Writer Learns Sport on the Job

As a girl who loves watching sports and loves writing about them even more, I do admit that I sometimes feel like I’m alone in a sea of testosterone. I’ve grown accustomed to the strange looks I get when guys realize that I know far more about baseball than they do, and I have long since come to terms with the fact that if I sit down to watch a hockey game with the majority of my female friends, I’ll spend more time explaining the rules to them than actually watching the action.

I think that’s part of the reason why I’ve spent most of my three-plus years covering sports for The Crimson writing about women’s teams.

As a former (admittedly not very talented) female athlete myself, I want to make sure they get the respect they deserve.

Then, a year and a half ago, my friend Dixon—the sports chair and returning football writer at the time—convinced me that covering the Crimson football team was my Harvard sportswriting destiny.

And so I decided to leave my girl-power mantra behind for a season and cover the quintessential guys’ game. But here’s a secret: for a girl who loves sports, I used to know next to nothing about football.

That changed in a hurry last fall, when I spent every Saturday immersed in the sport.

I quickly learned how to recognize a good block when I saw one, how to appropriately describe an offensive formation, and learned more than I ever could have imagined about the pecking order of Ivy League football. I’ve grown to appreciate the perks of a nice press box after a long drive (hello, Columbia!) and of a talkative, media-savvy coach after a long game.

And really, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be getting my football education.

Now granted, following a season on the gridiron at Harvard isn’t quite as exciting as it would be at a BCS powerhouse school. As an Ivy League, FCS school, neither the caliber of play nor the level of student interest can compare to what it’s like at Texas, Boise State, or even Stanford. I’m not fighting with ESPN to have my voice heard in press conferences (but to be honest, I like it that way).

Many of you might not realize that at Harvard, we are lucky enough to have a football team that’s currently one of the best FCS (formerly I-AA) schools in the country.

Period.

Over the last 10 years, the Crimson has accumulated a 76-23 record, good for a 0.768 winning percentage from 2000 to 2009.

That’s second only to Montana—a school with 13,000 undergrads and the ability to award football scholarships—in the whole FCS.

Harvard’s also a standout among its Ivy peers, both in the last decade (four Ivy titles, tied with Penn for tops in the league) and since the beginning of round-robin league play in 1956 (a 0.612 in-conference winning percentage, best in the Ancient Eight).

Throw in the four Crimson alumni currently playing in the NFL—including six-time All-Pro center Matt Birk ’98, currently with the Baltimore Ravens, and Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05, currently a backup quarterback on the Bills’ roster.

It’s apparent that coach Tim Murphy has built up quite the powerhouse in his 17 years with the program.

And the word coming out of preseason camp is that this season is going to be no different.

Harvard’s once again picked by the media to finish atop the league, and players and coaches are confident that even with the graduation of key players and another new quarterback—senior Andrew Hatch—under center, the championship trophy will be back in Cambridge come November.

But the Crimson’s sustained excellence in both its conference and division isn’t the only reason I love being around Harvard football.

Because we have the unique experience of being at a school that attracts not only great athletes but values education above all else, every player and coach I’ve interacted with here has been intelligent, articulate, and talented—and most have a great story to boot.

I’m back for my second year on the football beat starting on Saturday night, and hopefully by the end of it I’ll finally be able to talk authoritatively about schemes and strategy with my co-writers who’ve grown up watching NFL Countdown since kindergarten.

Some things may never change—I’m always going to be able to rattle off Red Sox stats more readily than the Patriots’ starting lineup, and I’m still going to consider watching an episode of Friday Night Lights a more-than-adequate substitute for watching Monday Night Football.

But at least I know that I’ll graduate in May with not only an excellent academic education, but an excellent football one as well.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.