Harvard Crimson

The Harvard Crimson are the athletic teams of Harvard University. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2006, there were 41 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country. Like the other Ivy League universities, Harvard does not offer athletic scholarships.

The school has won national championships in men's football (12), golf (6), men's ice hockey (1), women's lacrosse (1), men's soccer (4), coed sailing (1), women's sailing (1), fencing (1), women's rowing (1), and men's individual wrestling (3).

Baseball
Harvard's baseball program began competing in the 1865 season. It has appeared in four College World Series. It plays at Joseph J. O'Donnell Field and is currently coached by Bill Decker.

Men's basketball
Harvard Crimson men's basketball program represents intercollegiate men's basketball at Harvard University. The team currently competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and play home games at the Lavietes Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts. The team's last appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was in 2012. The Crimson are currently coached by Tommy Amaker.

Women's basketball

 * See: Category: Harvard Crimson women's basketball, Lavietes Pavilion, and College basketball

Crew

 * See footnote. See also: College rowing (United States) and Intercollegiate sports team champions


 * ECAC Rowing Trophy: 2002, 2004

Men's crew

 * See also: Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) and Goldthwait Cup


 * National Collegiate Rowing Championship: 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992

Women's crew

 * See also: Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC)

Fencing
The fencing won the 2006 NCAA team championship in men's and women's combined fencing.

Football

 * See: Harvard Crimson football and Harvard Stadium

The football team has competed since 1873. They have won ten national championships when the school competed in what is now known as the FBS. They are perhaps best known for their rivalry with Yale, known as "The Game". Sixteen former players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Harvard's athletic rivalry with Yale is intense in every sport in which they meet, coming to a climax each fall in their annual football meeting, which dates back to 1875. While Harvard's football team is no longer one of the country's best as it often was a century ago during football's early days (it won the Rose Bowl in 1920), both it and Yale have influenced the way the game is played. In 1903, Harvard Stadium introduced a new era into football with the first-ever permanent reinforced concrete stadium of its kind in the country. The stadium's structure actually played a role in the evolution of the college game. Seeking to reduce the alarming number of deaths and serious injuries in the sport, the Father of Football, Walter Camp (former captain of the Yale football team), suggested widening the field to open up the game. But the state-of-the-art Harvard Stadium was too narrow to accommodate a wider playing surface. So, other steps had to be taken. Camp would instead support revolutionary new rules for the 1906 season. These included legalizing the forward pass, perhaps the most significant rule change in the sport's history.

In both 1919 and 1920, headed by All-American brothers Arnold Horween and Ralph Horween, Harvard was undefeated (9–0–1, as they outscored their competition 229–19, and 8–0–1, respectively). The team won the 1920 Rose Bowl against the University of Oregon, 7–6. It was the only bowl appearance in Harvard history.

Men's golf
Harvard has won six men's golf championships: 1898 (spring), 1899, 1901, 1902 (fall), 1903, and 1904.

Men's ice hockey
The men's ice hockey team is one of the oldest intercollegiate ice hockey teams in the United States, having played their first game on January 19, 1898 in a 0-6 loss to Brown. Former head coach William H. Claflin and former captain George Owen are credited with the first use of line change in a game against Yale on March 3, 1923 when the Crimson substituted entire forward lines instead of individuals. The men's ice hockey team won the NCAA Division I Championship on April 1, 1989, defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers 4-3 in overtime. The Cleary Cup, awarded to the ECAC regular-season champion, is named for former Harvard All-American hockey player, coach, and athletic director Bill Cleary, a member of the U.S. hockey team that won the 1960 Winter Olympics gold medal. The team competes in ECAC Hockey along with six other Ivy League schools and is coached by Harvard alumnus, Olympian, and former NHL forward, Ted Donato. Harvard competes in one of the most heated rivalries of college hockey at least twice each season against Harvard's archrival, the Cornell Big Red, in installments of the Cornell-Harvard hockey rivalry. Cornell and Harvard are the most storied programs currently in the ECAC.


 * 1-time NCAA men's champions: 1989
 * 8-time ECAC men's champions: 1963, 1971, 1983, 1987, 1994, 2002, 2004, 2006
 * 10-time ECAC men's regular-season champions: 1963, 1973, 1975, 1986–89, 1992–94

Women's ice hockey

 * See the "Harvard Crimson ice hockey" navigation box at the bottom of the page.


 * 1-time women's national champions (1999, crowned by AWCHA, pre-dated NCAA Women's "Frozen Four")
 * 5-time ECAC women's champions (1999, 2004–06, 2008)
 * 5-time ECAC women's regular-season champions (1999, 2003–05, 2008)

Women's lacrosse
Harvard became the first Ivy League institution to win a NCAA championship title in a women's sport, when its women's lacrosse team won the NCAA championship in 1990. The team was runner-up in 1989 and 1992.

Rowing
Older than The Game by 23 years, the Harvard-Yale Regatta was the original source of the athletic rivalry between the two schools. It is held annually in June on the Thames river in eastern Connecticut. Both the Harvard heavyweight and lightweight teams are typically considered to be among the top teams in the country in rowing, having won numerous national championships in recent years.

For a time the Harvard lightweight mens team had one of the "oddest" streaks in collegiate sports, having won the national championships in every odd year from 1989 to 2003 (and in no corresponding even years). The streak was broken when Harvard lost to Yale by almost 4 seconds in 2005.

The women's heavyweight rowing team were NCAA Champions in 2003.

Rugby


The Harvard Rugby Football Club is the college rugby team of Harvard. Founded in 1872, Harvard RFC is Harvard's oldest athletic team, and the oldest rugby club in the United States.

Harvard competes in the Ivy League, and won the Ivy League Championship in 2007, 2003 and 1994, and were National Champions in 1984. In 2009, the men joined a newly established Ivy Rugby Conference that kicked off as a separate conference in Division 1.

In 2013, Harvard will add women's rugby as a varsity sport, increasing the number of sports the school offers to 42.

Sailing
The Harvard team won the Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships in 2003 and is currently ranked 11th nationally according to Sailing World.

Soccer

 * See: Category: Harvard Crimson men's soccer players, Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium, Ohiri Field, and College soccer

Men's soccer
Before the NCAA began its tournament in 1959, the annual national champion was declared by the Intercollegiate Association Football League (IAFL) — from 1911 to 1926 — and then the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (ISFA), from 1927 to 1958. From 1911 to 1958, Harvard won four national championships.

Tennis

 * See: Category: Harvard Crimson tennis players

Track and field

 * See: Category: Harvard Crimson track and field athletes

Men's volleyball
Inaugural season for the men's team was 1981. The Crimson compete in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) and are under the direction of head coach, Brian Baise.

Women's volleyball
Inaugural season for the women's team was 1981. The Crimson compete in the Ivy League and are under the direction of head coach, Jennifer Weiss.

Water Polo
Coach Ted Minnis heads both the Men's and Women's Water Polo teams, which compete in the Collegiate Water Polo Association. The teams both play in Blodgett Pool.

Awards

 * Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award – college-football award named for former player

Facilities
Harvard has several athletic facilities, such as the Lavietes Pavilion, a multi-purpose arena and home to the basketball teams. The Malkin Athletic Center, known as the "MAC," serves both as the university's primary recreation facility and as home to the varsity men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's fencing, and wrestling teams. The five-story building includes two cardio rooms, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a smaller pool for aquaerobics and other activities, a mezzanine, where all types of classes are held at all hours of the day, and an indoor cycling studio, three weight rooms, and a three-court gym floor to play basketball. The MAC also offers personal trainers and specialty classes. The MAC is also home to volleyball, fencing, and wrestling. The offices of several of the school's varsity coaches are also in the MAC.

Weld Boathouse and Newell Boathouse house the women's and men's rowing teams, respectively. The men's crew also uses the Red Top complex in Ledyard, CT, as their training camp for the annual Harvard-Yale Regatta. The Bright Hockey Center hosts the ice hockey teams, and the Murr Center serves both as a home for the squash and tennis teams as well as a strength and conditioning center for all athletic sports.

Other facilities include: Joseph J. O'Donnell Field (baseball), Harvard Stadium (football), Cumnock Turf and Harvard Stadium (lacrosse), Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium and Ohiri Field (soccer), and Blodgett Pool (swimming and diving, water polo).

Television footage
Harvard Undergraduate Television has footage from historical games and athletic events including the 2005 pep-rally before the Harvard-Yale Game. Harvard's official athletics website has more comprehensive information about Harvard's athletic facilities.