Copyright The Boston Globe
The 15th-ranked football team, led by quarterback and NFL prospect Jaden Craig, is on course to clinch the Ivy League championship, and possibly, for the first time in NCAA history, represent the league in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. With Trump having succeeded mainly in drawing negative attention to the university this spring, fall game day rituals feel even more sacred, alumni said. “If the institution is under assault, it makes it a little more special to be here and support the place on a day like today,” said 71-year-old Ted Jadick, who led the Harvard football team to back-to-back Ivy League championships in the ‘70s. International students who spent months this year worrying whether their visas would be approved soaked in the excitement of their first American football game on Saturday at the stadium in Allston. In addition to the Crimson’s 31-10 win over Dartmouth, the unity of the home crowd gathered beneath sunny skies and bursts of peak foliage felt like an easy win for Harvard. “This university is incredibly resilient, and being here at the game today just shows me how connected this community is,” said Alicia Whittington, a sports medicine researcher who graduated from Harvard Medical School in May. The team’s winning record coincides with the university scoring a major federal funding victory this semester, after a federal judge ruled in September that the Trump administration’s freezing of billions of dollars violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights. Since then, federal research funding has resumed flowing to the university. At the same time, thousands of international students are finally settling in on a campus where the academic year has entered full swing. Some battles with the federal administration feel like they’re in the rearview mirror, said Rafael Letizio, an international student from Brazil, who noted that his visa to study with Harvard’s urban planning department was delayed by several months. He attended his first-ever football game on Saturday, clad in a crimson cap, alongside friends wearing matching scarves who explained the game’s rules. “I was afraid that I couldn’t get here, but now that I’m here, everyone has been super supportive,” said 29-year-old Letizio, who is from São Paulo. “So I’m kind of relieved and very happy to be here.” Aside from Harvard’s home opener against Brown, Saturday’s game had the highest attendance yet this season, including many others in attendance who were experiencing their first American football game. Takashi Ban, another international student, pushed a stroller through a crowd at Harvard’s Fall Fest wearing a puffer coat and sunglasses. He brought his wife and two young kids to the stadium to experience a bit of school spirit. “I saw so many Dartmouth students screaming at our team, it’s really good ‐ I feel like so American,“ said Ban, a master’s student at the Kennedy School of Government who is from Japan. Coming three weeks ahead of the Yale game, Saturday was Harvard’s most important win yet this season, and even casual fans chatted in the stadium about the Crimson’s path to the FCS playoffs. Over the next month, the team will face Columbia, as well as Penn and Yale, which have 5-2 records matching Dartmouth’s. In the stadium parking lot, season ticket holders who drove up from New York or down from Maine stood in circles reconnecting with old friends. “I’m very proud that I graduated from Harvard, but the way I always frame it is, if I had gone to Michigan, Penn State, SUNY Albany, I would have supported the football team, that’s just how I’m wired,” said Geoff Stearns from the class of 1982. Members of the class of 1985 popped champagne bottles over red checkered tablecloths or sipped Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey. Hannah Cassidy, who organizes alums in Quincy, the North Shore, and the Merrimack Valley, passed out sandwiches wearing a sweater with a big crimson “H” on the front. Cassidy said she’s been more involved with the university than ever this year, serving as a marshal at commencement. That day in Harvard Yard, she saw the crowd give president Alan Garber a standing ovation after news broke that a federal judge granted an injunction preventing the Trump administration from stopping Harvard from enrolling international students. “I think that it’s a huge year,” Cassidy said. “Because this is one of those ‘don’t mess around with us’ moments. We’re not going to put up with [expletive] from anybody.”
