The Playmaker

>Before he donned a Harvard uniform, Terence Patterson had never caught a pass in his life.

But now, he holds the school record for career receptions.

'TP" deserves to wear No. 1.

"Terence has been one of the most productive and versatile players that we've seen in the past five years," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "Filling in his shoes next year will certainly be difficult."

Patterson's versatility is the result of experimenting at almost every offensive position. He first turned to football at the tender age of six but was forced to play guard.

"From that point on, I made it my goal to the best football player that I could be," Patterson said. "I definitely didn't want to play offensive line anymore."

Patterson's love for football continued to grow in high school. Before he started catching passes for the Crimson in 1996, Patterson had been throwing them for years. Patterson was a two-time All-State option quarterback at Germantown High School in Tennessee, leading his team to an impressive 26-2 record.

He had originally planned on remaining in the South to play college ball, but he had heard all too often from coaches that at 5'11 and 180 pounds, he lacked the size to play quarterback. Patterson had intended on enrolling at the University of Memphis, but Murphy caught wind of the athletic speedster, and soon enough, TP found his way to the Ivy League.

"It was definitely a big change moving from the South to Harvard," Patterson said. "It was really different because it's just so fast, and I'm a pretty laid-back guy. But I wanted to come here because in case football didn't go as well as I wanted, I'd still get a great education."

Patterson's raw speed and finesse convinced Murphy and his staff that he would be a perfect fit at wide receiver. In 1996, Patterson's rookie season, then-junior Colby Skelton '98 took the talented freshman under his wing and helped him to adjust to life as a top wide receiver.

"During my first day of practice, which was my first day at wide receiver, I was doing horribly," Patterson recalled. "But Colby came out there and told me, 'Terence, you've got to do this,' or 'Terence, when you do this, you've got to keep your hands up.' He was instrumental from day one, and I really admired the hard work that he put into the game as well as the hard work that he put into making the other people around him better."

During his rookie season, Patterson, who then wore No. 86, hauled in seven receptions for eighty yards, and more importantly, he created his signature play--the split end reverse, a play that has baffled defenses for the past four years.

The play unfolds like this: the quarterback hands off to the running back, who hands it off to Patterson and then TP has the choice to run with it or launch it downfield to an open receiver.

But in spite of the potential that he showed on the field that year, he saw only limited playing time and developed his skills under the tutelage of Assistant Coach Jay Mills.

"From my first day here, Coach Mills had this confidence in me that I couldn't see at the time, and I couldn't understand why he was always yelling at me at practice," Patterson said. "But he was yelling at me because he saw something extra in me and really worked to get everything that he could out of me."

Patterson finally emerged from Skelton's shadow in 1997, Harvard's championship year and Patterson's breakout season. He changed his jersey number to No. 1, and with the uniform change came a change in his game.

After making a team-high 45 catches for 459 yards during his sophomore season and tying for the team lead with four touchdowns, Patterson earned a spot on the All-Ivy League Second Team.

His junior year, Patterson caught 40 passes for 385 yards.

This season's feats have surpassed those of his junior year. In addition to running his signature reverse, he has emerged as a multifaceted threat on the field, improving his punt and kickoff returns, adding to his medley of rushing and receiving.

In last week's loss to Penn, Patterson returned a punt for 77 yards for a touchdown, helping Harvard to come back from a 14-0 hole and tie the game.

"In a three-game stretch this season, Terence scored by running, catching and passing the football," Murphy said.

"You can't get more versatile than that."

Patterson's dynamism has earned him a much-deserved place in the record books. On October 30th against Dartmouth, Patterson broke Skelton's record of 127 career receptions and became the most illustrious receiver in Harvard history.

"Breaking the record felt awesome," Patterson said. "My dad was actually there, so it meant a lot to me because I wanted to give my dad something that he could see that would tell him that I've achieved something."

In addition to his on-the-field success, Patterson has followed Skelton's example by serving as a mentor for the younger receivers on this season's squad. The confident and charismatic Patterson, the lone senior in the receiving corps, has worked hard

to develop the talents of sophomore Andy Fried and freshmen Carl Morris and Kyle Cremarosa, all of whom have showed spectacular promise this season.

"Because I'm the only upperclassman who's playing at wide receiver right now, I have to take that leadership role," Patterson said. "But I enjoy the mentor role because I have two younger brothers, and I like playing that older brother role and helping other players out."

"Andy Fried is basically a running back playing wide receiver, which is great because he can both block and catch the football," Patterson added. "And with Carl and Kyle, you have two tall, rangy guys that can also make the big plays. So the future looks really bright, and it's just too bad that I only have one year to play with those guys."

The government concentrator, whom Murphy predicts will one day be the governor of Tennessee, hopes to play professional football after graduation but is now concentrating his efforts on the task at hand--playing his final game in a Harvard uniform.

This weekend's Harvard-Yale game will be a bittersweet moment for Patterson, who has focused his energy and talent on representing Harvard on the field for the past four years.

"Putting on that Crimson jersey for the last time will be really tough," Patterson said. "When I get in the locker room and put on my pads and play in front of all those people that represent Harvard University, that means the world to me. I'm going to miss acting silly in the locker room, guys wrestling in the locker room, practicing in sub-zero temperature and little things like that. Professional football is great, but I'll totally miss the atmosphere of the college game."

He may have been too little to play quarterback when he was six years old, but Terence Patterson has certainly grown up and taken his place as one of Harvard's best.