As classes pick up, so do many of Harvard’s 41 varsity sports, meaning Cambridge will be hosting plenty of contentious matchups worth marking down on your calendar. Here are five that any true fan shouldn't miss. 

(Continued)

In a new weekly feature, The Crimson will be tracking the successes (and potential failures) of some of Harvard’s most successful graduates not to use their Harvard degrees. While a tour through professional sports is not exactly a who’s who of Harvard alumni, a few athletes have taken their game to the next level. From Jeremy Lin to Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Crimson maintains a presence outside of the labs and law offices of the world.

With the Olympic games and Senior World Rowing Championships taking place this summer, it may have been easy to lose sight of Harvard’s presence in major American professional sports leagues. In case you missed the thrilling reality show that is the NFL preseason and the MLB’s dog days of summer, we’ve got you covered. 

(Continued)

The Harvard men’s basketball team will return from its week-long trip to Italy with a perfect 4-0 record after defeating Paffoni Omegna, 81-62, Monday afternoon in Verbania.

But more exciting for Crimson fans than Harvard’s four routs over Italian club teams—the Crimson won by an average of 20.5 points per game—is that Harvard appeared to answer a number of key questions surrounding its 2012-13 squad.

With the graduation of Keith Wright ’12 and Oliver McNally ’12 in May, the Crimson entered the offseason with a number of holes to fill—namely Wright’s 10.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

Harvard’s sophomore class may have the answer.

(Continued)

Harvard sophomore lightweight rower Andrew Campbell capped off a busy summer with a third-place finish at the 2012 Senior World Rowing Championships last week in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Campbell, a Connecticut native, competed individually in the single lightweight sculls for the United States in a field of 25 competitors from across the world. He was coached by Linda Muri, assistant coach of Harvard lightweight crew.

After placing second in both his quarterfinal and semifinal races, Campbell advanced to compete in the “A” final where he finished in 6:57.88 behind Denmark’s Henrik Stephansen and Hungary’s Peter Galambos.

Earlier in the summer, Campbell competed at the 2012 Final Olympic Qualification Regatta with partner Will Daly, a Boston University graduate, to vie for a spot in the Olympics. The duo finished third and just missed qualifying for the lightweight double sculls.

(Continued)

After a three year-stint in Atlantic City, N.J., the ECAC Hockey Men’s Championship will soon return to the site of the most famous moment in U.S. hockey history.

The home of the “Miracle on Ice,” the 1980 Rink - Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y., will host the championship for at least three years starting in 2014, the ECAC announced on Tuesday.

“Lake Placid has always been one of the special hockey places in the U.S.,” said ECAC Hockey Commissioner Steve Hagwell in a press release. “The combination of the warm welcome from the surrounding community, aura of the venue, and general support will be easily absorbed by fans and students alike.”

From 1993-2002, Lake Placid’s Olympic Arena played host to the championship, which currently includes the semifinal and final rounds of the ECAC playoffs. In those 10 years, the Harvard men’s hockey team captured two league titles.

The 8500-seat 1980 Rink – Herb Brooks Arena is a considerably smaller venue than Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, which can hold 10,500 spectators for hockey games.

Boardwalk Hall will once again host the championship in 2013, when Harvard will look to capture its first league title since 2006. In the 2012 championship, the Crimson nearly completed an improbable late-season run, falling one win short of the elusive ECAC crown despite minimal expectations entering the year.