Losing the Easy Way

In the 1982 Columbia guide, Coach Bob Naso comments on certain aspects of Lion football. The following is his brief dissertation on winning:

"Winning is a habit; you have to develop that habit. Sometimes before you win you have to lose. Once you learn how to lose, then you find ways to win. We've got to get to the point where our players, on any given Saturday, deep down inside, honestly believe that they can win that day."

One would guess, if Naso is indeed correct, that the Columbia football team is ready to win. He says that before you win, you've got to learn how to lose. And at Columbia, it is no longer a question of learning.

Last season, they were 1-9. In 1980, Naso's first year in the Big Apple, they were also 1-9. In 1978, benefitting from a since-abolished Ivy rule limiting the football schedule to nine games, they were 1-8. That should be straight A's if you're scoring, Bob.

And to say that the last three seasons in Columbia football have been the only lean years is not really a fair statement. At Columbia, they've been enduring the lean years-ever since the first time the Lions touched pigskin.

Take a glance back through Columbia football history. Last winning season: 1971 (6-3). Last winning season before that: 1962 (5-4). The last Columbia head coach who won more games than he lost while at the school: Charles F. Crowley, a Notre Dame graduate (and hence, an obvious winner) who was 26-16-4 during his five-year lenure in a Lion suit. The years were 1925-29.

Even Sid Luckman, one of the best quarterbacks ever to play pro football, couldn't pull Columbia out of its then-70-year slump. He was named to the All-America team while directing the Columbia offense in both 1938 and '39, but at the same time, the Lions suffered through 3-6 and 2-4-2 seasons.

Maybe it all dates back to their first game on a cold fall day in 1870. The Lions lost a heartbreaker to Rutgers by a score of 6-3. The Lions, then, had learned quickly how to lose, something their present coach says is necessary if you want to know how to win.

Of course, Naso went to Rutgers.

HARVARD 26, COLUMBIA 7--According to the Naso theory of winnativity, Columbia ranks as the Einstein of the Ivies. Einstein was no athlete.

CORNELL 20, PRINCETON 7--Cornell is the sleeper this year, a lot of the Ivy coaches say. Big Red running back Derrick Harmon is no sleeper, however. He should run all over the Tigers.

DARTMOUTH 28, PENN 3--There must be better things to do in Hanover on a Saturday afternoon. Well, maybe not..

YALE 30, BROWN 10--Brown quarterback Hank Landers is on the sidelines. Injury? you ask. No, I reply. Probation? you wonder. Not that, I say. Signed a major league baseball contract and is ineligible for Ivy competition in any sport? you inquire. Hey, right on.

LEHIGH 56, PENN 0--This game is next Friday, so we have to think about it now. When Ben Franklin founded the University of Pennsylvania, he probably said the school should never play Lehigh in football. He was healthy, wealthy and, especially, wisc.