I often see fellow Conn students roaming our campus wearing t-shirts that bear a witty slogan that reads, “Connecticut College Football: Undefeated Since 1911.” Why is this shirt so clever? It is, of course, because Connecticut College has never had a football program, which makes our “team” undefeated. It also makes it winless as well.
Why have we always lacked both a football and a baseball team at the varsity level? It’s largely due to Mary Harkness’ wishes. When the college was founded, Harkness and her husband Edward donated large sums of money to help the school get started (a large fraction of these funds were used to build what are now Harkness Chapel and Harkness house).
Edward Harkness had inherited a fortune from his father, who was an early partner in what later became John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Edward and his wife Mary became philanthropists who gave money to several institutions (including Connecticut College).
However, Mary Harkness donated money to the college with certain conditions. Among these was the stipulation that Conn could have neither a football team nor a baseball team for as long as it existed. She may have had this wish because she viewed these sports as masculine ones that had no place at a school for women. The only problem here is that she did not live to see this college go co-ed.
But enough about why we don’t have varsity-level football and baseball teams at Conn. Here’s why we need to have them now.
It is a well-known fact that college football (and, to a lesser degree, college baseball) is popular in America. What’s on every Saturday afternoon on the ESPN channels, ABC and CBS during the fall months? College football. Students and alumni tend to rally around their school’s football team more than any other sport (with the possible exception of basketball). Conn would benefit from the large increase in Camel enthusiasm that a football team would generate, and I’m confident that our subsequent Fall Weekends would attract many more alumni than the current ones do. In addition, we are the only (and I mean the only) school in the NESCAC league that lacks both a football and a baseball team.
Why are we clinging to the wishes of a woman who clearly had biased notions about sports? It’s now the twenty-first century, and if Harkness were alive today, I’m willing to bet she’d still be against the inclusion of these sports (not to mention the distinct possibility that she’d also want the College to return to its roots as a girls-only school). Ever since she made her donation, Conn has respected her wishes, but not without question. Is Harkness’ century-old stipulation the real reason we still don’t have these sports at Conn? I hope not, but I’ve heard no answer that refutes this question during my time here.
I understand that Conn likes to honor the wishes of all of its benefactors, but I believe that adopting these sports at the varsity level would greatly benefit the College in the future. I envision a time when the campus construction goals are extended to include a beautiful new baseball diamond and shiny, yellow goalposts for an expanded Silfen Field. This is my dream. Will it ever come true? For the sake of all that is glorious about these distinctly American and collegiate sports, I hope it does.
