Jumping on the Bandwagon

As Harvard's fearsome top line wove through the offensive zone Saturday night to bombard helpless Dartmouth goaltender Meghan Cahill as though it were a shooting drill, it triggered something much more special than the red light.

Rather, it sparked a roar from the crowd that echoed all the way from Providence to Cambridge.

Not just any crowd, mind you, this one was filled with students.

The H-Club brought the Crimson Crazies, making the Club's first visible hockey appearance since Midnight Madness back in October.

The Brothers of Sigma Chi, like a true fraternity, kept pounding the glass to the left of the Crimson bench.

Of course, the irrepressible Harvard band drowned out the Brown PA system with our school's ancient fight songs.

Throughout the game, the host of students obnoxiously and mercilessly rained the chant of "Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!" at Cahill as co-captain A.J. Mleczko polished off the 17th hat trick of her career.

And yesterday, when Mleczko lofted the puck over sprawled UNH netminder Alicia Roberts for the ECAC Championship, she had more than just her teammates to celebrate with, if in considerably smaller numbers than the previous evening.

The exuberance was enough to make an old alum smile--and there were quite of few of them there as well.

"Having the fans out there like that was just incredible," freshman defenseman Angela Ruggiero said. "We definitely feel their support."

It is a rare occasion when Harvard undergraduates rouse their marginal spirit by cheering on their sports teams. Most feel they have fulfilled their athletic obligations with a cursory "Yale sucks" in November.

There is no greater indicator of the Crimson's excellence than to catch the attention of its fellow classmates.

Perhaps once a year, a great team draws some fan support. Last season it was the women's hoopsters upsetting Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament and riveting hundreds to ESPN in their house JCRs.

Nobody can dispute this squad's magnificence--28 straight wins, a No. 1 national ranking, and three Olympic medallists.

Over the past month, Harvard has finally jumped on the bandwagon and expectations of overwhelming victory have spread.

A few of my blockmates were among the Crimson faithful at Meehan on Saturday and they arrived a little after game time. They placed a wager on how many goals they had missed.

They were pleasantly surprised that it was only one. Not until the second period did Harvard explode for five goals, paving the way for an 8-1 win over Dartmouth.

In fact, the whole tournament carried that sense of expectation. This was not a competition to determine the best team in the ECAC, but a scripted coronation of the undisputed champion.

It certainly will shock quite a few to learn that UNH attempted a massive rewrite, holding a late-game lead. In a true Hollywood ending, that only forced Harvard to show the heart of a champion as well as the skill.

Still, it would be nice if a Crimson sports team did not have to be the best team ever in the history of the sport to catch the school's attention. Ask the men's hockey team how embarrassing it is to have Cornell fans transform Bright Hockey Center into Lynah Rink East.

This type of support, at least for home games, ought to be automatic.

However, it's beautiful to see the women's hockey team, the current standard-bearer of Harvard athletics, feel the love of its classmates.

"Knowing that we have a really solid team behind us gives us a lot of confidence," sophomore forward Tammy Shewchuk said. "It allows us to go out and play Harvard hockey."

A reporter followed up Shewchuk's response by asking her what exactly is Harvard hockey.

She responded, "Aggressive, pressure, speed, discipline, control."

Somewhere after that response, an old alum, Athletic Director Bill Cleary '56 smiled. He preached the same gospel to his hockey players and he was among the last to hear the same cheers from the Crimson faithful.

At the end of his reign, the school hung a banner which read "1989 NCAA Division I Champions".

It's now 1999 and this weekend, the women play in the AWCHA Nationals. Expect to have another banner to cheer about.