Exultant Cabot Reclaims Straus

The Cabot House intramural (IM) sports juggernaut has reclaimed its silver trophy and its place in the sun after unseating first-time champion Adams House is the Straus Cup competition.

Cabot House, which has won the competition in eight of the last nine years, took back the trophy in a ceremony on the steps of the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) Friday.

Jessica D. Murphy ’04, an IM coordinator for Cabot, credits the House’s high level of participation for the victory.

“About 75 percent of the House has played in something this year,” Murphy said. “We only had one forfeit all year.”

Susannah K. Graves ’03, another Cabot IM coordinator, said she feels that this year’s Adams teams were not as driven as they were last year, when Adams won its first Straus Cup since the inception of the IM system 68 years ago.

Reid Bolton ’04, intramural co-captain for Adams, praised Cabot’s dedication to winning the cup.

“It’s a tribute to them…they just have a great organization, a great institutional edge,” Bolton said. “No one has more commitment to the IM program than Cabot.”

But he said Adams would try to regain the cup, using the efficient organization of Cabot IMs as a model.

“We’re absolutely trying to build the same kind of institution at Adams, and we’re on our way,” he said.

Bolton said he thinks that the traditional IM supremacy of Cabot and Kirkland are quickly being challenged by the growing IM power of the Eliot and Adams squads.

“All of a sudden, it’s a really competitive field,” he said.

Eric Todrys ’03, a Cabot IM coordinator, stressed the strong competition of second-place Kirkland in crew.

He also mentioned the rising threat from Eliot’s teams.

Todrys credited Daniel L. Seltzer ’05, the Eliot House IM coordinator, for helping bring traditionally weak Eliot to a third-place finish.

Seltzer explained that Eliot had a long history of IM weakness to overcome.

“I don’t think Eliot had ever finished in the top ten in the Straus Cup…People didn’t think it could be done,” Seltzer said. “[But] as we started to win, and when people saw that, they started coming out more.”

Seltzer attributed Cabot’s historical IM supremacy to “a lot of huge guys” in Cabot.

IM coordinators from Adams and Cabot cite the enthusiasm of their House masters as a major factor in IM competition.

“It was [Cabot House Master] Jim Ware’s last year, and he was really excited about it. Being able to win it for his last year was really cool,” said Cabot’s Todrys.

Ware, who is also the School of Public Health’s academic dean, spoke enthusiastically about the benefits of an active IM program.

“Americans don’t have enough opportunities to exercise,” Ware said. “It’s an amazing thing the College does, so students can get out and really enjoy it.”

Ware also said he felt very close to Adams House Master Sean Palfrey, who captained the House’s squash and tennis teams.

“Which teams didn’t I play on?,” Palfrey said. “I played tennis, squash, soccer, fencing, swimming, ping pong and I think I was in on a little bit of football.”

Cabot’s Murphy said that the Adamsians were “classy” at Friday’s cup-passing ceremony on the steps of the MAC.

“Adams House will rise again,” Palfrey said.

Cabot won with 1,326 points, followed by second-place Kirkland and third-place Eliot with 1,272 and 1,212 points, respectively. Adams came in fourth with 1,182 points.

—Staff writer Michael A. Mohammed can be reached at mohammed@fas.harvard.edu.