The Marquis of the Multiflex

High atop the House of Kirkland, surrounded by all the comforts of a modern-day baronet (water bed, stand up bar, powerful stereo) lives the man who will carry the lance in Saturday's joust against Yale. Even if the foe unseats him, his name will still resound like that of a king: Judson Burke St. John.

St. John, Harvard's senior quarterback, received no deference from his subjects this fall, and has struggled all year to remain healthy and to keep the Crimson ahead.

"It's been a very tough year as far as wins and losses go," he says, but adds quickly, "It is not always wins and losses that you take out of the program." The comment reveals a constant thread in St. John's conversation about Harvard football: that the experience of playing serves at least as important a position as those vital w's and l's.

But the presence of six losses with only two wins grates against him, if for no other reason than that he knows his injury might have been the difference.

Opening day was perfect, St. John--living in the shadow of Brian Buckley's and Ron Cuccia's academic exile and the even bigger dark space left by the graduation of Larry Brown-showed that he belonged in an elite signal-calling fraternity. He completed 10 of 17 for 153 yds., but, even more importantly, established himself as a leader.

The following week against UMass, the first act in Harvard's grotesque drama "Maim the Quarterback" opened with strained ligaments in the St. John knee.

Joe Restic: "As we started the season and when we played Columbia, we thought that we could do many things over the course of the year. When Burke got hurt, that stopped our continuous development."

It also stopped the Crimson's chances for a winning season. The procession of quarterbacks who followed St. John proved either incapable of leading the team, or got hurt before they had the chance. Two Harvard losses followed St. John's injury. He returned against Darmouth, but played on a tender knee, limiting his most potent weapon, the pass-run option. "Burke can run, but even after he came back, his injury took that away," Restic says.

What's more, Restic says St. John understands the Multiflex system better than most, if not all, the quarterbacks who have run it. "He can use the Multiflex to capitalize on what he does best," Restic says.

St. John is a vocal booster of the Restic system. "The Multiflex has made the game totally more interesting for me. To me, the multiflex is the ultimate strategy," he says.

The 41-26 devastation of Penn showed St. John finally using "the ultimate system" to fullest advantage. He completed six of eight for 152 yards and three touchdowns, and ran nine times for 79 yards.

St. John sits on top of the Ivy League passing for a very simple reason: split end Rich Horner, who caught those three touchdowns and 36 other passes over the course of his superb season.

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From opening day at Baker Field to the slop of the Brown game to the conquest of Penn, the two have meshed elegantly. "We've been working since the end of August, and we know each other pretty well by now," St. John says. "When he (Horner) runs a pattern, I just know he's going to be there. He's got amazing quickness and an ability to get open."

The biggest test will come Saturday. The Yale defense has yielded but nine points per game and Restic calls the Elis "the best defensive team I've seen since I've been in the league." With St. John's knee healed and his stature as a leader growing, Restic says, "I hope and I feel that Burke will have his finest day on Saturday. I just sense that."

Even if the quarterback doesn't have his best day against Yale, the sporting season will not end for St. John. As starting shortstop on the baseball team for three years (.239 last year) he will return to the diamond again this spring. St John has been performing this double since his days at Horace Greeley High in his home town Chappaqua, N.Y.

When the game finally does end for him this spring, St. John will probably spend a summer working for presidential candidate John Connally, with his next stop probably business school.

He cuts a formidable figure these days--football quarterback on a hot streak--making the long climb to his Kirkland lair. But somehow a name like that seems to demand a suit of armour and a damsel in distress. Yet Judson Burke St. John will settle for a plastic football helmet and a triumph with his mates over the dragons of New Haven.