims (asst. tennis), Suki Magraw (asst. women's soccer), Billy Raynor (asst. men's basketball), Barbara Rensimer (asst. field hockey and women's lacross), Michael Wildman (asst. women's basketball), and Mary Ellen Dash (asst. women's swimming). In addition, Carole Kleinfelder will take over Debi Field's lacrosse coaching job.

The man in charge of handling publicity for all the new faces will be Joe Bertagna '73, who succeeds Dave Matthews as Harvard's sports information director. Bertagna, a former varsity hockey goalie, also doubles as women's ice hockey coach. Pat Walsh will assume Bertagna's old job as assistant SID.

One old publicity-getter who won't be getting too much anymore is Jim Curry. After signing as a free agent with the NFL New York Giants in June, the split end punter stayed on the club through most of training camp before getting the axe on the next-to-last cuts.

And there won't be any publicity coming out of Watson Rink this winter. Watson is closed for renovations (see feature, page46) so get your quarter ready for the MBTA ride over to Boston University's Walter Brown Arena, where the Crimson ice hockey team will play its home games.