Ivy Football: The More Things Change...

[DFW HOYA]

Excerpts from a Harvard Crimson editorial:

"We feel that the present football policy at Harvard is unsound, for both financial and prestige reasons...There seem to be two solutions to the present football confusion. The first is to abandon all pretexts that we are a major college football team and play purely New England schools and one or two traditional rivals. The second is to take a positive attitude toward the game which supports all other athletics at Harvard..."

"The University might as well stop trying to have football pay for everything else. It might as well look upon further football income as a pleasant surprise and decide to pay for all athletics out of the funds of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, on the grounds that physical training is as much a part of a college education as scholastic work. This will pose a difficult financial problem for the University, cutting off a large source of income without replacing it. But if Harvard wishes to continue doing literally nothing about football, it should also be honest to its undergraduates and to the public by playing average teams and charging fair ticket prices."

"We don't believe that anybody wants Harvard to go big time. Harvard doesn't need the kind of reputation that goes with beating Michigan and North Carolina--it already has an academic reputation, which is far more valuable."

"But the Alumni cannot present a case to prospective students unless the University takes certain steps. We repeat: The authors are completely opposed to athletic scholarships at Harvard. But if a man can pass the entrance examinations on his own, there are some things which the University could do without compromising admittedly sound principles.

"If we are to continue to play Ivy League football, we must broaden the personnel at [the coach's] disposal. It might be nice to upset Stanford or Army...with a team playing strictly for fun, but it is not morally justifiable to ask such a team to expose itself to a steady stream of almost inevitable injuries. Such a casualty list as this year's is a direct result of playing a schedule composed exclusively of teams which are not only deeper in talent but also deeper in numbers. One group of eleven men playing against two groups of eleven men gets tired; when it gets tired, it is very likely to get hurt.

"The current situation neither gains prestige nor pays for the athletic program. It is unfair to customers, players, and coaches.

"It need not be corrected by a revision of Harvard's schedule, if some changes are made in the attitude towards athletes here. It must not be corrected by a program of athletic scholarships--that we believe most firmly has no place at Harvard. We can play respectable football by merely loosening the stranglehold that the Administration has on any move to give athletes a given chance."

This was published on November 25, 1949.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1949/11/25/harvard-football-which-way-out-pthis/

[Lehigh Football Nation]

"The Administration also likes football for its money value. This one sport supports virtually all the others, varsity and intramurals alike, and keeps Harvard's fine "athletics for all" program alive. Without gate receipts at the Stadium, there would be no money to pay for wherries and shells or for squash and tennis courts. Therefore, the people who have to sign checks for upkeep and replacements on Harvard's colossal athletic plant want big names in the Stadium, for big names mean big crowds. There is one flaw in this line of reasoning, however: big name opponents will not draw big crowds as long as Harvard teams lose by large scores. This season's attendance records prove that decisively."

Fax this over to Western Kentucky's AD immediately! xlolx


Harvard might well take a lead from Yale. It would not be "unclean" to assure an athlete of a job here. This would eliminate the necessity for any athletic scholarship, and would mean only that a man could earn some of his expenses.

Harvard could also, with a minimum of effort, guarantee athletes the same rent rating for four years. This would not mean free rooms; it would mean that a man could eliminate this one variable from his college budget and know just how much money would be needed beyond what he could earn in an outside job.

After all, Harvard should not need athletic scholarships to entice men to Cambridge. The University not only offers an A.B. degree of unmatched prestige value, but also has as good a range of courses as any other college, better taught than in almost any other college.

This last statement shows how far the ideas of "scholarships" have deviated from the concept of a scholarship in 1949. I wonder how the writer of this article would feel, sixty years later, when all students making under $120,000 at both Harvard and Yale would have their tuition and room and board paid.

Seen in this way, the restrictions on "athletic scholarships" seems less of a matter of principle and more of an arcane thought of the past - that mattered once, but not anymore.

[Franks Tanks]

Despite the authors call for action, Harvard plays pretty much exactly the same teams they did in the 40's. In 1949 they played Stanford and Army, the Ivy league rivals, and Holy Cross. They went 1-9 with a win over the Crusaders. In subsequent years they played Army and Ohio, but also played Tufts, Springfield and UMASS.

Today they are much better within the context of the Ivy league, but really little has changed except the crowds at Harvard Stadium.

[dgtw]

I wonder what the now octogerians who wrote that think about the state of the game today.

[heath]

What is an average team?Thought their whole schedule was made up of average teams year in and year out.Now they might charge a bit too much for single game tickets,but hell at least they let the undergrads in free.xthumbsupx