That Championship Season

It wasn't that long ago, the Year of the Point.

That was 1981. So, as Harvard House football commences this week, it seems appropriate to reflect upon that year...of the point.

Each week for three straight seasons, the Lowell House Bellboys gathered behind the Stadium to don their helmets and went on to play a rousing game of intracollegiate football. And, each week for three straight seasons, the Lowell House Bellboys trudged back to Dillon, once again shut out by their mightier opponent. Last week, this week, next week...there was no singing in the showers. Zip, zilch, zero...again and again.

These still-proud denizens had just about had enough after their last loss of 1980. Three straight years were enough. They were fighting mad, and--damn it--next year would be different.

Well, next year--1981--finally rolled around, and the traditional spell of House football began to descend upon Harvard. The air was brisk, spirits soaring, and Lowell Coach Mike Pontrelli called his warriors together for a pre-season pep talk.

"Fellahs," the legend would have him say, "We've known nothing but defeat and humiliation for awhile. It was 1977 when we last tallied something on the scoreboard. Well, no more." Pontrelli then shook his head and stared solemnly at the ground. "No more. This is going to be the year...the Year of the Point!"

Hello? Hello? Destiny calling.

And destiny did call. It called on the last play of the last quarter of the last game of 1981, when Bellboy quarterback Harlan Levine slipped into the end zone from 12 yards out. The six big ones in the big year...of the point.

In The Crimson the next day, the report of the game read: "The fact Dunster-Mather won 19-6 did not faze the Lowell players or their many partisans. The Bellboys still broke out the champagne, and--despite an 0-3 record--belted out a rendition of "We Are the Champions."

And in this story, spiced with a certain amount of both depression and euphoria, lies an illustration of the intrinsic value of the House football program, and most other intramural sports at Harvard.

Where else but in House football does a team lose more than a dozen consecutive contests and still remain able to motivate enough enthusiasm to want to break out the booze just because someone found his way into the end zone?

Don't let the examples deceive you: the level of competition here is intense and extremely high.

The gridders hit each other hard; the game isn't injury-free. The locker room after each contest reeks of perspiration, and the next morning, it's a lot more difficult to rise from bed.

House football takes itself seriously, but not too seriously to stifle the all-important element of fun. The pure and healthy combination of rigorous athletic battles and lighthearted games is carefully maintained by the University. It supplies everything from the jocks to the shoes to the shoulder pads.

But still Harvard doesn't mind if a player might be missing a mouthpiece or if his pants are too short. The field is the regular 100 yards, but the chalk sidelines are uneven, hastily drawn and a bit spotty. The referees are there, too, in black and white striped jerseys, but when they feel that it's too cold for their comfort, the game clock starts to speed up a bit too quickly to escape a furtive suspicion.

Compare House football to sports at the varsity level. There, many consecutive defeats could mean the termination of a coaching job. Or, when conflicts with the coach mount to a severe level, an athlete might quit the team. And no one could rightfully contend that the joy the Bellboys experienced when they scored that touchdown was any less satisfying than any varsity victory.

Harvard is lucky, because it is one of the only universities in the nation where the thrill of victory is spread so thoroughly beyond the elite ranks of varsity athletics. This year the thrill is being spread even further. For Lowell, 1981 was the Year of the Point, 1982, was the Year of the Win, and this year, 1983, is the Year of the Woman. Playing for the Bellboys this season is Alex(andra) Coutler, the first female to participate in House football.

Serious but not too serious.

Winthrop House--now designated as the team of the '80s by House football enthusiasts and analysts--is expected to make the biggest splash out there this year. After all, it won the championship last season, and its current lineup is bolstered by two former varsity gridiron kings. But what if Winthrop doesn't (heaven forbid) take the title this time around? That improbable question can be answered by looking to the Year of the Point.

That year, Dunster-Mather eventually forced itself to the top of the heap to seize the title. But it was winless Lowell that sang "We Are the Champions."