Media Center: This Is Harvard Football

Tradition
Harvard boasts one of the oldest and most successful college football programs in America, with numerous national and Ivy League Championships in its history. Since helping inaugurate intercollegiate competition more than 150 years ago, Harvard has become synonymous with excellence in athletics and academics.

Success
Over the past 16 years, Harvard has won six Ivy League championships (five outright) and had two undefeated seasons while posting the Football Championship Subdivision's highest winning percentage during the 2000's.

The Crimson has finished with at least seven wins in each of the last 12 years, and is the only program in Ivy League history to have a stretch of at least seven-straight seven-win seasons.

Recognition
Harvard has had at least one All-American in each of the last 14 years.

The Digits
Entering 2013, Harvard’s record over the past …
Six seasons: 48-12 (.800)
Seven seasons: 55-15 (.789)
Eight seasons: 62-18 (.775)
Nine seasons: 72-18 (.800)
10 seasons: 79-21 (.790)
11 seasons: 86-24 (.781) 

Playing The Percentages
In 2009, Harvard football put the finishing touches on a decade that saw Harvard post the second highest national winning percentage in the Football Championship Subdivision and seventh highest in all of Division I. Harvard's .768 winning percentage from 2000-09 trailed only Montana while FBS schools Texas, Boise State, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Florida were the only schools to finish ahead of Tim Murphy's Crimson. Rounding out the national top 10 in the decade was LSU, USC and Appalachian State. Harvard has continued its dominance over the past two seasons with a combined record of 16-4 to improve its winning percentage to .773 since the turn of the century.

Academics
Harvard is universally regarded as the top academic institution in America and also has the highest graduation rate (approximately 98 percent). Harvard student-athletes pursue a wide range of academic courses along with their peers. Over the past three seasons, the football team graduated an award-winning opera singer, Noah Van Niel, the FCS ADA Division I Scholar-Athlete of the year, Andrew Berry, who graduated with both a bachelor and masters degree in four just four years, and a Rhodes Scholar in Zar Zavala.

Athletic Program
Harvard fields the largest Division I athletic program in America with 41 Division I varsity sports. Sports Illustrated placed Harvard in the top 45 of “America’s Best Division I Sports Colleges,” the only Ivy League school to appear in the top 50.

Facilities
Harvard’s football facilities are as thorough and impressive as any in the nation. Stately Harvard Stadium has recently received new FieldTurf playing surfaces, a state-of-the-art lighting system, a video board, sound system and a removable all-weather bubble. Harvard also boasts a pro-style football locker room and a strength and conditioning complex that is second to none in college football.

Harvard Stadium is one of only three college football venues recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

Diversity
Harvard students are regular kids, who come from all corners of the country. With its diverse student body and metropolitan environment, Black Enterprise ranks Harvard as one of the nation’s top colleges and universities for African-Americans.

NFL
Over the past 14 years, Harvard has seen 21 players move on to professional careers (with Kyle Juszczyk '13 on the cusp). Harvard has had more players sign NFL contracts than any program in the Ivies in the past 14 years. Just recently Ryan Fitzpatrick ’04 became one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL and Matt Birk ’98 was named NFL Man of the Year.

Boston/Cambridge
Boston is an unrivaled “College Town” with more colleges and universities than any metro area. The Sporting News dubbed Boston the nation’s best sports town in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007. It was ranked second in 2010, 2011 and third in 2009.

Offense
A system that has smashed numerous school and Ivy League records and annually ranks among the top-performing units in the nation. Harvard became the first school in Ivy history to average over 500 yards per game in Ivy League play, when it did so in the 2000 season. Dating back to the start of the 2003 season, Harvard is 58-2 when leading at halftime.

Defense
Harvard employs an attack style of defense that helped the Crimson rank among the nation’s leaders last season. It is an exciting, aggressive approach that has been a key component of Harvard’s success.

Tim Murphy
Coach Tim Murphy has demonstrated leadership and success, winning championships as head coach at Maine, Cincinnati, and, for the past 20 seasons, at Harvard. Every four-year player that Coach Murphy has recruited to Harvard has played on an Ivy championship team.

The Game
The Harvard-Yale Game stands as one of the top rivalries in all of college football with the excitement and pageantry to go with it. This is, by far, the biggest game with the biggest crowd in the Ivy League.

updated Jan. 27, 2013