The 1913 Harvard men's lacrosse team. Row 1: See, Eaton, Gustafon, Conant, Conway, Onthank, Lincoln, Nightingale. Row 2: Long, Abbe, Simmons, Beatley, Churchill, Brock. Row 3: Catton, Lucas, Wilson, Brundage, Hallock.

Of the 41 current varsity sports at Harvard—the largest number in the country—men’s squash has won the most national championships by far, with 30, all of which have come in the second half of the twentieth century.

What might surprise some Crimson fans is that second on the list, tied with women’s squash with 14 national titles, is one of the nation’s most popular collegiate sports—men’s lacrosse.

As the game looks to crown a new national champion at the end of the month, the Crimson is on the outside looking in at the bracket that will decide the year’s winner for the 38th time in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament’s 43-year existence, never having advanced past the quarterfinals.

But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Harvard was a men’s lacrosse powerhouse, winning all of its 14 championships before 1916.

Even students at the time were unaware of what Winthrop Nightingale, class of 1915, called the school’s “supremacy in this branch of athletics.”

“The majority of men in College today do not yet realize that the lacrosse team offers more to the individual than any other athletic team representing the University,” Nightingale wrote in a 1915 letter to The Crimson.

Indeed, during Nightingale’s era, lacrosse was just beginning to become popular, but as it did so, Harvard excelled.

The sport had its intercollegiate origins in New York City in the fall of 1877, when NYU played Manhattan College in the first game ever. Harvard, along with NYU, was the first university to join the United States National Amateur Lacrosse Association in 1879. Two years later, those two schools, along with Princeton and Columbia, competed in the first intercollegiate tournament sponsored by the association, and the Crimson beat the Tigers to win its first championship.

Around the turn of the century, a number of innovations greatly improved the game. Nets were fastened to the goalposts in 1897, and a year later, shorter, lighter sticks gave rise to a short passing game. In 1905, the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse League was founded with Northern and Southern Divisions, and the new league brought with it a number of innovations as well, including the implementation of 35-minute halves.

Yet despite all these changes to the game’s regulations, Harvard continued to win. The Crimson earned the first USILL national title in 1905 and then garnered six straight titles from 1908-1913.

One hundred years ago today, Harvard defeated Cornell, 5-1, to win the last of that string of championships and preserve its spot atop the collegiate lacrosse world.

PRESEASON PREPARATION

The five-time defending national champions began preparing for its quest for a sixth straight title two months before the season was set to get underway. As an article in The Crimson noted, “the hard games at the beginning of the schedule, especially those during the southern trip early in April, necessitate an immediate start.”

On a frigid February 17th night—temperatures had hit a low of 27 degrees Fahrenheit during the day—a meeting was held in Thayer Common Room for all those interested in pursuing a spot on the team. Following that gathering was another discussion about the formation of a Boston Lacrosse Club, which would have the dual purpose of providing both a league in which Harvard graduates could continue their careers and an additional means of practice for the undergraduate squad.

Apparently, turnout was low, as two weeks later another meeting was held in Sever Hall.