Happy Days Here Again?

On the courts, in the water and on the ice, the last ten days have lent hope to Harvard sports fans.

Hemenway Gym was the scene of a pair of stunning victories for the Crimson racquetmen. Defending national champion Princeton fell in a tension-laden 5-4 encounter. A week later, a Penn squad many had touted as this year's top team dropped a convincing 7-2 decision.

Both the Tigers and the Quakers had a reserve army of the unathletic on hand to support their cause, often obnoxiously. It didn't help.

The sight of three Penn racquetmen sitting in Hemenway's deserted, cavernous gallery after the match, silent, heads buried in towels, remains a poignant image. A national championship for the Crimson now seems probable.

The Crimson racquetwomen proved themselves last weekend in less comfortable confines. Taking its travelling show to New Haven, the Harvard squad moved up a notch in the national rankings by virtue of a second-place Howe Cup performance, slipping ahead of Yale but lagging behind powerful Princeton.

The Crimson aquamen rebounded from a disappointing defeat incurred by Princeton's tempestuous Tigers to swamp the nation's premier squad, Indiana.

The win proved convincing, not tenuous: the Crimson prevailed in all but one of the 11 events. The squad's domination of the Greater Boston meet was mere icing on a surprisingly scrumptious cake.

And finally, the Crimson icemen had coach Billy Cleary pounding the plexiglass behind the Boston Garden bench in sheer delight Monday. Two wins over B.U. in one season is indeed something to celebrate--the last time that occurred was 1968-69.

Hot Wheels

The pucksters sandwiched the 7-4 conquest of the Terriers between two crucial Ivy wins over Cornell and Princeton, inching a step closer to the ECAC playoffs.

But if the evidence cited here does not convince you of an upsurge in Crimson fortune, consider the two-mile relay team's shattering of the Millrose Games mark. Carry on...