Intramurals

The winter season has thrown the intramural spotlight on hockey and basketball since the Christmas vacation period. Despite unseasonal ice conditions, the hockey season has advanced into the playoff stage. The season has been featured by eight games a day on Occom pond, teams in some cases playing two days in succession in order to make use of the ice while it was in playing condition.

Sigma Chi, last year's championship team, has advanced into the playoffs in convincing style, with evidence of being in the final rounds for the second consecutive year. Skating virtually the same combination as last year, they may duplicate their championship play. But there is more in the way of competition to cope with this season than last. The Betas have come through their preliminary games with even greater success. Sporting new red jerseys, which easily distinguish them as serious competitors, they have won their games with ease and dispatch. Psi Upsilon and Phi Sigma Kappa look like other logical finalists, with the Phi Sigs playing in grand style in spite of the loss of their stellar combination of the past few seasons, Eddie Chamberlain and Elly Wanstall. Two other fine teams are still battling it out for the other playoff berth. The Dekes and Phi Gams have already played one game to a dead tie after three overtime periods, and are scheduled to decide their league championship immediately after the exam period closes.

There has been a development in hockey on Occom Pond this year to which the Intramural Department looks with pardonable pride. The type of game being played in the fraternity leagues is definitely of better caliber than in previous years. Organization is becoming a real factor in the games. And there is in addition a new spirit, exemplified perhaps by the Betas who have come out for every game with three full teams and with new jerseys —consistent costumes for intramural games but a new development. The games seem to be assuming a new importance and seriousness in fraternity minds, and this is a really fine sign for the future of intramurals on the Dartmouth campus.