Foreign Athletes At Harvard

In February of 1973, two members of Harvard's then nationally ranked soccer team quit Not just the squad, but college. Two of the most talented of the Crimson's mind boggling lineup of international talent. Dragan Vujovic of Yugoslavia and Norwegian Bent Hinze, were not only worried that a Harvard education might have little practical use when they returned home, but also had decided they had seen enough of American college athletics.

Vujovic was upset by the "jock image" attached to all athletes. "A lot of soccer players at Harvard wanted to give up soccer this year," he said at the time. "People tend to overlook that you have other talents and interests. [Foreign players] are proud--something like this insults them. In Europe sport is considered an art. Here people just look at you as a soccer player."

Nine years later, there are no teams at Harvard loaded with foreign talent the way the soccer team once was. But there are still about two dozen foreign athletes on varsity squads, many of whom share to some degree the concerns that motivated Vujovic and Hinze to leave. The Europeans. Africans and Latin Americans on Harvard's varsity teams are often struck by two aspects of sports in the U.S.: Americans tendency to view athletics as an all-important enterprise, with winning as its ultimate goal, and, perhaps related to Americans serious attitude toward sports, the well-financed and highly-organized nature of college athletics.

One foreigner who readily admits to being completely surprised by the level of Harvard athletics is Nigerian long jumper Gus Udo "Frankly, I was astonished," says Udo, who nearly chose a decidedly unathletic experience at the London School of Economics in stead of coming to Harvard. Facilities in Europe, where Udo went to secondary school, "are archaic compared to the ones here," he says adding that most European University have no full-time coaching staffs.

Even foreigners who are not so surprised upon their arrival in the U.S. comment on the clear differences between athletic programs here and abroad. Hurdler Steve Ezeji-Okoye expected, and found, much more lavish and modern track facilities here than if he had gone to college in England. "That's the reputation the United States has abroad," he says.

In general, foreign universities simply don't try to mix academics and athletics. That attitude prevails even on the secondary level. Where sports seasons tend to be much shorter than at American high schools. And colleges--even schools famous for their students devotion to crew--are stingy when it comes to funding other sports.

As a result, most serious athletics take place outside the universities. "If you want to do athletics really seriously," notes Ezeji-Okoye. "You have to join a club They're pretty well organized, along the lines of a college track team here." Clubs often here coaches, but their competition with colleges or other clubs is basically informal Even soccer clubs in South America, where the sport is an international obsession, tend to be casual affairs, according to senior forward Mauro Keller-Sarmiento, and Argentinian. And in England, says might meet on a Saturday and play a game, and then the next Wednesday at the pub for another match."

As foreigners see it, the underlying reasons for the differences in the levels of sports programs lie in American attitudes about competition. Ezeji-Okoye, who attended a school in England which had a group of American and Canadian students, notes that "it was always the North Americans who were far more competitive and gung-ho about sports they were always much more geared toward doing their best in every meet."

And Julian Bott, a swimmer from England, adds that "the emphasis here is more on team performance: over there it's almost totally for personal satisfaction." Keller-Sarmiento sees the same outlook in his sport. "I was disillusioned with Americans' attitude with soccer, it the same thing they apply to football."

Part of the difference in attitudes comes from Americans bringing a "team" outlook to "individual" sports. European athletes say. Even though certain sports, such as track and swimming, consists largely of individuals competing separately from their teammates, foreigners see Americans as being only concerned with athletes' contributions to team victories.

"My sport is an individual sports, but it's treated as a team-oriented sport here." Says Udo. "Often your times don't matter, just whether you win." All-American fencer Dave Heyman, originally from England, notes that although "it's just you and the other guy out there on the strip," in American fencing "you're fencing for the team, not for your self." Track co-captain Lenny Tron of Alberta says that while in Canada "the winning aspect of sports is just as great as in the U.S. Americans place extra emphasis on team performance. The "unfortunate" result is that "a coach's fate is often decided by his win-loss, record, rather than his technical knowledge of the sport," Tron says.

The emphasis on winning and the team isn't always a great difficulty, though. Says Keller-Sarmiento. "To an extent, some of the American players simply need to fell that everyone is really dedicated in each game." Udo, while sometimes annoyed "that there much more psyche here, and more noise at the meets."

Neither of the coaches of the two teams with the most non-North American athletes say they mind less competitive attitudes foreign athletes often bring from their homes. In soccer, notes men's soccer coach George Ford, foreigners are often are often so talented that "the American players improve just by practicing with them." And men's track Coach Bill McCurdy says he sees no reason to distinguish among American and foreign athletes at all; person has two legs or he doesn't.