"Whenever we win, we sing the song 'Ten Thousand-Men of Harvard in Latin and English," he adds. "In that kind of context, it becomes a very emotional thing."
And Stewart says the band will not give up the fight. "School spirit is definitely alive in the band," he says.
The fragmentation that many see as undermining efforts to forge a College-wide identity will be countered by the planned student center in Memorial Hall, administrators say.
The Loker Commons will give all students a place to come together, socially, planners promise.
But other students and alumni say the Harvard spirit is already alive and well--but it doesn't center around athletic pride.
"I think spirit manifests itself in a variety of ways besides athletics, Rebecca L. Baumann '98 says.
Murphy says that at Harvard he sees more school pride than, be found at the University of Cincinnatti and University of Maine, where he until to coach.
"Students take a lot of pride in going to school here--more than I've ever seen anywhere else," Murphy says.
Rather than sports spirit. Harvard, may just have the academic arrogance, of U.S. News and World Report's number-one pick.
"I don't think it's very characteristic of Harvard to have school spirit," Mansfield says. "When you know you're the best, you don't have to keep telling yourselves that, like those, second-raters at Yale or Dartmouth or that glorified high school called Brown."