Hello from Blodgett Pool!
Many people have asked me about the success of the Men's Swimming
and Diving Team this year. I have commented that a key
ingredient was the leadership of our
captains Geoff Rathgeber and Sam Wollner. Recently Geoff was asked to
give a speech to the
Visiting Committee as a representative of the student athlete
community. Geoff has given me permission to share his speech with you.
I believe you will find his words to be a powerful testament to the
meaning of "team" in Harvard Men's Swimming and Diving.
Enjoy
Tim
Visiting Committee Speech
Tonight,
I’m going to fight nerves and my urge to be overly nostalgic, and
explain why
my athletic career has been the single most important part of my
Harvard
experience.
Earlier
this year, I had the opportunity to address a group of recruits before
the
first night football game in Harvard’s history. My takeaway point for
the
recruits was that it was possible for them to come to Harvard, to get
better in
their respective sports, and to make an impact on the national level. I wanted them to realize that Harvard has one
of the finest athletic departments in America and that they would be
well
served if they came to Cambridge.
I
delivered that speech at the beginning of my senior year.
At the time, I thought I had crafted the
perfect speech for that occasion. Now,
seven months later, I wish I could go back and add one crucial thing
onto what
I said. It’s funny…. A senior year seems to change your perspective on
everything.
Looking
back, I have achieved a lot over the years. I have medals, plaques, Ivy
League
Championships, and All America certificates to my name. Though I am
proud of
all of these things, they are still only things.
What I
cherish most about my four years as a swimmer at Harvard are the
people. A
month ago at our awards banquet, the team’s seven seniors had a chance
to speak
in front of our teammates, parents and friends.
It may surprise you that, in these addresses, none of us
mentioned our
team’s undefeated season or our two league championships.
Instead, we all took the opportunity to thank
our teammates and coaches for being the best part of our time at
Harvard. Luke Sanders, a senior diver and Ivy
League
Champion, likened us all to a huge alternative family with three dads
and forty
brothers. We were that close.
Well
how did we get that close? I think I
finally realized the answer last week when one of my professors gave
his last
lecture here at Harvard after 46 years of teaching. Fighting
back tears, he told us that the most
important lesson he learned in his career is to hold on to one’s
particularities. As Couch Murphy can
attest, our team thrived on these particularities. Never
before have I been part of a program
that has been so accepting of everyone: black, white, shy, outgoing,
gay,
straight, Asian, British, etc.… we relished in each others differences,
and it
is these differences that gave our team its pulse.
What
gave our team its heart, however, is a singular fact about all Harvard
athletes. That is the fact that none of
us are here on scholarship. Coach Murphy
reminds us that at the beginning of each year.
We are here, a part of this program, because we want
to be here. The fact that we commit twenty hours a week of
strenuous exercise not out of obligation but out of love for the sport
unites us
in a fraternal bond that will last a lifetime.
Now,
I don’t know how many people here have read the book or seen the movie
Into the Wild. The story’s
protagonist, Christopher
McCandless, has to travel throughout the United States and live by
himself in
the wilderness of Alaska to realize one thing: that happiness is real
when
shared. Athletics at Harvard taught me
this lesson in four short years. Yes, sport is about the victories, the
championships, and the practices, but it is also about the people you
get to
share those experiences with. The people
who ride the 5:40 shuttle with you to practice; the people who laugh
with you
at morning breakfasts in Eliot; and the people who jump into the
Blodgett Pool
to celebrate with you after winning an Ivy League Championship. No
where is this
lesson better exemplified than at Harvard where we athletes compete not
out of
obligation to a scholarship but for the love of the game and the love
of each
other.
Thank
you to everyone for listening, and members of the Visiting Committee,
know that
the Harvard Athletic Department is serving its students extremely well.
Geoff Rathgeber
CLASS
CREDIT FOR ATHLETIC GIFTS:
We have some exciting news regarding class credit for athletic
gifts.
Michael Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, recently
announced that gifts
to athletics Friends groups up
to $10,000 will now receive class credit with the Harvard College
Fund. The agreement, forged through a strengthened relationship
between
the Harvard College
Fund and the Department of Athletics, has been implemented on a
three-year
trial basis and is retroactive
for gifts dating back to July 1, 2007. Dean Smith and Bob Scalise,
Nichols Family
Director of Athletics, see
this as a way to strengthen fund raising initiatives for both the
athletic department
as well as the Harvard College Fund. It is imperative that both groups
continue to receive the outstanding annual support of our loyal
alumni/ae.
[For those of you
unfamiliar with class credit, each class at Harvard is encouraged to
support the Harvard College Fund to raise dollars for Harvard College
and FAS priorities as well as University initiatives. Donors are
honored with public recognition by crediting their gift to the College
class from which they graduated. Donors' names are listed by gift
range in annual reports and donor listings.]
We would like to thank all of our
Friends who donated this season. If you have not contributed and would
like to make your annual contribution, please
donate on line:
Thank you to all have supported our
Friends group so far this year
Abramson, David Harold '65
Berizzi, Steven S. '73
Bierrie, Eric P. '51
Bowen, Bradley J.
Briggs, Winslow R. '50
Brown, Shepard '50
Brunnick, Peter A.
Buffington, Peter '58
Cleveland, William E. S. '87
Clifton, Roger L. '57
Coffman, Amos J. '62
Cooley, Frederick B. '61
Corning, Steve
Detzner, John '77
Diekema, Jylene P'11
Doganis, Yannis
Festa, Stephen
Flynn, Paul A.
Gorman, Francis X. '59
Gray, J. Cary
Guernsey, David T.
Healy, Patrick J. '89
Hehir, Michael G.
Hersh, Craig P. '93
Holland, Susan A.
Hoon, Douglas M.
Hunter, Dennis A. '64
Illig, Alan P'84
Jewell, Pliny '54
Kastin, Abba J. '56
Kaufman, Joseph H. '89
Kaufmann, Robert E. '62
Kidd, Donald A. '92 M
Krause, Stephen K. '71
Law, David B. '72 M
Lawton, Robert K. '73
Lewkowitz, Herman P'11
Lightfoot, John D. '85
Lind, Jon R. '57
Lockman, Andrew R. '83
Lundberg, John D. '83
Lynch, James R.
Maegli, Juan U. '50
Malcolm, Miller D. '54
McCartney, Douglas '60
McKellar, Duncan
Meier, Anthony P. '84
Melillo, Giovanni
Miller, Clayton C. '87
Mills, Steven
Mitchell, Frederick L. '74
Morrissey, Martha Stedham
Nyweide, Justin C. '02
O'Connell, Patrick
Osterberg, Richard B. '96
Perkins, Warren W. '79
Polino, Robert
Quinn, Kevin G.
Ranta, Bruce A.
Rapperport, Alan S. '55
Rathgeber, Susan & John
Reese, Jeffrey H.
Roebuck, Richard Ramsay '73
Root, Stephen C. '93
Ruberton, Robert J. '97
Sanders, H. Robert
Sanders, H. Robert
Stapleton, Paul
Tanenbaum, William
Thayer, Philip H. '36
Titcomb, Caldwell '47
Tompkins, Richard F. '68
Tyler, Robert S. '84
Vera, Joseph Sequeira '50
Walther, Douglas L. '69
Watkins, H. Norman '50
Wilson, Harry J. '93
Winslow, Boyd H. '70
Winslow, Boyd H. '70
Wise, Stephen A. '46
Woods, Thomas S. '50
Zakotnik, John
** If by chance we failed to list
your name please let us know. We will be sure to send
out updated list.