Old Harvard Earns A Bluenose

This year's tournament featured two home-town teams, Dalhousie and St. Mary's of the Maritime Intercollegiate Conference, McGill from Montreal and Harvard from the United States. Canadian basketball often is agonizing to watch. But, though McGill and St. Mary's were inept at times, the Tigers of Dalhousie gave a good account of themselves. Harvard, a weak Ivy team, won the championship but had a hard time getting by Dalhousie in the opening game. Unlike St. Mary's, which has four starters from New Jersey, the Dais are all Canadian and are a well-disciplined team which gets excellent coaching from Al Yarr. Two of Dalhousie's big men were killed in an automobile accident last month, but the Canadian team, scoring with one-hand push shots, stayed with Harvard until the last few minutes before losing 83-75. In the final Harvard played better, crushing a no-defense St. Mary's team 92-65.

Dalhousie and St. Mary's took their defeats with equanimity, matching the composure of the crowd, which, throughout the tournament, seemed uninformed and confused. There were extended stretches of silence, only the echo of the bouncing ball reverberating eerily off the walls. One would have thought the seats were filled with Newfoundlanders, those isolated islanders whose alleged ignorance is exaggerated by all of their Maritime neighbors.

"The Newfoundlanders are way, way up there and so much out of it," said one man from Halifax. "Why, just the other day a man from Newfoundland was asked to go ice fishing. He said yes, and so he came back with 150 pounds of ice."