Quest for Personal Fame Sparks Summer IMs

Harvard undergoes a number of subtle changes during the summer: There’s a little more sunshine, a few less people, and a whole lot more smiling. As a result, summer school students seem to relish time outdoors a bit more than their term-time counterparts, which has led to another quiet change in campus life—the resurgence of intramurals.

Despite the absence of IM reps to pester summer residents for participation, the Secondary School and General Program have demonstrated surprising enthusiasm for these competitions. While the Straus Cup resides safely in 2009-champion Winthrop House, shielded from the influence of June and July results, summer school athletics director Lisa Harchut ’11 has found the key to promoting intramural attendance without the appeal of inter-house rivalry—by tapping into the desire for personal glory.

In addition to standard weekly contests in soccer, basketball, and Frisbee, the activities office has offered a number of weekend tournaments that do not pit Houses and dorms against one another, but instead favor open entry, allowing students to form teams across residences. The result has been a greater focus on individual achievement, with high schoolers and college folk alike striving not for Canaday or Kirkland pride, but rather for personal bragging rights on Harvard’s hallowed battlegrounds of grass, wood, and asphalt.

Yet, I approached my first of these weekend tournaments (five-on-five soccer) as a skeptic. But the students far exceeded our expectations, fielding 12 different teams (try getting every House to show up to an event in the fall) in a hard-fought weekend at the IM fields. This tournament also successfully integrated SSP and college students, with the younger contingent enthusiastically representing the majority while the older (and largely international) participants brought a measure of significant talent to the pitch.

As the IM season has progressed, the weekend contests have grown no less popular, boasting large crowds at Beren Tennis Center and Weld Boathouse last weekend for the tennis tournament and river run, respectively. The tennis matches featured over 50 players of various skill levels, sorted into four singles brackets (two men’s and two women’s) and a doubles draw. While the most talented players may have competed in singles, the highlight of the weekend played out in an epic doubles draw, where a certain strikingly handsome and talented Crimson sports editor and one of his proctees claimed the championship without dropping a set.

With kickball and three-on-three basketball remaining on the tournament agenda, it appears likely that excitement for summer IMs will carry through the term.

After observing such promising attendance, a question arises: Has the summer activities staff hit upon a more effective intramural approach? Could open-entry tournaments provide a bigger draw than Straus Cup competition? Or do the summer students simply take advantage of nicer weather and more free time? While the latter must certainly influence these popular competitions, it appears that an appeal to individual fame has won out over community pride.

Of course, summer champions have also been known to receive bounties of CVS candy—another trick well worth noting for term-time organizers.


Max N. Brondfield ’11, a Crimson associate sports editor, is an environmental science and public policy concentrator in Qunicy House.