House Gridders Begin Drills

Harvard's football minor leaguers have started working out on soldier's Field; the seven teams of the inter-house football league are pointing towards their season's openers one week from today.

Dolph Samborski, director of intramural athletics, estimated yesterday that 250 part-time gridders would be on hand for the first contests.

House squad coaches again figure Kirkland House as the team to beat this year. The Deacons have practically the same flashy team which copped the league championship last year and then went on to beat Yale's Berkeley College. The Kirkland line averages just over 190 pounds, and the backfield features what it coach calls a "bunch of tricky passers."

Houses Polish Ground Attack

Kirkland expects to run from a single wing, and is now working on its ground attack for its opener with an eager Winthrop squad.

The Puritans are also working on their ground attack, and expect to modify their standard single-wing if they find their weaker-than-average line cannot stand up against bigger and burlier teams like Adams and Lowell.

Many Dark Horses

This year's Bellboy squad is, according to its coach, the "best in a long time." With a huge line sparked by 60-minute men Tony Ripley, towering Dave Brisk and Ray Silver, the Lowell team is expected to give Kirkland a long fight for the title. Lowell is one of the few house teams running out of a T but expects to alternate this with the single-wing if its passing attack develops further.

Paired with Winthrop on opening day is a still-undermanned Dunster squad. The Funsters have lost most of last year's starters, and are relying heavily on a fast but untried backfield.

On October 14th, an equally manpower-short Eliot squad takes on Leverett House; Eliot's coach is "discouraged by his small turnout," but figures that a bunch of sophomore newcomers may do much to pull his team through. Leverett's Bunnies have their entire 1948 backfield back, as does Adams House; the Gold Coasters'forward wall is one of the biggest in the league.

Dudley May Surprise

Question-mark team of the league is the Dudley outfit; the Commuters have a huge turnout for the practices, and their coach claims that his local boys "are taught some of the best football in the east." "Our squad is light," says the coach, "but they are fast and scrappy."

Following their regular schedule, the seven house teams will make the long trek down to New Haven on November 18th to face their traditional rival colleges at Yale; the respective top league teams will at the same time fight their annual battle for the two-college championship.