Harvard Sports And NCAA Championships

One particular Harvard athlete did something special 110 years ago, and in the process, set a high standard for Crimson sports in more ways than one.

Joseph Sill Clark '83 (and that's 1883 for those of you who haven't been paying attention) captured the first singles title of the National College Tennis Championships and changed athletics at fair Harvard and around the country forever.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association traces its roots all the way back to that spring day when Old Joe became the land's best college tennis player. But if the Crimson can boast about the first crown, it can't brag about many since.

Of course, collegiate athletics back when Clark was hitting serves and diving for volleys may not have quite resembled today's high-tech, money-generating sports, and many coaches (including retiring football coach Joe Restic) assert that the way we play the games we play these days lacks the amateur spirit that Clark represents.

Nevertheless, however much Harvard claims that its athletic programs are not just desperate accumulators of NCAA titles, the Crimson would not be disappointed with another national crown.

Counting Old Joe's victory, Harvard has won only three NCAA championships. The football team had seven national collegiate championships seasons between 1890 and 1919, but the NCAA didn't administer any of them. Harvard men's and women's squash teams are no strangers to national titles, but the NCAA has nothing to do with those crowns either.

Harvard won its first NCAA championship of the modern era with the skates and sticks of the 1989 men's hockey team and its amazing 4-3 overtime victory over Minnesota. The Crimson's second title came a year later when the women's lacrosse team dispatched Maryland 87.

And that's it.

So what are the chances that one of this fall's teams will add to the short list? Not good.

Even if the football team were at the championship level, the Ivy league prohibits Ancient Eight teams from participating in postseason competition.

Restic's last season or not, an NCAA Division I-AA title is out of the Crimson's reach.

Harvard's best chances for the autumn reside with the men's soccer team and the field hockey team.

Although second-year men's soccer coach Stephen Locker has no delusions about being able to compete with teams like Virginia, Locker does believe a tournament appearance is achievable. And once the Crimson is there anything can happen, especially in the unpredictable world of Locker-soccer. In 1987, Harvard made it to the semifinals before losing to San Diego State in a shootout. Will the Crimson return to its former glory? Locker thinks so, and he's making believers of many around Ohiri Field.

Under head coach Sue Caples, the field hockey team won its first Ivy titles in 1990 and 1991 and showed up in the NCAA tournament two years ago, and this year, the Ivy League champion will receive an automatic bid to the tourney.

Caple's young team could be a contender, although even she doesn't like Harvard's chances of making it all the way to the final four and competing against the perennial giants, defending champ Old Dominion, Iowa, Massachusetts and North Carolina.

What about the other teams?

The Harvard men's cross country team has never competed in the NCAA team championships, and a bid for the squad this year would be more than enough. Unlike the men, the women have run at the highest level and actually did quite well in 1983 with a fourth place in the NCAA tournament. But even though senior Alais Griffin, who qualified for the NCAA championships last year, returns this season, a team title is not very likely at all.

The men's water polo team believes that this could be the year it receives one of the two eastern bids to the NCAA's. Last year, Harvard beat powerhouse Brown for the first time in 20 years. But no matter how optimistic the team and co-captain Jeff Zimmerman are, an NCAA title is just not in the water for the Crimson.

The women's volleyball team has never won an Ivy championship and could never compete with the western powers anyway. Women's soccer made it to the quater final of the NCAA tournament in 1984, losing to Massachusetts 1-0, but has not played at that level for a long time.

The Other Seasons

In the winter there is, of course, men's ice hockey. The Crimson made it to the NCAA tourney last year but lost in the first round to Northern Michigan.

Under Athletic Director Bill Cleary '56, the Crimson skated all the way to a title and a trip to the White House in 1989, but it remains to be seen whether fourth-year coach Ronn Tomassoni will get to meet Bill Clinton or any other president. Olympian Ted Drury is gone, and the Crimson must find other offensive alternatives if Harvard wants to dethrone defending champion Maine.

Men's basketball Head Coach Frank Sullivan and his team would take part in March Madness if it won the Ivy title--but that's a big if. And with no Fab Five or even Fab One in sight, the crown is about as far away from Cambridge as the Siberian capital of Irkutsk.

Even if women's basketball won the Ivy championship, the Crimson would not automatically make the tourney, so you can forget a national title there, and men's and women's swimming have individual standouts, but both squads don't have the depth to challenge the Stanfords and Texases of the country.

Wrestling doesn't have the talent, and track doesn't have the speed.

Most of the spring sports teams are far from poised to win crowns, but hands down, Harvard's best shot of winning it all this year remains with the women's lacrosse team. All-American Liz Berkery '93 has left, but what is important is that head coach Carole Kleinfelder is still around (despite offers from Yale), and she has made Harvard into a national power with a legitimate shot at the title every year.

A Last Word

Joe Clark, you've made it hard for Harvard to accept its present and not-so-prominent position in the world of NCAA athletics and championship. But Joe, you also present Harvard with a symbol of how insignificant the number of championships a school wins is. You were the consummate amateur, and the bottom line is every college athlete should be one, too.