GIFT OF GAB': Crimson Creates Living Legacy

The legacy of Harvard sports is internationally respected and renowned.

I have thought about it and decided it’s safe to make such a broad generalizing statement to describe the history and competitiveness of Crimson athletics.

Our football team—one of the oldest in the country, playing its first game on May 14, 1874—has won seven national championships in its history.

Our hockey team played its first game in 1898, has won its own national championship in 1989 and boasts over 30 Olympians that have emerged from its ranks.

Our baseball team has won 18 Ivy League or EIBL regular-season crowns in close to 70 years of competition.

But in all the fanfare, history and amazing achievements of these main sports, the incredible legacies of some of Harvard’s lesser-hyped sports gets lost in the mix.

While the history of women’s hockey at our university may not match either the men’s team or the football team yet, it does hold one of the best resumes of any of the many sports teams.

In the U.S. at large, women’s hockey is still a developing sport—much like other women’s sports such as soccer and basketball that have spent years to latch on to a part of the popular consciousness.

Hockey for women, however, has never had an American professional league, and nowhere near the national consideration as basketball, soccer or even softball because most still consider hockey on the whole a Canadian—or simply limited to the Northern U.S.—sport.

Well, this weekend, the No. 6 Crimson women’s hockey team, secured its third ECAC title in a row, holding off a charging No. 3 Dartmouth in the final period for the upset and a surprising conference title.

By claiming the regular season ECAC Championship, Harvard now has four overall in the league’s 11 year history—tied for the most with Brown. With the win over the Big Green, the Crimson also earned its sixth Ivy League title, and second in three years.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Crimson also captured its 11th Beanpot title in the 26 year history of the tournament.

With the end of this season, the Harvard program now has 400 wins in its history—only the fifth collegiate team to reach that mark. Overall, its record is 400-253-29.

With Harvard coach Katey Stone firmly at the wheel—and a core group of younger talent along with the veteran leadership—it seems that the Crimson women’s hockey program will only add to its history in the years to come. Since coming to Harvard, Stone has a record of 221-102-13 and has been able to consistently recruit some of the nation’s best talent to come to Cambridge.

In fact, one might say the only thing missing from the hockey team’s resume is an NCAA championship. While the Crimson has reached the championship game two years in a row and has made the Frozen Four three out of the four years it has been in existence, it has yet to take home the title.

Then again, the 1999 AWCHA National Championship banner hanging in Bright Hockey Center brings with it a lot of prestige—but there is nothing quite like having that NCAA banner to prove a program’s success.

This year may be one of the best chances for Harvard to make its mark and finally get over that hump. Harvard’s victory over Dartmouth, along with Duluth’s victory over No. 1 Minnesota, this past weekend proves that the NCAA championship is there for almost any top-five team. Next year, with the departure of some of collegiate women’s hockey’s best players for the 2006 Olympics, that opportunity might not be there for the Crimson, and so this year may have to be the year.

While it may take many years for women’s hockey to join the pantheon of legendary Harvard sports teams, it is already well on its way and has made its mark.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.