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| Vol.24, No. 04 | Sept. 25, 1998 |
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| Vol.24, No. 04 | Sept. 25, 1998 |
SCORES AS OF OCT. 1: Women's Soccer: 2-1-3; Men's Soccer: 2-1-1; Football: 1-1; Men's Cross Country: 1st of 9 in Lafayette Inv.; 2nd of 10 in Delaware Inv.; Women's Cross Country: 3rd of 11 in Lafayette Inv.; 1st of 10 in Delaware Inv.; Field Hockey: 2-5; Volleyball 4-7 (won Columbia Classic tournament over Holy Cross, Howard and Long Island U.)
FOOTBALL HOMECOMING VICTORY OVER HARVARD
By A. Dunlap-Smith
Thought to be too sophisticated, too cerebral, too world-weary and too cool to cheer the school football team, thousands of Columbians past and present joined together not only to root wildly as their Lions mauled Harvard, 24-0, in the school's traditional Ivy-season opening matchup, but, seemingly having not had enough inside Baker Field's Wien Stadium, also continued their booming appreciation outside it.
The win on Saturday was sweet revenge for last season's crushing defeat to the Crimson in Cambridge, Mass.
"Overall I think it's fantastic; I wish I were going to C.U. now," said Dave Filosa, (CC'82) who came with his wife and three children to watch the game and reconnect with college friends at the tailgate party.
The throng of clapping, cheering and banner-waving Columbia fans was so thick along the slope behind the stadium that the Lions were forced to squeeze through it in single file as they exited the game. Queen's shrill anthem, "We Are the Champions," and Bruce Springsteen's thumping "Glory Days" blew over the ecstatic scene from the back of a dilapidated light-blue van that was parked under a light-blue "Go Lions" banner. The gridders struggled up towards Chrystie Field House through a dense gauntlet of congratulatory hands pounding their shoulders and slapping high fives.
An observer remarked that the van was perhaps Columbia engineering students' answer to the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech, an observation that, although unsubstantiated, seemed appropriate. For in this one brief moment Columbians showed the kind of enthusiastic school spirit that passes for cool at the likes of Georgia Tech and the sports-mad conference to which it belongs, the ACC.
Just as the last of the football players made it into the Lion locker room, the final whistle blew at the soccer stadium. The smiles on the spectators as they emerged was the first indication that the men's varsity soccer team had also triumphed over Harvard. Indeed, the Columbia kickers avenged last year's loss to the Crimson by beating them 2-1 in a physical game.
This brought to the Light Blue a rare double victory over Harvard that made the warm and sunny late-summer afternoon-an afternoon blanketed by a Columbia-blue sky-a particularly rewarding one for Lion athletes and fans alike.
The same cannot be said of the morning, unfortunately. The early haze augured ill for the Columbia women's teams. Both field hockey and soccer fell to Harvard: 4-1 and 1-0, respectively. The outcome of the soccer game was especially galling as the Lions fought the nation's 15th-ranked team to a deadlock only to have luck favor their opponents minutes from the end of double overtime.