Word: yovicsin
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Little did I know that that was the last chance I would be given to prove myself with the first-string offense. When it appeared evident that Foster had won the first-string quarterback role. Yovicsin began to act as if he had paid his debt to the cause of Harvard race relations. Now, how could he be anything but fair when he had a "colored boy" at the glory position calling all the shots...
...Fisher, a writer for the Baltimore Afro-American, observed a practice session. Afterwards, he came up to me and said that he thought I was "the hardest runner on the team". Later I learned that Fisher, the only black sports reporter covering Harvard football throughout the season, asked Yovicsin in the weekly post-game coaches conference. "Why isn't Sid Williams playing?" After a while Yovicsin would just laugh it off, saying "Williams doesn't know our system" or that "we have so many good backs...
...yard average. It was the first and last opportunity I had to carry the ball in a varsity game for Harvard. I stayed as a third-string fullback throughout the duration of the 1970 season and was relegated to junior varsity football. During the season I constantly protested to Yovicsin, the coaching staff, the administration of the University and anyone else who would listen, for a fair chance to play varsity football. It was a chance that never came...
Countless times I pleaded with Yovicsin to let me play a quarter, or even five minutes, in a varsity game and carry the ball. I asked him to match me against the fullbacks in front of me in competitive drills. I suggested having each of is run at Gary Farnetti, then Harvard's premiere defensive player. Yovicsin refused all my requests, telling me "that isn't the Harvard way." He said he had made his "final decision" on the starting lineup...
There are some coaches who would not have agreed with Yovicsin's procedure. Joe Paterno, in his book Football My Way, discusses how many coaches would handle such a situation: "Alabama's Bear Bryant and Jim Owens of the University of Washington are of the hard-nosed school. They use what they call the 'challenge' system to stimulate competition. At Washington, for instance, if a second-teamer thinks he is better than the player ranked ahead of him by the coaches, he can challenge him to a contest. Usually it is brutal, sometimes bloody, one-on-one block and tackle...