CREW SUMMONS IS GIVEN FOR MONDAY

The 1927 season, and the first year of Harvard rowing under the leadership of Coach E. J. Brown '96, will get under way Monday with a meeting of all University and Freshman candidates. Rowing, which is the oldest organized athletic activity at Harvard, will be starting its seventy third year when the men commence work this year immediately after the beginning of the second half year.

Several hundred aspirants are expected to answer the initial call, candidates for the University, Freshman, 150-pound and class crews all being summoned at the same time. The many changes which have occurred in the University rowing situations since the 1926 crew trailed Yale across the finish line at New London last year make it very hard to predict anything about the progress or success of the new season.

As for the more material prospects, four veterans of the 1926 four-mile crew are back in college; Captain Geoffrey Platt '27, who rowed No. 5, W. G. Saltonstall '28, No. 3, Oliver Ames '27, No. 2, and F. R. Sullivan '27, coxswain.

From the Junior boat the following are back: J. H. Perkins, bow; E. Farnham, No. 2; J. R. Barry, No. 3, and John Watts '28, stroke.

The loss of such stars as Charles Darlington, No. 6, Kent Leavitt, No. 7, and Captain Robert Winthrop, stroke, has hurt considerably, but to replace them there are some outstanding men from last spring's undefeated first year crew, judged by experts to be the best freshman boat in the country. From this boat the men who should make the best bid for a seat in the first shell are C. McK. Norton, captain and stroke; Guy Murchie, No. 7, brother of Donald Murchie who rowed in Boat A in some of the two-mile races last year; James Lawrence, bow; Forrester Clark, No. 4, who was a football tackle this fall, and back on the Polo Team, and B. J. Harrison, No. 6, also a tackle on the football squad.

The following article, written by Geoffrey Platt '27, Captain of this year's crew, appears in today's issue of the H. A. A. News.

It has been justly observed that one of the great faults in athletics throughout the country is the stress laid on Varsity teams almost to the point of ignoring men who can add nothing to the potential strength of those teams. The feeling at Harvard is opposed to this narrow outlook. This year certainly the principal athletic policy has been to widen the scope of sport to include as many men as possible, and to provide them not only with facilities but with competent coaching. In crew, the number for whom we have thus provided is considerable. Last fall thirty-two crews were on the river. This meant that at least 256 oarsmen were regularly coached. The number of coxswains are not included, since one coxswain served for more than one boat. To instruct these men there was a staff of eleven coaches; one head coach for the varsity, with general supervision of rowing as a whole; one coach for the class crews; another for 150 pound material; and a head coach with four assistants for the freshman squad. Entirely aside from the regularly boated crews an average of a hundred men a day rowed in wherries and singles, under the direction of the sculling coach, assisted as the need arose by the experienced scullers. If further instruction for this one group seems essential on the basis of these statistics, further attention will undoubtedly be supplied. For all other groups the instruction seems to me adequate.

Those men who have no outside races in view, enjoy rowing for its physical benefits as for the pleasure of the sport in itself. While the same feeling is shared by the top boats of the University, they have the added incentive of competition in definite races outside the college. The attendant preparation for these races has always entailed practically eight months of continuous training. Whatever feeling of drudgery may have risen in the past has been counteracted this year by breaking up the long season into a fall and spring season, the winter season--this being spent in whatever form of athletics the individual selected for himself. The squash tournament open to all members of the squad was recently won by W. G. Saltonstall '28.

The most important change has been that in the coaching position. "E. J. Brown who has done so well with his class crews and with the Junior Varsity shell at New London, now assumes the healm. With him is H. H. Haines as Freshman mentor. Arthur Hobson '24, and Stephen Heard '25, complete the coaching roster. Brown is a man of ideas who "lives" crew all day and who can teach it and adapt it to his pupils. Brown has been a success, and high hopes are entertained that the tradition of the class boats will be carried on to the University.

Another important change has been the the abolition of the Graduate Advisory Committee and the vesting of all matters of crew policy in the hands of Coach Brown and Director of Athletics Bingham