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WITHIN THE FAMILY

Columbia’s Athletes Wear Five Ivy Crowns

How’s Columbia sports doing these days? The concise answer is quite well, thank you. Matter of fact, Columbia’s varsity athletic teams enjoyed unprecedented success during the 2006–07 academic year.

Most alumni — even those who consider themselves avid Columbia sports fans — probably don’t realize that last year, for the first time in school history, five Columbia teams won Ivy League championships in one season. Women’s soccer, men’s fencing, women’s fencing, men’s tennis and women’s golf all finished atop the Ancient Eight. Only two other Ivy schools had as many as five championship teams during the 2006–07 season, and you can probably guess who they were. Hint: They start with P.

If you don’t think this is a big deal, think again. This is the first time in the history of Columbia athletics that five teams have worn Ivy crowns at the same time. As Spectator noted, “For an athletics department in the process of turning around a program that would consistently win only one or two championships a year, five is a significant number.”

This unprecedented success comes at an opportune time for Director of Athletics M. Dianne Murphy, with the Columbia Campaign hitting its stride and more eyes focusing on the possibilities represented by the proposed Manhattanville campus. A key element of Murphy’s long-range plans for improving athletics at Columbia involves upgrading facilities, whether at Baker Field, on Morningside Heights or in a future phase of Manhattanville. Winning teams tend to improve spirit among students and support among alumni, and this strengthens Murphy’s case when it comes to competing for University resources to further her initiatives.

Columbia’s athletic success in 2006–07 may have escaped your attention because none of the championships came in the marquee sports of football and men’s basketball. But while those teams did not finish atop the standings, they did fare relatively well, playing competitively and giving fans solid cause for optimism.

Columbia’s football team, in its first season under coach Norries Wilson, won its last two games — including a dramatic 22–21 victory at Brown in the finale on a field goal by Jon Rocholl ’09 with just three seconds on the clock — to finish the season at 5–5, its first non-losing campaign since 1996. Combine Wilson’s first full recruiting season with the fact that the Lions came on strong last season rather than fading down the stretch and there’s reason to believe that Columbia football is headed in a positive direction, if not quite up to a run at the Ivy League title just yet.

Men’s basketball, on the other hand, appears ready to make just such a run after winning its final three games last winter to finish 16–12 overall and 7–7 in the Ivy League. The 16 wins were the Lions’ most since 1992–93, and the fourth-place league finish was the Lions’ best showing since 2000–01. Coach Joe Jones did not lose a single player to graduation and has recruited a pair of promising big men to provide added depth for what many believe could be a title chase in 2007–08.

So how’s Columbia sports doing these days? Quite well, thank you, and there just might be even better days ahead. That’s not a bad thought to help you through the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

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