This spring, though, junior Kwame van Leeuwen proved that there is more than a little nobility left in the sport. In an astounding feat of personal athleticism, van Leeuwen took first place in the grueling NCAA championship foil competition in March, becoming the third and final Harvard student this year--along with squash players Ezra and Fraiberg--to bring home an individual national championship.

To get to the finals, van Leeuwen had to go through three long rounds of play, in which he amassed a spotless 13-0 record. Then, with the field reduced to eight in single-elimination play, he squeaked past his first opponent, 15-11, destroyed his second foe, 15-2 and then dismantled the meet's top seed, andy Gerhardt of Penn State, for the championship.

"It feels great," van Leeuwen said after the contest. "I'm absolutely exhausted, but it feels great."

8. THE LOSS--MARCH 31, 1994.

Oh, oh, so close.

After blasting through its competition in the ECAC tournament and then destroying New Hampshire in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 7-1, Harvard's men's hockey team advanced to the semi-finals against Lake Superior State.

The Lakers looked to be little threat to the 24-4-4 Crimson. They had been the fourth seed on Harvard's side of the bracket, and, despite a 5-4 overtime win over number-one seed Michigan, appeared to be very beatable.

But it was not to be. In what would later be termed "a game for the ages," the two teams traded shots in regulation play, forcing overtime. but only four minutes into that extra session, the inconceivable occured; Lake Superior State's Clayton Beddoes capitalized on an uncustomary Crimson defensive breakdown and scored on a breakway, giving the Lakers the 2-1 win and eliminating the Crimson.

For Lake Superior State, the win meant a chance to play BU in the championship game, which it won, 9-1.

For Harvard, it meant the end of a great season, and speculation as to how the Crimson would have done if given the opportunity to play its cross-town rival, whom it had beaten earlier in the season, for the national championship.

"I'm jsut very proud of our guys," Tomassoni said.

9. THE WAKE-UP CALL--APRIL 4, 1994

It was ten days that shook the Ivy League football world.

This season, the coaches of the Ivy League decided to terminate a decades-long rule against conducting spring practices, and players on teams all across the Ancient Eight began rising at early hours to hit the playing field.

The move was significant in that its signaled the triumph of a new breed of coaches and athletic administrators in the league, less inclined to bend to tradition and more inclined to bend the league to conform with other, more competitive leagues across the country.