Creme dela Cramer

In that great sports mecca of the East, Princeton University, there exists a magical playground for all of the student sports enthusiasts to romp in--Jadwin Gymnasium. This bastion of athletic endeavors, complete with its multitudinous underground squash and handball courts, wrestling rooms, weight rooms and soccer fields represents one of the greatest excesses ever perpetrated on the sport world.

But wait...in just a few more years Harvard will no doubt take it upon itself to supass this Tiger monstrosity and erect an even bigger, more expensive sacrifice to the sporting gods--with twice as many squash and handball courts. Why will Harvard undertake such a misdirected project?

The University will have its sports complex because the prevailing logic, as heard around the locker room and read in national sports magazines, is that Harvard, being the richest university in the world, should no doubt also have the finest sports facilities.

But before anybody starts breaking ground for a new domed stadium, or laying astroturf down on the practice fields, or tearing down the Indoor Athletic Building, perhaps someone should look into the possibility that the present sports facilities are adequate now.

Let Them Eat Cake

Admittedly, they are not the finest, but need they be? Yes, some must wait to use a tennis court, but is there that much harm in waiting one or even two hours for a court to open?

Or is it that terrible that the weight room doesn't have all those pretentious, souped-up facilities that other schools conspicuously display? But most importantly, is the IAB gym really as inadequate as it is made out to be?

The most important criticism of the much-maligned IAB is that it is totally unfit for any sort of major league basketball--college or intramural. Despite complaints of old age, there is nothing actually wrong with the IAB. Sure, the building is old, but it is no less functional because of age. The equally ancient Palestra of the University of Pennsylvania serves its purpose better than most recently-constructed sports structures.

Another complaint about the IAB is that the 1400 seats are not enough for Harvard's "overflowing" basketball crowds. But unless there is a sudden surge of interest in college basketball, and it doesn't look like there will be, the limited capacity will do fine.

Of course, some of the sports facilities are in bad shape, but instead of paving what is left of Cambridge with a new complex, why doesn't Harvard simply keep up the facilities it has now? So before anybody swallows the inferior facilities argument so quickly, they should consider whether Harvard's athletic structures are really that terrible or even inadequate for present student use. There are other, better ways to spend money than building these monuments to athletics--one Jadwin per league is enough.