Frosh Rate Harvard Sports

When the members of the class of '01 were asked about the Harvard athletic program, most responded with a snide smile or just plain outright laughter.

Question: When you went to Harvard, the first thing that came to your mind wasn't the athletic program?

Answer: "No, not at all," followed by hearty laughs.

Once these freshmen regained their composure, the truth came out. Unlike past years, the rich Harvard athletic tradition has lost its appeal among the incoming youth.

Gone are the days of NCAA championships for the hockey team. Forgotten are the seven national titles won by the football team. And even now, with titles still being brought home by the Crimson, a quality reputation seems to elude Harvard athletics.

"I knew that they had more sports than any other college, but I didn't think that they were particularly good," said Courtney Dankworth.

"I figured that they were actually smaller time. I figured that they were less serious," said Jay Gardner.

For a school so rich in academic excellence, it is hard to accept that competitive athletics can co-exist in the same environment. The one common thread, however, was the historic Harvard-Yale football contest. Even the least athletic first-years had some clue about The Game.

"I live around here so I heard some things about how people got stuck in traffic at the Harvard-Yale Game," said Emily Griffin. "I really didn't have an impression of [Harvard sports]. I am not really an athlete. Athletics don't really register for me."

For others, the game of football is easily eclipsed by the notorious stories of tailgating and revelry which always accompany the matchup.

"I haven't heard much about the football team," said a slightly more knowledgeable Matt Thomson. "I heard that they're not so good, but I heard that [the Harvard-Yale game] was fun."

"As far as I can understand, the Harvard-Yale game is still more a social event than an athletic contest," said Trevor Cox.

Another sport which tends to surface some interest in the younger generation is ice hockey. Most may not remember the moment when Ed Krayer '89 put home the winning overtime goal in the NCAA national tournament game, but at the very least they had heard of that team.

"I heard the hockey team was pretty good from the news. Didn't they win a few years ago?" asked Thomson.

"I knew all about the Beanpot of course, but that's just because I'm from around here," said Framingham native Steven Stryer.

For others it may take a little more time to learn the history behind the Crimson.

"I didn't know that hockey was a big deal," said Uma Viswanathan. "The only way I knew was from Love Story and that was it."

Some of the less glorified sports are starting to make their impressions on the new students. Instead of football and hockey championships, tennis, squash and soccer have surged to the forefront as students have become more impressed with the Crimson's athletic diversity than its brawn.

"I was looking to do crew, but not now because I realized what a time commitment it was," Cox said. "I realized that we had 41 sports, but it didn't really hit me until the sports meeting when I heard the coaches stand up and tell about all the sports that we could do."

"I knew that it had more intercollegiate sports than any other college supposedly," Stryer concurred. "But I wasn't really interested in that because I just wanted to do intramurals for fun."

Sometimes it is the athletes, like Jen Lee and Dan Varnes, who learn to appreciate the legacy of Harvard athletics by simple immersion.

"I'm a lacrosse player so I heard a lot about it," Lee said. "And my sister is a senior too so I got those newspapers which said a lot about how Harvard is doing."

"I was a swimming recruit so I got all the information and knew what was going on," Varnes agreed.

Still, it is hard to imagine at a school with such a respectable history in athletics that Harvard's own youth do not see it as an athletic powerhouse.

In the end it may take a national title run by the football or hockey teams-or else a number one rating in Sports Illustrated instead of U.S. News and World Report-for Harvard to finally be respected among its own.