Harlow^ the Needle!

Colliers for October 12, 1935 21 tainly coach. In all the years at the events and sensitive of the honor of old places previously mentioned, he had John Harvard, asked in a pointed tone never had a bad team. There had been just how Mr. Harlow got the material Quicks exceptional years with undefeated teams which went into the creation of his ex and years with a few sad losses, but cellent teams. Mr. Bingham replied none in which the Harlow teams had with his oration on the birds' eggs. The been routed or disgraced. The worst de Crimson remained unconvinced. Mr. feat had been a 34-2 walloping which a Bingham then countered with the state Harlow^ ment that Mr. Harlow at his summer West Virginia team had given his Col gate outfit, but as a general thing the place in the Pocono Mountains, in Penn shellacking had been done by the Har sylvania, had a world-famous collection low boys. of Alpine plants. That completely floored the If Harvard was discarding the gradu the Crimson and the attacks ceased. ate system of coaching, it was doing only what Princeton had done with the High Time for a Change hiring of Fritz Crisler and Yale had done with the acquisition of Greasy However, by the time Harlow arrived Needle! Neale, said the football fans of Boston. for spring practice, it had been agreed And about time, too, they added. The that everybody concerned would con authorities might object when Ted Hus- centrate on the business of getting Har ing referred to the Harvard teams as vard football back on its feet. Before putrid, but they were speaking with the he got down to hard work, Harlow was By Kyle Crichton voice of pain rather than with justifica subjected to the usual series of alumni tion. Putting it mildly, the graduates club meetings, which filled him so full of had not done well. There had been a old grads, green peas and fried chicken successful period under Arnold Horween, that his staff was fearful for his safety. When the smoke had cleared but he wouldn't be tempted back again. Harlow is a mastodonic creature who In contrast there had been the unsuc has no hesitancy in sliding down a 500- away after the athletic revolution cessful regime of Eddie Casey, which foot precipice on his ear to photograph had ended with Ca.sey's resignation. the nest of a hoot owl, but there was in Cambridge last year. Harvard When it had reached a point where pride danger that the Boston food belt would was being taken in the annual victory get him. He avoided that by getting students and old grads were as over New Hampshire, it was felt that out on the field and putting the Harvard the time had come for a change. hopefuls through their paces. The spirit tounded to find Dick Harlotv, a It was then that Mr. Bingham began was different immediately, and Harvard to beat the bushes. He interviewed had the largest spring turnout in years. nongraduate coach—the first in coaches in all parts of the country, and It was conceded that he might go a bit it is rather well established that the job strong on our feathered friends, but he Harvard history — tn command was first offered to Clark Shaughnessy knew how to get the attention of a foot of the University of Chicago. It is ball candidate, whether he came from the of football. ISow they are getting equally well known, however, that Bing Sixth Ward in Allentown, Pennsylvania, ham had Harlow in mind from the start. or from the Back Bay section of Boston. used to the idea—and liking it f President Conant of Harvard kept in "Do you know what we had today?" sisting on a graduate coach, but It was cried a candidate to his friends, as he discovered that Harvard had gone light hobbled home after the second session. Dick Harlow, head football "'' ' ^k. to* coach at Harvard University The first nongraduate coach meets the 1935 Harvard squad ^w^^.-v § W^ m "Is it possible,'' cried Mr. Bingham J^ W M^ in an aghast manner to the assembled press, "that you have never heard about the famous Harlow collection in the *• «» ^ Agassiz Museum?" This caused some embarrassment among the reporters, but there were young men from the Harvard Crimson present to ask what birds' eggs had to do with football coaching and particu larly what it had to do with the ath letic scholarship angle of Harlow's previous employment at Penn State, Col gate and Western Maryland. But they were overwhelmed in the enthusiasm which greeted the news that Mr. Har low, in addition to teaching halfbacks how to slice through tackle as if shot from a catapult, was an ornithologist of INTERNATIONAL the first rank. ITHOUT question Dick Har on football geniuses. Horween wouldn't "We had blocking . live blocking. We low is going to be on a spot this come back, and men like Tack Hard- dumped each other all over the field." year. If he doesn't happen to Never a Bad Team wick and Charley Buell hadn't been "Great heavens!" cried his friends. Whave a good team, the only thing active in coaching since 1925. This was "And what will you be doing tomor that will save him will be the birds' Since the selection of a new coach has felt to be a bit far back in the Dark Ages. row?" eggs. The birds' eggs are no faint gag. taken on the sacred importance which Bingham had Harlow in mind and "Tomorrow," said the candidate When Bill Bingham, the Harvard ath once accompanied the induction of a had been sounding him out on the sub proudly, "tomorrow we start in with letic director, announced the appoint new pastor into the First M. E.-Pres ject, but the fact was so well covered up the hand grenades." ment of Dick Harlow of Western byterian-Lutheran Church, the fact was that his own family didn't know about As far as Harvard was concerned, it Maryland as Harvard football coach, overlooked for a time that Mr. Har it. It was rather a dirty trick on the was about time. Things had been going there were lifted eyebrows in some cir low was also an excellent football man. college daily, the Harvard Crimson, from bad to worse, both in victories and cles and shrill outcries in others. The In the course of committees interview which in the meantime went far out on finances. Since football carried all other initial question was as to the identity of ing Mr. Harlow and Mr. Harlow inter the limb in support of Adam Walsh, the sports and every undergraduate potter this man Harlow; the next was, who had viewing committees and inquiring about line coach from Notre Dame. In an edi ing around on the Charles River in a ever heard of Western Maryland; and house rentals in Cambridge, the truth torial which practically crowded out all single-sculled mud scow was being kept the third was that it was bad enough finally leaked through that, while Mr. the advertising, the editors urged the by the football receipts, there was more hiring the first nongraduate coach in Harlow might be unexcelled in leading appointment of Walsh. Walsh declined concern with the gate than was proper Harvard history, but was it necessary Boy Scouts through the woods in quest to be considered for the head coach job in a cultured atmosphere. The all-time for him to come from a place called of the elusive woodchuck, he had man because his poor hearing made it diffi top had been in 1929, when football Westminster, Maryland? It was then aged as well to avoid that most horren cult for him to handle a large squad. netted $706,000. It had gone down to a that Mr. Bingham began talking about dous of apparitions: a rotten football When Harlow was nominated, the net of $266,000 in 1933. birds' eggs in a loud voice. team. In short. Harlow could most cer- Crimson, a trifle piqued by the turn of (Continued on page 53) PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 22 Colliers for October 12, 1935 West leads the jack of spades against South's three no trump contract, East cov ering with the king. What is West, upon winning that trick with his the best way to make the con king and taking a heart trick, returned tract? After making your a spade. The declarer later had to lose own plan, turn to page 65 and another club trick and was down one. see how it should be done At the other two tables the declarer made his contract. In each case, after the heart and the two trump tricks, the declarer took two spade tricks, elimi nated dummy's third spade with a ruff, lost a heart to West, then trumped the EOPLE who won't take chances heart return in the dummy. With only are licked by life, by bridge, by clubs and diamonds left in his two business, by love, or by anything hands, one declarer entered his hand Pin which they engage. Nothing with a trump and led the queen of clubs, ventured, nothing gained, applies to one letting West's king win. The latter now the same as to another. And the prin had to lead from his jack into the com ciples governing what constitutes a bination tenace of the club ace in dummy chance worth taking are about the same YOM'H never play it if you rely on instinct, card and the ten in the closed hand.

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