Crimson Spirit: a Manifesto

Wandering around the pre-football game tailgates is lonely; heading into the stadium at kick-off doesn’t make me feel much better. No matter how “cool” I feel greeting the occasional friend I pass in Harvard Yard, once I cross the river I always feel like I’m the pathetic one who has nothing better to do with her time than go to a game. Until recently, I could not have been more on target. Except for a small group of regulars, Harvard students are absent from the stands. Instead, alumni crowd the grassy parking lot behind the football stadium with shrimp cocktails and wine; they are the most significant contributors to the scattered presence in and around the stadium. Are my peers and I waiting for a six-digit salary to bribe us into giving up meetings and work to show a little pride and have fun with each other? What are we waiting for?

Many agree with the complaint (emphasized in an editorial in The Crimson entitled “Where Are We To Flirt?” by Arianne Cohen, Oct. 30, 2001) that there is no alternative to the party scene for mingling with peers. Everything is “too exclusive,” you might say. It costs too much; it requires a certain outfit or, worse yet, an invitation. Obviously, the word has not spread to the crevices of Lamont: tickets to athletic events are free! The H-club just passed out 2,000 Crimson Crazies t-shirts specifically to be worn at athletic events and if you don’t feel welcome, then you have more issues than the perfect social life at Harvard can rectify. While the overpopulation of alumni at games may indicate otherwise, watching an athletic competition is one of the most non-exclusive events that Harvard offers to its student body. The only thing you need to do is cross the river.

Please don’t tell me you have a meeting or schoolwork; you are only perpetuating the problem (plus, we all know how easy it is to procrastinate instead). Most “normal” schools stop at game time to support their athletes’ hard work and show their school pride. People complain that Harvard isn’t “normal.” Well, then figure out what is absent and change it. School spirit, social life, a student center and, some might say, a more rigorous science program…the list goes on. Saturdays across the river are the closest I’ve come to finding at least a few of the values on the list of normalcy standards.

Harvard athletes have spent as much as 20 hours a week in a pursuit of improvement on the south side of the river. Having sacrificed their meetings and their schoolwork, they deserve attention, if even just for a mere hour per week. (After all, I’ve seen them supporting other avenues of Harvard talent like Callbacks concerts and the City Step benefit.) Just come once and see how you like it.

And don’t say you don’t know the rules to the game. You’ll find that they are just as easy to learn as the Felkin-Ahn Model or the violin part of Beethoven’s Ninth. Plus watching a game with friends is a lot more fun than sitting in the library reading James Joyce.

While student presence certainly is missed at these games, we are not entirely to blame. The administration has done its share to discourage school spirit. Parking passes for Gate 6, the gate closest to the stadium and where all of the tailgates go on, are virtually impossible for any student to get without donating $1,000 to Friends of Harvard Football. Kegs have been prohibited from the Gate 6 area. The administration perpetuates the problem by not offering special shuttles to transport students across the river when weather gets colder.

Not to say that things haven’t been getting better (keep up the good work!). The Athletic Department is currently working to have eight separate nights of Spirit Shuttles that sweep from The Quad past the Yard and river Houses and onwards to the athletic venues carrying eager Crimson Crazies on nights of big games. There are the new Crimson Crazies shirts circulating somewhere within the student body (thanks to the Athletic Department, the Coop, and the H-club); people actually go to the Harvard-Yale game, even when it’s at Yale (thanks to Undergraduate Council and house buses); and at the Harvard-Princeton football game tailgate, I overheard someone say, “This is the closest thing to a Harvard-Yale showing that we’ve had in all four years that I’ve been here!” People are starting to show up to more than just Harvard-Yale and we are on the verge of normal.

Those of you who do cross the Charles around noon on Saturdays have quickly figured out the new scene. Please help me share the details with more fans. You meet up with friends at the tailgates. (There is ALWAYS a non-exclusive tailgate on days of home football games, as the H-club teams up with another group or person and provides food to match the already abundant drink.) You revel in the tailgate merriment, and then wander over with a friend or two to the rugby field. Once you are perpetually confused by the rules to the sport , you head back to the tailgates for a bit and meet up with a few straggling friends. This back and forth between various games and tailgates continues until about 4 in the afternoon. You are welcome to join for any or all of it.

Saturday, Oct. 27, was no different. Between noon and 4 p.m., the men’s varsity water polo team played in the ECAC tournament, the men’s and women’s varsity and junior varsity soccer teams had kick offs, men’s rugby had one of the biggest games of their season and the football team battled the Big Green. Besides the literally hundreds of athletes who played in the games, the Harvard student body spread itself thin at the venues. Those present were able to see history in the making at the football game against Dartmouth. At the half, the Crimson lagged 21-0 but managed to come back to a 31-21 win. And for those of you unaware, the football team is undefeated this year. You no longer have the excuse that games aren’t fun because the teams are no good.

Come Saturday afternoon, odds are 5 to 1 that you will be procrastinating, so why not do it with friends?

Kick-off against Penn is Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Two undefeated teams go head to head and other venues host equally exciting athletic events. Gather your friends, proctor groups, or houses and bring them to the tailgates ahead of time for a social life of new dimensions. You have been invited (sans expiration date). Check The Crimson for game times or join the H-Club for weekly e-mail reminders. Wear your Crimson Crazies shirt and I’ll see you there.

Katy A. Crawford ’03, a resident of Pforzheimer House and a comparative religion concentrator, is a Magazine Editor.