From the Sidelines: Iv_ League sports missing a 'Y'

By Rob Huelin

I have always had a soft spot for those columns, and now, as a senior, I get the chance to write one. Except, looking back, I can't think of any real regrets. I suppose I could have stayed with football, but that feeling comes more because I really liked playing than a sense of having been very good. And it helps to be good at the Division I level.

Hmmm...eliminating personal regrets means that I should instead focus on those good ol' times. Looking back, far too much of my time was spent here, at The Herald, writing and talking about sports. Of course! I'll write about those brilliant, shining moments in Yale sports. You know, the events that made us all come together as a school--the moments that everybody remembers. The Game, for example. I should be writing about how we beat on Harvard and how exciting that was (well, being on the field for one of those was damn cool). Wow, I might be onto something--the top ten moments in my four years at Yale. Here they are:

1) The 1997-98 men's ice hockey team sets a school record for wins (23) and captures the regular-season ECAC title for the first time since 1952.

2) Yale crushes Harvard 32-13 in The Game in 1994.

3) Ken Rizvi, DC '97, wins the 1996 Ivy League golf championship.

Does anyone notice a drop-off in the excitement level here? I mean, Ken Rizvi was a really nice guy and a tremendous golfer, but is that the best I can do for magical moments? Sadly, it is. This is not meant as an insult to the many friends I have on the women's fencing team (three-time Ivy titleists) or to the hard-working women's swimmers (Ivy champs, 1994-97) or the golfers or anyone else who has had success in sport. You all work hard and I congratulate you. But, I'm looking for those defining moments, the things that shape and change the times. And the one sporting event that keeps popping into my mind has nothing to do with Yale. I keep hearing this score, over and over. Princeton 43, UCLA 41.

That game, an NCAA tournament first-round match pitting the Ivy League Tigers against the defending champion Bruins, watched nationwide, put Ivy sports on the national map again in a way that no other could. And it put Princeton on the popular map again. There is a reason, right or wrong, that applicants and alumni support increased at Old Nassau. It is called school spirit and it comes from having glowing articles published in major magazines and newspapers. And I don't mean case-law examples, either.

I recognize that the current athletics administration has worked very hard to restore glory to Yale sports. But every year, I still hear the same complaints from coaches about facilities and support.

I still read columns in The New Haven Register that say a local football player with a straight-A average and a 1300 SAT score was told he needed another 100 points to get into Yale. So he is going to Dartmouth. And what does Yale lose? Another person who is excited to come here and dedicated to producing a winning football team. Another bright young man who could have been a credit to Yale.

I hope that the powers-that-be read this, and I hope they get the point. Athletics are good--they increase the energy on campus and they get people excited about Yale. The University needs to get real resources behind its sports--renovate stadiums, improve publicity, and get admissions policy to accomodate student-athletes. And, lest the cynics among you claim that "scholar-athlete" is a misnomer, I present the top eight moments in Ivy sports over my college career. Notice how often Harvard and Princeton appear--and they haven't injured their U.S. News rankings at all.

1) 1996. Princeton 43, UCLA 41. NCAA men's basketball tournament, first round. 'Nuff said.

2) 1998. Harvard 71, Stanford 67, NCAA women's basketball tournament, first round. The Crimson pulls off the biggest upset in the history of NCAA women's basketball.

3) 1997. Princeton 19, Maryland 7. NCAA men's lacrosse championship game. The Tigers win their second-straight title and fourth in the decade.

4) 1998. Princeton 69, UNLV 57. NCAA men's basketball tournament, first round. Princeton (27-2, 14-0 Ivy), riding a 29-game Ivy win streak, rises to number eight in the national polls, and earns the Ivy League's highest ever seed in the NCAA tournament, number five in the East Region.

5) 1998. Yale 3, RPI 1. Yale wins first ECAC regular-season title and advances to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1952.

6) 1997. Harvard 7, UCLA 2, NCAA baseball tournament Midwest Regional. Harvard defeats UCLA in the first game of the regional. Although the Bruins would avenge this defeat en route to the College World Series, Harvard becomes the first Ivy team since 1983 to win two games in the NCAA tournament.

7) 1996. North Carolina 3, Princeton 0. NCAA field hockey championship. The Tigers won their third consecutive Ivy title before ending as the Division I runner-up.

8) 1998. Harvard 17, Yale 7. The Game. Harvard completes its first-ever undefeated Ivy League season and sends the Elis to their first ever winless Ivy League season.

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