Alky Tsitsos: Unsung Hero of the Fall

It's too bad Horatio Alger-type sports heroes are no longer as popular as they heroes are no longer as popular as they were a few decades back, because Harvard could cash in on its current top halfback, Alky Tsitsos.

Tsitsos immigrated from Greece about 11 years ago. His parents don't speak English. He grew up in Brockton. and played football because North Junior High School didn't have a soccer team.

Then came glory days at Brockton High--Tsitsos was a high school All-American, player of the year in Eastern Massachusetts, and helped lead his team to a state championship. Then he came to Harvard, new challenges and new Tsitsos triumphs.

A perfect Hollywood script. Even down to the debilitating, personal injury junior year in a losing effort against the Crimson's biggest rival, Dartmouth, followed by gratifying vindication senior year, when Tsitsos, sustaining a hip pointer, scored two touchdowns to help Harvard smash the Mean Green.

Cut. end of Action. End of Drama.

Except that's just the beginning of Alkinoos Tsitsos. And a cinematic version of his football career is about as meaningful a portrayal as a Ronald Reagan-Eddie Albert movie.

Tsitsos doesn't consider himself star material. "I can't understand why people worship athletes," he says. "I don't have heroes. Just because you're good at one particular thing doesn't make you a god."

"When we first moved here football was a very strange game to me. I was used to playing soccer. The first time I played football, and somebody threw a block at me, I kicked him in the ass."

Hard at First

"It was hard here at first," Tsitsos continues. "It was very difficult to speak English. My brother and I were thrown into an American school. I was in the fourth grade, and I had an old maid school teacher, and I couldn't understand a word she said. Everything was blamed on us. Somebody would throw firecrackers and fingers would point at us. We didn't know what was going on. The only time they really accepted us was when we beat them at their own game--at sports."

But I didn't play to win their acceptance," Tsitsos says. "I'm very competitive in sports, and I just pushed myself because I don't like losing. Football takes a lot of time and leaves you frustrated, tired, hurt, and that keeps your mind on football.

"I wouldn't have been disappointed if I hadn't played football for Harvard, because I would have played soccer. I need to be involved in a sport. But I've been programmed for football for years now. Also I like sports that have a lot of people in them. I find myself getting bored playing tennis. There's nothing like having people with you--it's very important to me."

Tsitsos remembers the other rewards. "This year at Dartmouth--the most beautiful feeling was when I looked up at that clock. I couldn't cheer, I couldn't yell, I was just smiling."

But Tsitsos apparently is not always so passive. Reports circulate that he's a legend, a wild man. Tsitsos stories abound. He epitomizes the bohemian lifestyle, they say. One recounts the time he was stopped on the Mass Pike going 120 mph. Whether the stories are true seems unimportant. What matters is that they so very easily could be true.

Not so Important

"Studies are not so important in my life," Tsitsos says. "I could never understand people who get really pissed off if they get a B instead of an A--. I guess most people grew up in families where studies and marks were stressed very much. I just didn't. I look at people like that who never have time for their friends. Its really said. Your life is so programmed. You've just got to get out of it.

"The life in Greece is different that way. People are more open. I'm going to take a couple of years off after I graduate this June. Next year I'm going to Greece. My people are there. I can't help but being really pissed off at the administration here. They should take all the blame for Cyprus. Kissinger just encouraged the whole thing. This administration, it's just the same old bullshit."

Tsitsos maintains a fondness for his homeland. "In Greece, the people are much more relaxed than here," he says. "You can feel this heart opening up, and giving. Happiness is just flowing from one person to another. When someone comes to a house, they're made to feel like kings."

"People tell me I'm immature for taking time off," Tsitsos says. "Sometimes I feel everybody's passing by me. They're picking this, picking that, getting married. Even law school is freaking me out. After that your life is picked--it's too much for me right now. Next year I just want to go to Greece."