One particular Harvard athlete did something special 110 years ago, and in the process, set a high standard for Crimson sports in more ways than one.

Joseph Sill Clark '83 (and that's 1883 for those of you who haven't been paying attention) captured the first singles title of the National College Tennis Championships and changed athletics at fair Harvard and around the country forever.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association traces its roots all the way back to that spring day when Old Joe became the land's best college tennis player. But if the Crimson can boast about the first crown, it can't brag about many since.

Of course, collegiate athletics back when Clark was hitting serves and diving for volleys may not have quite resembled today's high-tech, money-generating sports, and many coaches (including retiring football coach Joe Restic) assert that the way we play the games we play these days lacks the amateur spirit that Clark represents.

Nevertheless, however much Harvard claims that its athletic programs are not just desperate accumulators of NCAA titles, the Crimson would not be disappointed with another national crown.

Counting Old Joe's victory, Harvard has won only three NCAA championships. The football team had seven national collegiate championships seasons between 1890 and 1919, but the NCAA didn't administer any of them. Harvard men's and women's squash teams are no strangers to national titles, but the NCAA has nothing to do with those crowns either.

Harvard won its first NCAA championship of the modern era with the skates and sticks of the 1989 men's hockey team and its amazing 4-3 overtime victory over Minnesota. The Crimson's second title came a year later when the women's lacrosse team dispatched Maryland 87.

And that's it.

So what are the chances that one of this fall's teams will add to the short list? Not good.

Even if the football team were at the championship level, the Ivy league prohibits Ancient Eight teams from participating in postseason competition.

Restic's last season or not, an NCAA Division I-AA title is out of the Crimson's reach.

Harvard's best chances for the autumn reside with the men's soccer team and the field hockey team.

Although second-year men's soccer coach Stephen Locker has no delusions about being able to compete with teams like Virginia, Locker does believe a tournament appearance is achievable. And once the Crimson is there anything can happen, especially in the unpredictable world of Locker-soccer. In 1987, Harvard made it to the semifinals before losing to San Diego State in a shootout. Will the Crimson return to its former glory? Locker thinks so, and he's making believers of many around Ohiri Field.

Under head coach Sue Caples, the field hockey team won its first Ivy titles in 1990 and 1991 and showed up in the NCAA tournament two years ago, and this year, the Ivy League champion will receive an automatic bid to the tourney.

Caple's young team could be a contender, although even she doesn't like Harvard's chances of making it all the way to the final four and competing against the perennial giants, defending champ Old Dominion, Iowa, Massachusetts and North Carolina.