>Before he donned a Harvard uniform, Terence Patterson had never caught a pass in his life.

But now, he holds the school record for career receptions.

'TP" deserves to wear No. 1.

"Terence has been one of the most productive and versatile players that we've seen in the past five years," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "Filling in his shoes next year will certainly be difficult."

Patterson's versatility is the result of experimenting at almost every offensive position. He first turned to football at the tender age of six but was forced to play guard.

"From that point on, I made it my goal to the best football player that I could be," Patterson said. "I definitely didn't want to play offensive line anymore."

Patterson's love for football continued to grow in high school. Before he started catching passes for the Crimson in 1996, Patterson had been throwing them for years. Patterson was a two-time All-State option quarterback at Germantown High School in Tennessee, leading his team to an impressive 26-2 record.

He had originally planned on remaining in the South to play college ball, but he had heard all too often from coaches that at 5'11 and 180 pounds, he lacked the size to play quarterback. Patterson had intended on enrolling at the University of Memphis, but Murphy caught wind of the athletic speedster, and soon enough, TP found his way to the Ivy League.

"It was definitely a big change moving from the South to Harvard," Patterson said. "It was really different because it's just so fast, and I'm a pretty laid-back guy. But I wanted to come here because in case football didn't go as well as I wanted, I'd still get a great education."

Patterson's raw speed and finesse convinced Murphy and his staff that he would be a perfect fit at wide receiver. In 1996, Patterson's rookie season, then-junior Colby Skelton '98 took the talented freshman under his wing and helped him to adjust to life as a top wide receiver.

"During my first day of practice, which was my first day at wide receiver, I was doing horribly," Patterson recalled. "But Colby came out there and told me, 'Terence, you've got to do this,' or 'Terence, when you do this, you've got to keep your hands up.' He was instrumental from day one, and I really admired the hard work that he put into the game as well as the hard work that he put into making the other people around him better."

During his rookie season, Patterson, who then wore No. 86, hauled in seven receptions for eighty yards, and more importantly, he created his signature play--the split end reverse, a play that has baffled defenses for the past four years.

The play unfolds like this: the quarterback hands off to the running back, who hands it off to Patterson and then TP has the choice to run with it or launch it downfield to an open receiver.

But in spite of the potential that he showed on the field that year, he saw only limited playing time and developed his skills under the tutelage of Assistant Coach Jay Mills.

"From my first day here, Coach Mills had this confidence in me that I couldn't see at the time, and I couldn't understand why he was always yelling at me at practice," Patterson said. "But he was yelling at me because he saw something extra in me and really worked to get everything that he could out of me."