Harvard Men Urged to Miss School and Compete in the 1896 Olympics

Every week, The Crimson publishes a selection of articles that were printed in our pages in years past.

April 5, 1896: International Sports: A Harvard Man Writes from Athens to Urge their Support

To the Editors of the Crimson:

As a Harvard graduate and former occasional contributor to the CRIMSON, I trust that I may be permitted to trespass upon your space in behalf of a project that I feel a double interest in, both as a Harvard man and as a Greek.

At the International Athletic Congress at Paris last summer, it was decided to hold athletic contests every four years, open to amateurs only, to be known as the Olympic Games. If some lovers of Pindar feel their teeth on edge at this name, as applied to bicycle races and lawn tennis tournaments, we Greeks are to a man delighted that the first of these meetings is to be held in Athens, by unanimous vote of the members of the aforesaid Congress. And doubtless there could be no fitter spot to inaugurate these contests, which will be of incalculable benefit to the cause of athletics all over the civilized world than the land where athletics in their highest sense were brought to such perfection twenty-four centuries ago.

April 1, 1918: Start Liberty Loan Drive Next Monday

Following the participation of the Corps in the Liberty Loan parade in Boston on Saturday, a Liberty Loan campaign will be opened in the University next Monday, April 8, under the direction of R. McA. Lloyd '19. The drive will be conducted in connection with the national campaign which is to start on Saturday, April 6, the first anniversary of the entrance of the United States into the war. A committee of students has been appointed to carry on the drive and to solicit subscriptions throughout the University under the guidance of the manager of the campaign.

March 31, 1967: U.S. Oficial Says Ivies Reject the Handicapped

WASHINGTON, March 30—The United States Commissioner of Vocational Rehabilitation politely accused the Ivy League schools today of discriminating against physically-handicapped candidates for admission.

Mary Switzer said in an interview after her address to the American College Health Association, "I'm quite sure that Ivy League colleges admit a smaller percentage of handicapped students than other colleges. They are not taking the lead in this area as I think they should."

The Ivy League, according to Miss Switzer "takes a pessimistic line: the student should not be admitted if he will have too much trouble adjusting to [the life of] the college community." Miss Switzer conceded that there have been exceptions. "After all," she said, "Helen Keller went to Radcliffe."

April 4, 1980: In the Name of the Law

It could have been a courtroom parody and people would have laughed to see such ignorance. But it was a Boston Municipal criminal court and the drama was real.

The docket for April 3, 1980 listed nearly eleven cases. The eleventh case was that of Emeka Ezera '81, charged with "larceny from the person," arresting officer Pond of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), and Heins as prosecuting attorney.

By 10 a.m. over 160 students, faculty and interested persons had jammed Judge Harry Elam's courtroom on the fourth floor. The bailiff called out the defendant's name, and one by one the accused approached the defendant's box, either from the courtroom or the jail entrance.

—Compiled by Jared T. Lucky