Tributes to Harvard's barrier-shattering men's basketball team

By Mike Lopresti, Gannett

It's not like Harvard hasn't had time to get through any to-do list. The place was founded in 1636.

By Matthew J. Lee, AP

Coach Tommy Amaker's Harvard team beat Princeton 79-67 Saturday to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title.

But not until the past weekend could the men's basketball team win at least a share of the Ivy League. "Walking around campus," coach Tommy Amaker said over the phone Monday. "I don't think you can find many things that haven't been done before."

When you're talking Harvard, you're not talking just any ol' alumni/potential booster club. So to honor the barrier-shattering Crimson, let's have some famous Harvard folks sponsor portions of the tribute.

Courtesy of former vice president Al Gore, freshman team of 1965-66:

Harvard lists 34 Ivy League conference-competing sports on its website. It is An Inconvenient Truth that 33 of them had won an Ivy League title before Saturday night. Now, all 34.

"I don't have the answer," Amaker answered on why it took until this season, which is the 100th year of Harvard men's basketball. "It doesn't make a lot of sense, when you stop and think about it. But the neat thing is, we don't have to think about it anymore."

Courtesy of actor Jack Lemmon, class of 1947:

Princeton and Harvard are The Odd Couple fighting for the Ivy League automatic NCAA berth. Princeton has been to 23 tournaments, Harvard's one trip was 1946. If Princeton beats Penn Tuesday, there will be a playoff. The 23-5 Crimson are 14-0 at home this season, but the game will be at a neutral site, so they would have to win as The Out of Towners.

"The next week," Amaker said, "is always the biggest week."

Courtesy of actor Tommy Lee Jones, class of 1969:

Amaker loves his team's unselfish balance, and the Crimson seem a determined bunch. They rallied from 24 points down to beat Brown, and are 7-2 when trailing at halftime. Youthful exuberance, since no senior is on the roster. When it came to a basketball breakthrough, this was No Country for Old Men.

Courtesy of actress Natalie Portman, class of 2003:

Harvard was No. 44 in the latest RPI rankings, so it's conceivable that the Crimson could grab an at-large berth, if all else fails. This is tempting fate, though. The Ivy League has never had a second team invited to the NCAA Tournament. Better to win the spot outright, so there will be No Strings Attached.

Courtesy of President Kennedy, class of 1940:

Just four years ago, in Amaker's first season, the Crimson went 8-22. But the torch has been passed to a new generation. One of the co-captains, Oliver McNally, had a great-great- grandfather who was a Harvard man.

Courtesy of President Obama, law school, 1991:

Amaker had coaching stops at Seton Hall and Michigan, and learned lots of basketball playing for Mike Krzyzewski. He was an economics graduate from Duke. "I think of Harvard," he said, "as opportunity and potential." Or in another word: Hope.

Courtesy of President Roosevelt, class of 1904:

The Crimson have pulled this off with strong performances at crunch time. They've shot nearly 51% in the last five minutes of game, when the only thing they have to fear is fear itself.

And they are second in the nation in free throw shooting, at 81.6%.

Courtesy of writer Henry David Thoreau, class of 1837:

It's not like Harvard doesn't have a storied athletic pedigree, which includes 51 Rhodes Scholar winners and a recent football player who was also an award-winning opera singer. The Crimson were going at it with Yale in crew nine years before the Civil War. The first baseball catcher's mask and football scoreboards were introduced at Harvard games. And the Crimson once absolutely owned men's squash. Thirty-one collegiate national titles.

It's just taken basketball a little while to get with the program, which makes this moment all the sweeter. Then again, if any man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

"To be able to say you played a small role in making history at Harvard, that's saying something," Amaker said "That's what our kids feel right now."

Besides, who should understand more about doing important things on the court than the school that produced the Chief Justice of the United States?

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