Harvard's Renaissance Man Plays the Leading Role

Inside a room in Dunster House, a sound bellows out of one resident’s lips. It’s not out of the ordinary to hear your neighbors in Dunster—the thinly-lined walls lend themselves to a bit of eavesdropping—but this sound is unlike most. It’s the deep, heavy sound of a tenor, an opera singing senior.

But while the sound itself is surprising, what’s even more unexpected is the source of the resonance. It comes from a ball-carrying, run-blocking fullback.

Until this year, though, the exploits of Noah Van Niel, the multi-talented starter for the Harvard football team, had gone largely unnoticed.

A Boston Globe story last month changed all that, as the native of Newton, Mass. became somewhat of a celebrity for his dual abilities as a football player and an opera singer. Van Niel has even appeared on National Public Radio and CBS’ “The Early Show” in recent weeks, telling his unique story of practicing opera and playing football, all while also being a Harvard student.

“Looking at the whole picture of college, it’s been incredible,” Van Niel says. “I really couldn’t have asked for anything more. It’s a little bit of a leap of faith to try to do all these things and keep all these balls in the air and more or less, I think I’ve been able to do that.”

Even though the praise has only come recently, singing is nothing new for Van Niel. He’s been involved in musicals of some sort since elementary school, and he began his serious study of opera about seven years ago.

It’s on the field where Van Niel has really broken out this year. He played his first three years in the shadow of Crimson great Clifton Dawson ’07, who was busy climbing to the top of the Ivy League’s all-time rushing list. With an NFL-caliber running back taking carries, Harvard wasn’t forced to run too many two-back sets.

With Dawson’s graduation, however, a dual-back system is often employed by Crimson head coach Tim Murphy, and Van Niel has responded to his featured role. He scored the first two touchdowns of his career—one through the air, one on the ground—in a 27-17 win against Lafayette in Week 5, and he’s been the most consistent third-down threat—again, in both running and passing situations—for a Harvard team that lacks the pile-moving power of a big ball-carrier at tailback.

“I’ve been able to perform this year, and Coach Murphy believes in me, he believes I can perform, and that’s something that I’m thankful for,” Van Niel says. “Thus far, it’s been a really great experience.”

More than most Crimson athletes, the experience has also been a well-rounded one for Van Niel. It’s something that Murphy can attest to—he’s seen his fair share of impressive balancing acts during his 14 years at Harvard.

“He’s a scholarly kid,” Murphy says of Van Niel. “He’s not just a solid student, he’s a terrific football player—which the world is finally getting a chance to see—and he does something else really well.”

As the Crimson gets set for the first Game with two undefeated Ivy teams in 39 years, the team is poised to capture its first championship in three years. For Van Niel, it would be a fitting end to a truly outstanding Crimson career.

“It’s just a neat Harvard story,” Murphy says. “It’s hard enough to be a student here. It’s really hard to be a student and an athlete and do it well. It’s unbelievably hard to be able to do that and something else at a very high level.”

And even as The Game—and a chance at a the second conference championship of his career—approaches, Van Niel says that it’ll be another moment from his senior season that will stay with him the longest.

“The night game against Brown was pretty amazing,” Van Niel says. “We could win an Ivy championship, we could do this and that, but people have done that before, and no one’s ever played a night game here.”

For now, though, Van Niel’s focus rests solely on applying to vocal schools, beating Yale in The Game and, all the while, not completely forgetting about school.

“I’d often dream, ‘well, great, I’ll be able to sing, I’ll be able to play football, and hopefully I won’t fail out,’” Van Niel says. “There have been ups and downs in each area, but it’s all worked out.

“This is that time of year to get nostalgic,” he says. “I haven’t done enough of that.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.