The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiatevarsitysports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country.[3] Like the other Ivy League colleges, Harvard does not offer athletic scholarships.[4]
The fencing team won the 2006 NCAA team championship in men's and women's combined fencing. Representing Harvard Crimson, Benjamin (Benji) Ungar won Gold in the 2006 Individual Men's Épée event at the NCAA Fencing Championship, and was named Harvard Athlete of The Year.[6] In 2020, the fencing program received more attention following a student admission scandal which involved former fencing coach Peter Brand accepting bribes to admit at least two sons of Maryland businessman Jie “Jack” Zhao into Harvard as members of the fencing team.[7][8][9]
Harvard's athletic rivalry with Yale is intense in every sport in which they meet, coming to a climax each fall in their annual football meeting, which dates back to 1875. While Harvard's football team is no longer one of the country's best as it often was a century ago during football's early days (it won the Rose Bowl in 1920), both it and Yale have influenced the way the game is played. In 1903, Harvard Stadium introduced a new era into football with the first-ever permanent reinforced concrete stadium of its kind in the country. The stadium's structure actually played a role in the evolution of the college game. Seeking to reduce the alarming number of deaths and serious injuries in the sport, the "Father of Football", Walter Camp (former captain of the Yale football team), suggested widening the field to open up the game. But the state-of-the-art Harvard Stadium was too narrow to accommodate a wider playing surface. So, other steps had to be taken. Camp would instead support revolutionary new rules for the 1906 season. These included legalizing the forward pass, perhaps the most significant rule change in the sport's history.[12][13]
Harvard has won six national collegiate team championships: 1898 (fall),[21] 1899, 1901, 1902 (fall), 1903, and 1904. They have crowned eight individual national champions: James Curtis (1898, fall), Halstead Lindsley (1901), Chandler Egan (1902, fall), A. L. White (1904), H. H. Wilder (1908), F. C. Davison (1912), Edward Allis (1914), J. W. Hubbell (1916). They won the inaugural Ivy League championship in 1975, their only league championship.[22]
The men's ice hockey team is one of the oldest intercollegiate ice hockey teams in the United States, having played their first game on January 19, 1898 in a 0–6 loss to Brown.[23] Former head coach William H. Claflin and former captain George Owen are credited with the first use of line change in a game against Yale on March 3, 1923 when the Crimson substituted entire forward lines instead of individuals.[24] The men's ice hockey team won the NCAA Division I Championship on April 1, 1989, defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers 4–3 in overtime.[25] The Cleary Cup, awarded to the ECAC regular-season champion, is named for former Harvard All-American hockey player, coach, and athletic director Bill Cleary, a member of the U.S. hockey team that won the 1960 Winter Olympicsgold medal. The team competes in ECAC Hockey along with five other Ivy League schools and is coached by Harvard alumnus, Olympian, and former NHL forward, Ted Donato.[26] Harvard competes in one of the most heated rivalries of college hockey at least twice each season against Harvard's archrival, the Cornell Big Red, in installments of the Cornell–Harvard hockey rivalry. Cornell and Harvard are the most storied programs currently in the ECAC.
Older than The Game by 23 years, the Harvard–Yale Regatta was the original source of the athletic rivalry between the two schools. It is held annually in June on the Thames river in eastern Connecticut. Both the Harvard heavyweight and lightweight teams are typically considered to be among the top teams in the country in rowing, having won numerous national championships in recent years.
For a time the Harvard lightweight men's team had one of the "oddest" streaks in collegiate sports, having won the national championships in every odd year from 1989 to 2003 (and in no corresponding even years).[29][30] The streak was broken when Harvard lost to Yale by almost 4 seconds in 2005.[31]
The women's heavyweight rowing team were NCAA Champions in 2003.
Harvard added Women's Rugby as a varsity sport in 2013, increasing the number of sports the school offered to 42.[32][33] Collegiate women's rugby programs are governed by the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association. Harvard was the first Ivy League institution to sponsor a varsity rugby program.[34] Prior to 2013, the Harvard Radcliffe Rugby Football Club, which began in 1982, had won two national championships (1998, 2011) as a club team.[34] Notable honors include: 2019 National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) National Champions,[35] Ivy League Champions (2018, 2013),[36] Ivy League Sevens Champions (2016, 2017, 2019)[37][38]
The Harvard team won the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the dinghies Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships in 1952, 1953, 1959, 1974 and 2003, the women's dinghies in 2005, the sloops in 2001 and 2002, and the team race in 2002 and 2003. The team was ranked 11th nationally in 2013 according to Sailing World.[39]
Women's soccer was elevated from a club to a varsity sport at Harvard in 1977. Bob Scalise, Harvard's former athletic director, was the first head coach. The team has won thirteen Ivy League Championships: 1978, 1979, 1981, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2016.
Harvard Swimming and Diving was founded in 190230. Harvard Men's Swimming and Diving is currently coached by Kevin Tyrrell, Harvard Women's Swimming and Diving is currently coached by Stephanie Wriede Morawski.
Tennis
Michael Zimmerman played tennis for the Harvard tennis team, and was a member of four successive Ivy League championship winning teams, from 1989 to 1992. In both 1991 and 1992 he earned Ivy League Player of the Year and ITAAll-American honors.[40]
Track & field
Harvard has men's and women's teams in track & field in Indoor, Outdoor (Men, Women), and Cross-Country.[41] Among its notable athletes have been Bill Meanix, who held the world record in the 440 yd hurdles, and Milton Green, a world record holder in high hurdles.
Inaugural season for the women's team was 1981. The Crimson compete in the Ivy League and are under the direction of head coach, Jennifer Weiss.
Water polo
Coach Ted Minnis heads both the Men's and Women's Water Polo teams, which compete in the Collegiate Water Polo Association. The teams both play in Blodgett Pool.
First established in 1913, the Harvard wrestling team celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013–14, making the Crimson one of the oldest collegiate wrestling programs in the nation. As part of that celebration GoCrimson.com released the "Top Moments in Harvard Wrestling History" in collaboration with the Harvard Crimson Wrestling team. The team practices and competes in the Malkin Athletic Center. In 1938, the Harvard Wrestling team featured the program's first national champion, John Harkness.
Jesse Jantzen ’04 is the most accomplished wrestler in Harvard history with the record for all-time wins (132), winning percentage (.910), and pins (50), Jantzen's accomplishments include: 2004 NCAA Champion, 2004 NCAA Most Outstanding Wrestler, three-time NCAA All-American, three-time EIWA Champion, and four-time NCAA Qualifier.[42]
Spirit groups
Cheerleaders at a basketball game.
Harvard athletic contests are supported by campus spirit groups including the Harvard University Band, the Crimson Dance Team, and Harvard Cheerleading.[43]
The beginnings of Harvard Cheerleading likely predate football at the University, and may originate in the mid or late nineteenth century.[44] The program boasts of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1904) and journalist John Reed (1910) as alumni; in fact, the squad was exclusively male until 1971.[44]
The student-run Harvard University Band was established in 1919 and was the world's first university "scramble" band.[45]
The Harvard Crimson Dance Team was established in 1995 and competes at both a regional and national level.[46]
Harvard has several athletic facilities, such as the Lavietes Pavilion, a multi-purpose arena and home to the basketball teams. The Malkin Athletic Center, known as the "MAC," serves both as the university's primary recreation facility and as home to the varsity men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's fencing, and wrestling teams. The five-story building includes two cardio rooms, a deep 25-yard swimming pool, a smaller pool for aquaerobics and other activities, a mezzanine, where all types of classes are held at all hours of the day, and an indoor cycling studio, three weight rooms, and a three-court gym floor to play basketball. The MAC also offers personal trainers and specialty classes. The MAC is also home to volleyball, fencing, and wrestling. The offices of several of the school's varsity coaches are also in the MAC.
Weld Boathouse and Newell Boathouse house the women's and men's rowing teams, respectively. The men's heavyweight team also uses the Red Top complex in Ledyard, CT, as their training camp for the annual Harvard–Yale Regatta. The Bright Hockey Center hosts the ice hockey teams, and the Murr Center serves both as a home for the squash and tennis teams as well as a strength and conditioning center for all athletic sports.
Harvard Undergraduate Television has footage from historical games and athletic events including the 2005 pep-rally before the Harvard-Yale Game. Harvard's official athletics website has more comprehensive information about Harvard's athletic facilities.
Notes
^Harvard's overall administration is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but its main athletic department office and almost all of its athletic facilities lie within the Boston city limits. The Malkin Athletic Center (fencing, volleyball, wrestling) and Weld Boathouse (women's rowing) are located in Cambridge.
^'Evolvements of Early American Foot Ball: Through the 1899/91 Season' by Melvin I. Smith (Library of Congress Control Number 2008903251 first published December 2, 2008) pages xii and xiii
^Men's rowing (both heavyweight and lightweight) and women's lightweight rowing are not part of the NCAA and have separate championships. The NCAA does conduct championships for women's heavyweight (or openweight) crews (Divisions I, II and III). See: NCAA Rowing Championship.
^"Spirit Groups". Go Crimson. Harvard Athletics. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
^ abLambert, Craig (September 1, 2000). "Cheerleaders Take Flight". Harvard Magazine. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. Archived from the original on March 10, 2024. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
