|
November-December 2007
|
< previous | 1 | 2 Quick study: When sophomore tailback Kai-Cheng Ho came to the United States from Taiwan at the age of 12, he did not speak English and had never played football. Yet he graduated from high school in Evans, Georgia, as co-salutatorian of his class and a four-year letter-winner in football, basketball, and track. Ho made his first varsity start at Holy Cross and had a 116-yard rushing day, including a dramatic broken-field touchdown run of 47 yards that put Harvard ahead in the second half. Multi-talented: Senior Noah Van Niel, a two-year starter at fullback, is a man of parts. Besides blocking, rushing, catching passes (five in the Brown game), and long-snapping for the punting unit, he’s president of the Dunster House Opera Society; has sung tenor roles with that group, with the Lowell House Opera, and with Harvard’s Gilbert and Sullivan Players; and, as a Phillips Brooks House volunteer, has taught English as a second language to inner-city Boston youths. An English concentrator, Van Niel plans an independent study on the treatment of infidelity in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni, and Le nozze di Figaro. He means to pursue a singing career after graduation. 
Photograph by Stu Rosner For many squad members, Harvard’s first night game brought back the exhilaration of playing under lights in high school. "This is our star treatment," said one. "This is a treat, it’s a blessing." Where are they now? This year’s team can’t help missing four-time all-Ivy tailback Clifton Dawson ’07, who set new league rushing records a year ago (see “Dawson by the Numbers,” January-February, page 75). At last report, Dawson was on the roster of the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts. He’d signed with the Colts as a free agent in May, but was later released and claimed by the Cincinnati Bengals. Released once again, he was re-signed by the Colts.…Former teammate Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05, after two seasons of reserve duty with the St. Louis Rams, is now the backup quarterback of the Bengals. Let there be light(s): To preserve the Stadium’s classic contours, the new banks of lights were integrated with existing fencing on top of the colonnade. Athletics Department officials say the lights were installed primarily to illuminate late-afternoon practices and allow off-peak use of the field by club, intramural, and intercollegiate teams, and that the football team will play no more than one early-fall night game in future seasons.…Four other Ivy schools—Columbia, Cornell, Penn, and Princeton—have stadium lighting, but only the last two play night games on a regular basis. ~“Cleat”  
 
 
|
