The Numbers Game

In the heat of the summer, the accomplishments of the past spring have crept surreptitiously into the remote corners of our minds, the crannies we reserve for fond memories. Few people besides Crimson coaches are doting on the prospects for the fall season. Sports Information tells me it hasn't penned a press release since the sundry Harvard crews traveled to the Henley regatta, unusual for an office that casually churns out hundreds per semester.

With the advantage of a certain detached objectivity, let's look back at the 1979-80 sports season from a holistic perspective.

All told, the Crimson captured eight titles. Six were garnered by men's squads, four during the spring season and none during the fall.

Championships were won in squash, swimming, heavyweight crew, lightweight crew, baseball and lacrosse.

The women's squads took two firsts, in soccer and lightweight crew. But the quickly improving Crimson women also inched closer to Ivy supremacy in a number of areas; the second-place finishes in cross country, squash and heavyweight crew reinforce that notion.

In addition, the women's lacrosse, tennis, track, hockey, field hockey, swimming and basketball squads all boast a bunch of top-notch younger stars after solid rebuilding years.

The women's sports program is clearly on the rise, after several seasons floundering around and lagging behind Princeton's powerhouses. While it may be too early to tell, it is not unrealistic to forecast that every women's squad at the University has at least an outside shot at the Ivy crown. That's not something that could have been said a few years ago, or even last year.

These teams have always had a handful of genuine stars, athletes whose talents are beyond reproach and whose performances rarely faltered. But the big area of improvement for the women has been depth. Those squads which are still a few years away have a solid nucleus but lack the depth in all positions to make a serious run at the title.

Overall last year, the Crimson women squads compiled a 100-73-2 won-lost-tied slate, 35-34-1 in Ivy play.

This season marked a renaissance for the men's squads. Although the fall held few notes of optimism--football and soccer both ended their seasons in sixth place--things started to look up when winter rolled around, and the spring squads achieved a measure of athletic success unmatched in recent years.

Even the hockey team, which finished fourth in the Ivies, showed signs of future greatness with the introduction of several superb rookies and some polished periods of puck.

Meanwhile, the Crimson men's track teams were much better than their sixth-place slots indoor and out indicated, as they were beset by a debilitating rash of injuries.

The basketball team will also return this year with a renewed since of cohesion having traveled to the People's Republic of China over the summer. Look for the hoopsters to improve on their fifth-place finish.

In sum, the Crimson men registered a 146-91-7 record, 64-41-4 in the Ivies and 50-37-7 in the formal Ivy League play that counts toward the overall Ivy composite standings.

The .571 winning percentage the men's squads racked up in the composite standings put them in second place behind Princeton's imposing .711 percentage. The Tigers' vigorous recruiting tactics have begun to pay off in spades, and the type of success encountered by Princeton teams tends to generate a momentum of its own.

So while the Crimson has a long way to go before it catches the voracious Tigers, it has taken many steps in the right direction. In 1978-79, for example, the Crimson men placed third in the overall standings, mustering a .511 winning percentage. A 6-per-cent gain in one year is remarkable (although Princeton lifted its winning per-centage by an awesome 13.6 per cent).

But Harvard's six championships were more than Princeton's five, and most Cantabrigians like to think Crimson coaches do not stoop to the recruiting methods used by the Tigers' tamers.

Who knows? Next year, with men's volleyball, women's softball, and men's waterpolo achieving varsity status, the University could race ahead of the rest of the Ivies.

One thing is for sure, though. No one will race ahead of the people who compile and study statistics like these.