THP #60: Crimson

Harvard v Penn – Allston, Massachusetts
January 19, 2026
Men’s Basketball

This is me storming the field after Harvard knocked off Penn to win the 2001 Ivy League title. What a fun day and time that was. 

That’s what Harvard was to me first and foremost: the place with the good football team. And it just kept evolving from there.

That’s the hockey jersey my father got me in school to wear to games. 

I was a member of the kids club for men’s basketball one year. Lacrosse. Baseball. Wrestling. Tennis. Water polo. Harvard was the lab in which the seeds for my far flung sporting interests began to take hold. 

As I got older I got to cover the Crimson football team I grew up adoring. Many a June evening was spent standing on top of Harvard stadium with the state lacrosse finals happening on the field below.

I was on that roof at one of those very finals when Mom called to say they had euthanized Saturn. The Big S. Our giant of a boxer-mastiff who we adored and was on his absolute last legs. 

I was in middle school when Al and Tipper Gore were at the game. My father gave me the choice of meeting the former vice president or going to high five the players.

I met Bobby Orr at a game while he was here scouting Brett Nowak for the Bruins. 

The first time I went to a college hockey game with my wife was right here. 

And having connected with Harvard on the Allston side of the river instead of Cambridge, I just never viewed the place as anything but ordinary. 

My father would regularly talk up about how smart these students were and how elite the place was. I just saw any other place with college students. 

To this day, one of the weirdest games I ever attended was a Harvard game. Harvard-Yale hockey in 2002 or so. The Crimson won 4-2. I remember 10 arrests and a near brawl on the side concourse. A Yale player left the bench during a TV timeout to taunt Harvard’s goalie and got crunched in the boards for his troubles. And then there were the chickens. 

We were sitting in the far corner under the press box, and at a break in the second period a guy popped up at the glass opposite us with a big black bag and started throwing frozen chickens on the ice. Still surreal to this day. 

Now I’m here, back at the old stomping grounds for this project. It’s been a long minute. I haven’t been since my daughter was born. Hell, I made it to Brown and Yale before getting here. 

And it’s a weird feeling. The gym was remodeled long ago and isn’t the dump it was back when I ran around in the kids club. It had me thinking a lot about the idea of “my place” again. I still knew all the open doors and gates. I still walked with the confidence of having the paths and walkways memorized.

It still didn’t feel like mine anymore. Being a fan is finicky. It can be your everything and it can become a stranger just as fast. When everything shut down in that first COVID way in America in March, 2020 I just needed to be somewhere that wasn’t my living room.

I came here. I need an everything in that very strange endless month.

I don’t know when I’ll be back after this one, and that’s OK. Nothing is meant to be forever. I used to live about 20 minutes from here, now it’s an hour. I used to be single and could go at the drop of a hat. Now I’m married with a daughter and a mortgage. Things change. Wants change.

Just thought that coming back here for this project would make me feel something more, wake up the feel good nostalgia inside of me. Instead, it was just a day watching ball. Good ball, but just ball. 

Not everything needs to be mythic. It’s alright to just have a fun couple hours on a Monday.

No matter the day, there’s always time to have a moment with Bella

The Good Eats

Cambridge is full of wonderful food. I went to the game with the expectation that I would walk by somewhere good and that’s exactly what happened when I dropped into Flour.

A bakery/sandwich shop, Flour was that bougie-adjacent spot I expected from Boston and its neighboring towns. I don’t say that derisively either. It’s very much a style and vibe that I don’t get in Worcester or in the suburbs.

The menu was extensive, and I went with the cauliflower melt on my neverending quest to find the best veggie sandwich around.

Paired with a bag of chips it was a solid meal. I liked how toothsome the cauliflower was, and that poblano relish did a ton of heavy lifting in the best possible way.

I chased the sandwich with a chocolate ginger scone. Excellent bake. Flavors just didn’t quite do it for me. The bakery selection was immense though so there’s something for everyone.

Harvard Square

After eating I had to make my way through Harvard square and across the Longfellow bridge into Boston. It was cold coming off a fresh snow, but under the bright blue sky and the midday sun it sure felt warm.

On the other side of the bridge was the gate I had walk through countless times that is the entrance to Harvard’s athletic facilities. There’s only one athletic building on the Cambridge side of the river, everything else is in Boston.

And this was where I grew up, watching the football players jog back and forth from their locker room in Dillon Field House…

…and into Harvard Stadium…

…across from the track and the hockey rink where I met Bobby Orr.

The Venue

Lavietes Pavillion is one of the smallest gyms in all of college basketball. With a capacity of 1,636 (guess what year Harvard was founded), the room is cozy as can be.

And this is what it looked like in 2012 before the 2016 renovation that brought in the chairback seats, renovated club level, and HD video board. Just two sides of high school-esque bleachers. I loved it.

Now it’s more modern. There’s a lovely atrium and little team shop when you walk in.

Concession stands deftly tucked under the bleachers offer the standard stadium fare.

Upstairs in the club suite, there was a catered spread and nice leather couches to relax in overlooking the court.

And, for the first time I’d ever seen in a pregame spread, there was sushi. Very Harvard.

I grabbed two bottles of water and a couple cookies and went back to my media seat.

The Game

Growing up, Penn was the class of the Ivy League. From 1999-2007 the Quakers won seven league titles. But since then they’ve won just one, and that’s due to the rise of Harvard and Yale over the last 15 years. The Crimson went to four straight NCAA tournaments between 2012-2015, and the Bulldogs have won the Ivy League tournament in four of its six iterations since it came into effect in 2018.

This season everyone is chasing Yale so it was a big one, and both teams came to play.

But it all started with the overwrought pregame video.

Once the ball was tipped, it was basketball in a phone booth. Neither team found a way to firmly establish a lead.

Chandler Piggé’s lone three of the game put the Crimson up eight midway through the first half.

But then Penn bounced right back.

These are teams coached by some of the best vets in the game, Tommy Amaker and Fran McCaffery. It wasn’t like they were going to roll over.

It felt like Trey Barbour was the one putting in big buckets any time Harvard needed a boost. This drive tipped the scoreboard back into Harvard’s favor.

More game, more trading of buckets.

You heard a loud crowd pop when Penn made that floater. That was TJ Power, from the town of Shrewsbury about 45 minutes west of Harvard. He brought one heck of a fan section.

And it was great to see him have a game today after starting his career at Duke as a top-50 recruit before transferring to Virginia and then Philadelphia. Now he’s a starter at Penn and playing big minutes. He had 12 points & four rebounds in 36 minutes of play in this one.

Up three, Harvard looked to end the first half with a strong defensive stand.

With Harvard up five at half, the game returned apace right out of the gate in the final 20 minutes. The Crimson scored a three immediately to open the gap to eight before the Quakers found a way back.

This bucket from Power put Penn up two. Neither team would lead by more than five the rest of the game.

And then Harvard immediately tied it the next possession.

And thus it went as the game worked it’s way toward its finale. Both teams tethered at the hip, unable to find a way to break away.

That final dash to the finish started with a monster dunk from Robert Hinton.

Ryan Sullivan hits a clutch turnaround at the cup to put Harvard ahead. AJ Levine immediately counters with a slick AND1 to tie.

The best part about this game was watching the guards have their chess match all afternoon. The top two backcourt players from each team combined for 76 points in the game. Levine finished with 15.

And it was Harvard’s Thomas Batties II who got this little run going with three minutes left. And a pass from Piggé to Sullivan to extend the lead.

And then there was Ethan Roberts. The Drake transfer from the suburbs of Chicago hit big time shots when the Quakers needed him most.

In the game’s final seconds it was Hinton, once again, driving with confidence to the cup to finish for the Crimson.

Batties II with the block. Piggé with the finish. Harvard up five inside the final minute.

The teams traded points and with just a few seconds left, it was Roberts keeping the Quakers in it.

Missed free throws allowed Penn a chance to tie while down three. With the ball in Levine’s hands he was able to draw a foul. But the question was simple: was it in the act of shooting?

After a conference, the refs put up two fingers. Levine drained both the shots to make a one-point game. A quick foul then sent the Crimson to the line and brought the game to a head.

Harvard 64, Pennsylvania 63. Final
Time of Game: 1:56:59
Player of the Game: Ethan Roberts (Penn) – 27 points, four rebounds

…

What a lovely afternoon and a great game. I do want to take a minute to drop a link for Meghan Spirito. That link goes to her photo gallery from the game. We met in the press box and got to talking. A recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Meghan just wants to shoot sports and, in my opinion, had a pretty damn good day at Harvard on that Monday. A lovely person too, give her a look for some good sports shots.

I do have one more detour though…

The Good Eats (again)

Walking to the gym I passed by this spot:

The double cheeseburger king, eh? Wish I hadn’t stopped at flour before eating. But then I was walking back to the car. And I had more time than I expected.

Fuck it, I was having second lunch.

Founded in 1951, Charlie’s has been a Cambridge institution for decades. Inside it feels its age in all the best ways.

The menu was diverse but, I mean, we saw what the sign said.

I kept it classic with the straight up. It was, as expected, the encyclopedia picture of a double cheeseburger.

And it was great. Double cheeseburgers need to be small, not thick, and this one was the perfect size. The fries were great and crunchy. Cheeseburger King? Maybe. Definitely at least a Cheeseburger Prince. I’ll be back.

And now, for real, it’s one for the road.