'Athletics for All'

The architects and planners rolled out the astroturf last week in newly renovated Briggs Cage, marking one of the final stages of a decade long. $20 million University effort to upgrade and expand athletics facilities.

The Briggs Cage project and the renovation of the Stadium, which is scheduled to begin nest week, take place as planners enter the last phase of a building program which began after a 1975 Athletic Department study which encompassed three years of surveying Harvard's athletic outlook-recommended that a university that promise, athletics for all ought to construct facilities capable of serving all of its athletes.

And those athletes are plenty. The University was concerned not only about the crowding of men's varsity teams, playing in crumbing long-obsolete structures, but also the unavailability of athletes areas to the ever increasing women's teams, undergraduates participating in intramurals, faculty members, and graduate student.

Working Out

"Our facilities were the least adequate of any school in the Ivy League." President Bok recalled this week. Harvard also had an unprecedented desire to use the athletic facilities," he added.

John P. Reardon Jr. '60 director of athletics, agreed citing overcrowding of facilities and ever increasing participation in recreation athletics as factors necessitating expansion, "At this University," he said, "whether you sweep floors or teach physics, everyone thinks they're some kind of athlete."

The overcrowding of facilities led the University to form a committee in the mid-70s determine what was necessary to upgrade facilities.

After an extensive study this committee recommended what if called the Program for "Program for Athletic Facilities at Harvard and Radcliffe," a $30 million massive and all encompassing plan for a plush, modern sport, complex at soldiers field planners forcasted new improvements to include a new indoor swimming poll, a new hockey rink: an indoor track and tennis facility, a basketball arena placed in a renovated Watson Hockey rink: new squash courts underground lockerrooms, weightrooms and physical therapy areas connecting these new structures and the upgrading of nearly all the University's existing sports facilities.

Robert B Watson, director of athletics at the time of the new plan, was optimistic about its potential "This planning process has resulted in blueprints for athletic facilities which will be the model in a new era of university athletics throughout the nation," he said.

The athletic department mailed out slick brochures describing the proposed project to donors all over the country but failed in the end to raise the capital to undertake the project on its phases as planned.

"We should have built it all in one go, in my opinion," George Oomen, assistant to the vice president for administration, said this week. "But our financial facilities limited us."

However, the anxious planners did not let the lack of funding halt the project The University in mid-1976 reassessed its needs and priorities and rescheduled the development of facilities to account for budget constraints. Reardon remembers the tough decision that laced the athletic department. "It was a question of do you do without money and hope you'll come out okay, or do you take it in parts?" he said.

In May 1976, the University broke ground and began the first phase of the facilities development including the $4 million Blodgett Pool Complex and the $6.5 million Indoor Track and Tennis facility, which also housed extensive spaces for women's lockers.

The pool which the planning committee placed as its first priority, replaced the old pool at the Indoor Athletic Building which was built in the 20s and was at the time in poor condition and extremely overcrowded during peak swimming hours, forcing swim teams to practice at irregular shifts.

The demands of men's track Coach Bill McCurdy combined with the expertise and experimentation of Thomas A. McMahon, McKay Professor of Applied Mechanics, produced a track that McCurdy claims is the "fastest track in the World" In a feature article, Sports Illustrated praised the new facility, calling it the best of its kind in America. McCurdy had wanted a facility exclusively for track, he said, but limited funds made it "nonsensical to have a track and nothing else, so the old multiple use concept reared its ugly head," he said, and tennis courts were integrated into the facility.

McCurdy's concerted effort to obtain a superior facility is typical of Harvard coaches, Oomen said, "What I have learned is that these coaches are so demanding. They want the best for the money." he said And he and other planners have tried to meet these demands. "We find the best technology and use it in the best interest of sports," he said.

The athletic department's next priority for a facility, a new hockey rink, had been planned in the 1975 proposal. But when Coach Bill Cleary and planner realized that that $7 million project exceeded the available budget, they looked to the possibility of renovating Watson Rink, the existing facility. They found that builders could install new seating, resurface the rink, and rebuild the press box, while reinsulting the severely corroded walls for only about $2.8 million. The project was undertaken, and architects created what Reardon calls "a bright, exciting place to see a game. "It was the best facility for the money. "Oomen said of the new Alexander Bright Hockey Center.

The system of Athletic facilities expanded outside the Soldiers Field area in 1979 when President Horner and a selected committee recommended a $2.4 million gym at Observatory Hill, near the Quad. The complex added further to the facilities available for recreational athletics, and includes a gym, a weight room and six squash courts "I was very supportive of that effort, "Reardon said. "I think it's great to have a facility up there."

In addition, the University undertook in the same year the $1.5 million renovation of 50-year-old Dillon Fieldhouse, creating one of the best physical therapy areas in the nation, Reardon said.

The phase-by-phase construction of the University's new athletic facilities had by 1980 left only the basketball program, then housed in the IAB, without any significant solution to it's overcrowding problem and the conflicts of interscholastic and intramural programs. The University considered and rejected the idea of installing a portable basketball floor over the ice in Bright Center, a system widely used in college and professional arenas. Money for a new facility was lacking, and the department again looked to Oomen and his planners for solutions.

When Reardon last year asked Oomen to look into possibilities at Briggs Cage, the ancient indoor track facility and baseball cage built in 1927, the planner emerged with the idea of creating in Briggs a unique basketball court with 2700 bleacher seats and an astroturf surface that can be easily rolled out to cover the entire floor, accommodating, baseball, lacrosse and other sports in inclement weather.

"I always stick my neck out a lot, "Oomen said. Many corporation officials were hesitant to build the facility with the untested rolling turf, but Oomen insisted that it would be the best and most economical, and he recently sold his idea for the turf-rolling system to Monsanto Corporation.

Reardon is optimistic about the potential of the Briggs Cage project. "It looks like it's going to work well. "he said, adding that the new basketball court would make the IAB available for intramural or recreational use at all times.

Men's basketball Couch Frank McLaughlin looks forward to moving his team into the new Briggs Cage next season. "Up to now, we've been playing in one of the worst facilities a Division team has had, "he said, adding that the Cage would improve conditions for his team, and was "a nice place to watch a game."

An expensive and, according to Reardon "unfortunate addendum" to the recent refurbishing of facilities is the current rebuilding of 78-year-old Harvard Stadium. Total project costs will exceed $8 million for the renovation, which is scheduled to be at least partly completed by September 13, the date of the first football game, Robert J. Burbank, project manager for the project, said this week. Years of erosion of steel support beams necessitated the reconstruction, which will include the replacement of beams, installment of new seating and rebuilding of concession stands, restrooms and repairs to all concrete work.

The stadium improvement will be "a real plus for everyone," football Coach Joe Restic said this week. "It'll be one of the finest facilities in the Eastern part of the country," he added.

The Stadium refurbishing marks the last significant phase of an extensive upgrading program which according to most people involved has successfully met the needs it set out to satisfy when the University began the improvements in 1975.

President Bok praised the planners for their successful use of scarce resources. "The athletic department is a good example of finding economical solutions to multiple problems--something we have to do in times of economic difficulty," he said. "Our athletic program has improved and we're really on the high side of universities now, instead of the low side," he added.

Though the program to upgrade facilities hoped to significantly solve the problem of overcrowding, the quality and extent of facilities may have had the reverse effect. The superiority of facilities has actually attracted so many users that recreational programs "have become more and more crowded, because more people are exercising," Floyd Wilson, director of intramural and recreational athletics, said this week.

Reardon agreed, saying that areas like the weight rooms are likely to be used even more with greater expansion. "We've got a weight room with all you could want and a community in which everyone thinks they're Charles Atlas," he said.

Women athletes, a group that the athletic department saw as being treated quite unfairly at the time the renovations began have benefitted from the improvements most. The increase court space, relieving the crowdedness of early Harvard-Radcliffe athletics has allowed for the creation of new teams and the scheduling of resonable practice times, Significantly, the department has increase the number of women's lockers in the Soldier's Field area from 750 in 1976 to 2300 today.

Another area of significant improvement over recent years has been the ability of coaches to recruit athletes, "I can't imagine someone coming here with an interest in track, seeing that indoor track, and not being impressed by it," McCurdy said.

Restic, too, thought new facilities would help recruitment. "When kids are being recruited, they compare the facilities at different schools," he said. "If you have first-class facilities; that's a big factor," he added.

Although no immediate plans are currently on the drawing boards, the demand for more continues, as couches demand the best facilities possible. There is talk of an outdoor synthetic track and some desire more outdoor field space too match the extensive indoor facilities. Others are content for the time being.

While the University has met or exceeded most of the needs expressed eight years ago the athletic department is not likely to stop its upgrading of facilities. "I think there will always be some people who find some need that has to be met, "Bok said.