Williams Seen as Likely Replacement for Jordan

Harold M. (Josh) Williams will almost certainly be named as Harvard's twenty-first football coach this afternoon. He would succeed Lloyd P. Jordan, whose dismissal has been asked by the powerful Faculty Committee on Athletics.

The Corporation meets this morning at 9:30 and will consider the recommendation that the remaining two years of Jordan's contract be bought up, and he be replaced by his backfield coach, also here since 1950.

Approval of the proposal is regarded as virtually certain. Jordan will then have to be notified officially in St. Louis, where he is attending Football Coaches and NCAA meetings, presumably by Director of Athletics Thomas D. Bolles, and then the announcement will be made here.

The Faculty Committee met to recommend the action about Dec. 20, and the story broke in the Boston Herald last Wednesday. While no official statement was given explaining the reasons for asking Jordan's dismissal, committee members have explained that he was felt to be a "poor teacher," who did not hold the confidence of players and other students.

Williams, who is also golf coach here, is believed likely to be offered a one-year contract. Like Jordan, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a back in the late twenties, and he has also served as backfield coach at Florida, Temple, and Pitt.

The Williams appointment was intimated Saturday by members of the Faculty Committee. Freshman coach Bob Margarita, considered among the leading possibilities in early speculation, had earlier declared that he was not interested in the position.

Local press comment has continued critical on the proposal to dismiss Jordan and pay his salary for the next two years (about $25,000). Columnists have charged that the move involved a surrender to alumni pressure and asserted that Harvard was still attempting to play "big-time football" while saying it was not.

See inside for the CRIMSON's Friday Extra and a discussion of the reasons for the recommendation to dismiss Jordan, his record as coach, and reaction to the proposal.