The Harvard Crimson men's soccer team is an intercollegiate

varsity sports A varsity team is the highest-level team in a sport or activity representing an educational institution. Varsity teams train to compete against each other during an athletic season or in periodic matches against rival institutions. At high schools ...

team of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. The team is a member of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

. Harvard is one of the most successful teams of the Ivy League, having won 13

championships In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

. In the pre-NCAA era, Harvard also won 4

Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association The Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (abbreviated ISFA) was a sports governing body that ruled the practice of college soccer in the United States from 1905 to 1958. Before the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) held its ...

(ISFA) championship titles.

History

The

Crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, '' Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red col ...

fielded their first varsity soccer team in 1905,1905 men's soccer schedule
on gocrimson.com making the team one of the oldest college soccer programs in the United States, and one of the oldest continuously operating soccer programs in the United States. Most of the Crimson's success came in the mid-1910s, where they won two ISFL (the college soccer predecessor to the NCAA) championships, and again in the late 1920s to the early 1930s. Harvard vs yale soccer match 1922

Since their 1930 ISFL title, the Crimson have failed to win a national title, although in the late 1960s and early 1970s the Crimson reached the College Cup twice. Also, in both 1986 and 1987 the Crimson reached the NCAA Division I Final Four. Their most recent appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship came in 2009, when the Crimson reached the round of 16. From 2013 through 2019, the Crimson were coached by

Pieter Lehrer Pieter Sand Lehrer, (born 29 January 1965) is a sprint canoer from Antigua and Barbuda who competed in the mid-1990s. He was also a footballer. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he advanced to the semifinals of the C-2 1000 m event, but did not compet ...

, a former assistant coach for the

California Golden Bears men's soccer : ''For information on all University of California, Berkeley sports, see California Golden Bears'' The California Golden Bears men's soccer team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, Califo ...

program. In 2014, Ross Friedman attained two all-time Harvard records with 12 season assists and 17 career assists, also ranking 6th in the NCAA in assists and 5th in assists per game. In November 2016, the team were suspended by the university after the student newspaper ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...

'' published an article which indicated that team members had shared a yearly document in which they ranked new members of Harvard Crimson women's soccer team by their

sex appeal Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest. Sexual attractiveness or sex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor in sexual selection or m ...

and described them using sexually explicit terms. The suspension meant that they could no longer participate in any further games in the 2016 Ivy League men's soccer season (which they had been leading at the time of the suspension) or the

. Several professional soccer players, including

Shep Messing Shep Norman Messing (born October 9, 1949) is a retired American soccer goalkeeper and current broadcaster who works as a studio analyst for the MLS Season Pass team. In 2021 he took the position of chairman of the Major Arena Soccer League. He ...

, Ross Friedman, Andre Akpan, Michael Fucito and

John Catliff John Terence Catliff (born 8 January 1965) is a Canadian former professional soccer player, who played as a striker. He retired ranked second all-time on the Canadian national team with 18 international "A" goals between 1984 and 1994. In 201 ...

played for the Crimson, as well as several notable professionals outside of the soccer world. This includes

Theodore Roosevelt III Theodore Roosevelt IV ( ; June 14, 1914 – May 2, 2001), also known as Theodore III, was an American banker, government official, and veteran of World War II. He was a grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt through his father, Brig. Gen. Theod ...

, Daniel Needham and John Johansen.

Team image

Historically, the Harvard soccer teams have worn white kits as their primary colors, while alternate kits have been crimson or black.

Players

Current roster

Notable alumni

(1983–86) *

(1970–71) * Ross Friedman (2010–13)

First Team All-Americans

Harvard has fielded 38 first-team All-Americans. Several players including Andre Akpan,

and Will Kohler had professional careers following college. Other notable All-Americans include John Johansen, who was part of the

Harvard Five The Harvard Five was a group of architects that settled in New Canaan, Connecticut in the 1940s: John M. Johansen, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes. Marcel Breuer was an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Desig ...

and Daniel Needham, who was a future politician and commanding general for the 26th Infantry Division.

Second Team All-Americans

Harvard has fielded 16-second-team All-Americans.

Third Team All-Americans

Harvard has fielded three third-team All-Americans.

Coaches

Current staff

Sources:

Historical head coaches

Sources:2024 Men's soccer record book
on gocrimson.com ;Notes

Team honors

National championships

Conference championships

Harvard has won 13 Ivy League championships. The Ivy League began sponsoring men's varsity soccer in 1955. Prior to 1955, Harvard competed as an Independent.

Rivalries

Harvard athletics have a longstanding rivalry with

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

across all sports since

1875 Events January * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third C ...

, and it also translates to the men's soccer programs. Both programs have faced each other on an annual basis since 1907. As of Nov 2023, the Crimson lead the series against the Bulldogs 54–42–13.Men's soccer statistics 2023
at gocrimson.com

References

External links

* {{Ivy League men's soccer navbox 1905 establishments in Massachusetts Association football clubs established in 1905