A Cold Draft for Curry

Long time no see, huh?

Yeah, and it would have been even longer had I not noticed two days ago that Harvard wide receiver Jim Curry was overlooked in the pro football draft.

Every year around draft time you find coaches saying things like "Well, we've got a couple of positions that we'd like to fill, and then we're going for the best athlete available."

Balderdash.

Despite what was undeniably a disappointing senior year for Curry, there can be no doubt about his genuine all-around athletic talent, or for that matter, ability to play pro football. Needless to say, a lot of ballplayers have been drafted and hung around in the pros who weren't half the athlete that Curry is.

Maybe I'm just upset because two guys from Amherst got drafted, not to mention Gregg Robinson from (ugh) Dartmouth.

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The days of kilts and pigtails seem to be mercifully coming to an end for Harvard women't sports.

The women's ice hockey team passed the acid test of dawn practices and Sunday morning games this winter as a first-year club sport, and Coach Joe Bertagna looks forward to Level Two (varsity) status next winter.

The latest crusade for promotion to Level Two is being made this spring by the Harvard women's softball team. Women's softball, which suffered from poor coaching and spring fever to produce somewhat of a diamond horror show in its first season last year, has been considerably resurrected this time around by the efforts of concerned players and first-year coach Brad Elmblad.

"When I started out I wanted to make it fun, but competitive," Elmblad said. It has been fun, definitely competitive (the squad currently sports a 5-4 season record going into today's game with Northeastern), but ultimately frustrating because of the team's club status.

Forget the fact that Elmblad carries the team's equipment in the trunk of his Fiat 124 Spider, club status means that a team is ineligible for the state championships, which the women's nine missed out on last weekend.

"I'm looking forward to Tuesday, when we play the University of Lowell, because they made the state tournament and we were ineligible," Elmblad said.

Talent-wise, the squad is much improved from what was virtually a senior field trip last year. Elmblad says his "two stalwarts" are pitcher Caryn Curry, who is taking a spring siesta from her IAB hoop stardom in the winter, and freshman shortstop Betty Ippolito.

As far as Level Two come next spring, that is a definite possibility. The softball team did get some money from the Athletic Department this year, so all that remains for official status is constant lobbying over at 60 Boylston.

"Maybe when they find out that we're giving out letters, or that we're a varsity sport, we'll get some of the better female athletes around," Elmblad said.

And if not, there's always the free agent draft.

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As we move from club to intramural sports, congratulations are due to Winthrop House and athletic secretary Lou Marczuk for what will definitely be another Strauss Cup championship.

This is a pretty amazing feat, when you consider the fact that participation points are taken away from 'Throp teams on which Rich DeBodo coaches.

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From the "They said it, and I wish I had" department:

The Globe's John Powers (on the apartheid protest): "You know, everyone was down on Nixon, but I loved the guy. He moved the troops into Cambodia and got me out of 80 pages of papers and three finals."