Harvard Australians Celebrate, Wave Native Colors in Victory

The Aussies were out of control yesterday, both on Rhode Island Sound and at Harvard.

Five hours before Australia II captured a dramatic 41-second victory in the seventh race of the America's Cup, an Australian flag was already waving from the fourth floor balcony of the Science Center.

Ezra Getzler, a second-year graduate student in mathematics and a native of Australia, unfurled the colors of the "lard down under" at 11:30 a.m. yesterday.

Guards removed the flag, actually a bed sheet brought back from Australia this summer--at 1:30 p.m. but Getzler had already achieved his objectives by then.

The inspiration for the prank came to Getzler on Saturday, after poor winds postponed the final race of the Cup.

He didn't care much about the outcome of the race, but was simply "looking for a reaction" from others at the University and in particular his colleagues at the Math Department.

Getzler expressed disappointment that University Hall officials did not place the Australian flag next to the American, and hoped his flag would be seen as a "show of solidarity."

With three other Australians and a very sympathetic chairman at the Math department, Getzler's patriotic show met much enthusiasm.

Australian Bill McCallum was "delighted" to see the flag wave from the Math Department offices, adding that he thought the prank was "lots of fun."

Department chairman and yachting aficionado David Mumford seemed to be most excited about the whole affair, saying the four Aussies were a "patriotic bunch."

Prof. Mumford, while listening to the final hour of the America's Cup on the radio, added that the Australian-American rivalry in the department has been "a bit of a joke" around the office for the past few years.

The rivalry came to a head yesterday at an introductory meeting for Math concentrators as each development in the race was written on a blackboard.

A group of 10 department officials listened to the last minutes of the race on the radio at the end of meeting, cheering Australia II on, yet regretting the inevitable ribbing to be expected from the noisy and nationalist Aussies.

With such a victory over his American colleagues, Ezra Getzler, like John Bertand, the skipper of Australia II, gained a victory for his native land by doing the unexpected.

Reveling in the thrill of victory, native Australian Alan Fekete commented, "We'll probably just rub their faces in the dirt and leave it at that."