Wrestlers Shaping Up Under Jordan's Hand

On the ceiling of one of the back rooms in the Athletic Building is written in big black letters the terse warning: "If you can read this, you're loafing." This is where Butch Jordan conducts his daily classes in the very down-to-earth sport of wrestling and, from the looks of things, not many of his pupils are reading the sign. Jordan, a former Big Ten mat King and erstwhile captain of the Michigan wrestling team, opened official practice on the Monday after the Yale game, although several of his sweat-clothed charges were working out informally before then.

Jordan headaches shouldn't start until the second term, for he has an experienced corps returning from last year's team, which lost only to Army, Princeton and Yale. Before Christmas vacation, the Crimson has only two meets--the opener with MIT a week from tomorrow and an engagement with Wesleyan. After the recess, the matmen meet Columbia. These three teams were Harvard's first three victims last winter.

Ray, Louria Graduate in February

But then Jordan may run into trouble with the schedule or his personnel, or both. Important tests with Army, Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton, and Yale come up and Jordan will be faced with the loss of Don Louria and Captain Dan Ray. This pair is expected to carry the middleweight load but they will be graduated in February. Ray, a Phi Beta Kappa, went undefeated until the Yale match last year, while ex-Captain Louria came through with a perfect record and tied for fourth place in the eastern championships at Lehigh.

Andre Sigourney will probably will one of these vacancies but Jordan isn't worrying about such matters at this point. He hasn't held final tryouts yet for next Saturday's match at Tech because his men are still not in top physical condition and he isn't sure at what weights some of his top athletes will wrestle.

Weight Divisions Subject to Change

At 128, an almost sure starter is Dave Smith, a freshman star last year and, according to Jordan, an "outstanding sophomore" this year. Alfred Abboud is currently in the same division, although he may check in at 135 later on. In this class Jordan has pint-sized Roger Wach and Harry King, one of the five returning lettermen. King, on the other hand, is likely to compete in the 145-pound group, where he would be joined by Ray, unless Ray wrestles at 155.

Another 155-pounder is Sandy Jones, a scholastic champion from Oklahoma who sawed himself out of a tree last season, broke his right arm, and was out of action for most of the campaign. Moving up to 165, Jordan will go along with Louria, at least until February, while at 175 he has Bob Claflin, who tied for fourth with Louria in the eastern semi-finals last March.

Two Tackles Gone Heavyweight

Also at 175, or possibly 165, are Andy Lewis, John Howard, and George Turner. Two of Jordan's football linemen, Howie Houston and Chief Bender, will carry the burden in the heavyweight departments left open by Pete Fuller's departure. Jordan claims Houston is quick and has tremendous physical prowess but "he's not learning much about wrestling."

Jordan is pleased with his term's "good, competitive spirit" and predicted: "The type of competition we face will determine the team's success."