Council Torpedoes Plan For Coed Cheerleaders

The Student Council last night voted to uphold tradition as it overwhelmingly quashed attempts to supply Radcliffe cheerleaders at varsity and freshman basketball games.

John W. Hurst '56, president of the Freshman Athletic Council and sponsor of the proposal, argued that a team tries harder when the crowd, steamed up by coed cheerleaders, shouts support.

Varsity basketballer Edward G. Condon '54, claiming the backing of most of the team, asked that the plan be tried on an "experimental basis" for the four or five remaining games of the season.

Fear Ivy Ridicule

Objections were fast and sometimes heated. Harvard is not coed in fact, many asserted, and "mixed" cheerleading is unnecessary.

Council members expressed fear of ridicule from Boston papers and other Ivy schools. Some pointed out that once precedent was set, coed cheerleading would probably be extended to all major athletic events. As an interested non-Council senior said, "Harvard is a giant bureaucracy which runs on precedent."

The majority of Council members felt that students were not generally behind the move to mixed cheerleading. President Paul D. Sheats '54 suggested to Hurst that he try to show significant student support in the form of a petition.

At one point in the packed session which was covered by Boston newspapers, a Councilman moved that the discussion be "off the record," but his motion was defeated.