Bulldog Invaders Bark Up Harvard's Trees

With a sudden uproarious clamor, 15 members of the Yale Band stormed the Freshman Union yesterday evening, provoking Harvard freshmen to return the challenge by hurling food and shouting obscenities.

It wasn't an athletic contest that brought the Yale Precision Marching Band up north to display its talents. The trip celebrated a victorious moment for the band's drum major, David Y. Polinsky, who submitted his senior thesis yesterday morning.

"The guy has gotten to be really big on campus--almost god-like," said one band member yesterday of Polinsky. "He is going to lead the Yale commencement procession with a pink golf club," he added.

Privately, however, some band members conceded they took the trip because they were "bored."

Planning for the "attack" began more than a week ago when band members who were feeling blue because of upcoming exams, decided they needed a lift.

After the Union confrontation, the group performed in Lamont and Widener Libraries, and serenaded Emily J. Mathews '86, a high school classmate of one band member, outside her room in Weld Hall.

As the band left the building, three Harvard freshmen pelted it with water balloons.

Chanting "chain saw," the band marched to the fifth floor of Mathews Hall Shouts of "Go home," and "Why aren't you in Connecticut?" greeted them.

"New Haven," explained Polinsky, "isn't what you'd call Nirvana."