Word: crimsons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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This spring's lacrosse team was not one of your basic clutch ballclubs. In the Ivy League this season, probably only Princeton had as much talent as they Crimson, and yet Harvard ended up with an anemic 2-4 record, worse than last year. The Tigers turned out not to be too strong under pressure, either, dropping their last three league games. If Cornell beats Dartmouth Wednesday as it should, then nearly half the league (three of seven teams) will be in first place. Harvard is a solid sixth...
Before Saturday's game against Yale, Crimson coach Bruce Munro said, "Whoever goes after it will win." It was quite clear that Yale was the team which went after it. As has been the case all year, Harvard was terribly inconsistent. One period the Crimson hustles with great determination, and then the next quarter, the team is about as aggressive as Bambi during menopause, if deer are indeed subject to such slowdowns. That was the pattern in almost every game. Harvard was routing Penn before the Quakers rallied for several late goals and then crushed the Crimson...
Munro's team played well in both the first and third periods against Yale, but the Elis performed with reasonable ability in all four quarters. They went ahead, 6-2, before the Crimson decided to rally, but the deficit was too large, and Yale scored twice more. The Bulldogs are somewhat the antithesis of Harvard. They had no returning midfielders, so they adapted former attackmen and hoped that the sophomores would work out. Yale was 1-2 before it started to jell and won its final three contests to share the title. The Elis worked hard out there Saturday, controlled...
Munro said the next day: "It wasn't a bad game; we didn't play that poorly." This is true to an extent, but it depends on what is "good" for Harvard's team these days. The Crimson played about as it had all year, but that is not really "good" compared to how well a team with that much talent should play. It seems likely that the disasters of this season have warped Munro's sense of judgment. But a coach of a disappointing team cannot be held responsible for the state of his mind...
Some of the problems started with the hardships of early spring, of course. The team didn't play outdoors until the southern trip because the weather was prohibitive. The Crimson then made its trip. Losing four out of five to good teams who had been able to work outside would not have been reason for discouragement, but when half the team gets injured, that's reason. Three-quarters of the experienced defense was out of action, as were several other players. Kirby Wilcox and Pete Barber ended up sitting out the entire season. So Harvard was certainly not a lucky...