Harvard Athletics: Fun Facts

With the Harvard-Yale game fast approaching, it’s a good time to reflect back on all that Harvard athletes have accomplished since the school’s first intercollegiate competition in 1852. We’ve had at least one Olympian in every modern day Olympic competition, and we have the most Division I sports teams of any college in the nation. But what about all the other curious nuances of Harvard sports history you’ve never heard of before? FM is here to save the day, providing you with a comprehensive list of unusua and highly amusing fun facts.

1. The size and shape of Harvard Stadium is the reason football today is the way it is.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt called for an intercollegiate conference to make football safer for students. One suggestion was to widen the field, which Harvard’s stadium could not

accommodate due to the closeness of the stands to the field. Afraid that eliminating football at Harvard would spell doom for the sport on a national level, the forward pass was adopted instead. So yeah, nation: Harvard is the reason football fields are the size they are, and part of the reason the game is played the way we know it today.

2. Harvard began the tradition of using uniforms to tell teams apart.

That’s right, before Harvard came along, fans would have no way of telling members of the teams apart unless they followed the team closely enough to be able to recognize each individual’s stature from afar—in other words, right where the line between dedicated and creepy becomes extremely blurred. Charles W. Eliot ’53 changed this when he purchased six red Chinese silk bandanas for the members of the crew team to wear in regattas.

3. On May 6, 1875, Harvard students voted to select Crimson as the school nickname and color for all future athletic competitions.

I know what you’re all wondering: what was the alternative? The answer, people, is magenta. That’s right. We were nearly labeled the Harvard Magenta for all of eternity. Think about the potential ramifications of that action, and be thankful the students were wise enough to choose Crimson instead.

4. There’s a “Little Red Flag” waved each time the Harvard football team scores against Yale.

Since 1884, a Harvard superfan has been in charge of waving a flag from his seat at the Harvard-Yale game every time Harvard scores. The Harvard alumnus who has seen the most consecutive games between the rivals gets the honor of carrying it. Which one of you is going to make this your new life mission? (Spoiler alert: all of you.)

5. In 1901, Miss Constance Applebee, an English student attending Harvard’s summer school, introduced Field Hockey to the United States.

Let’s be real, this woman sounds like a total badass. Introducing what was then a men’s sport in England to a new and quite non-receptive country all while completing her studies and owning a last name that awesome? I don’t know about you, but I would have made this chick my best friend.

6. The Harvard baseball team defeated the Boston Red Sox in 1916, the same year the Sox won the World Series.

Harvard beat the Red Sox 1-0 in 1916 exhibition match, four years after the two teams played the first ever baseball game at Fenway Park. Since Red Sox = World Champions and Harvard Baseball > Boston Red Sox, Harvard Baseball > World Champions. QED.