Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Mass.
Nickname: Crimson

To catch a glimpse of the Olympic history of the nation's largest Division I athletic program, one only needs to look toward the ice. Harvard Olympians can be found hitting an opponent with a vicious cross check, blazing around a circle in speed skating time trials, or performing complicated jumps for international figure skating judges.

Figure skater Nathaniel W. Niles '09 started this trend. Actually, Niles first competed in the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games,- the Winter Games had not yet been established, so figure skating and ice hockey were a part of the summer games. Niles participated in two more Olympics, the first and second winter Olympiads in Chamonix, France and St. Moritz, Switzerland, respectively.

Thirty-nine Harvard athletes have followed Niles, many returning with medals. Tenley Albright's '53 skating career began when she was eight-years-old, but she was diagnosed with polio at 11, a condition from which she managed to recover within a couple of years. Albright won the silver medal at the 1952 Oslo games and gold at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo games. Her gold medal came despite a severe ankle injury only two weeks before competition.

Another prominent figure skater is Dick Button '52, who won the gold medal in the 1948 St. Moritz Games and 1952 Oslo Games. In 1948, he also won the United States, North American, European, and World figure skating championships. Button is now an Emmy-winning figure skating analyst for ABC sports.

Many Harvard men have suited up for the United States ice hockey team since the start of the winter Olympiad in 1924, one of them being William J. Cleary, Jr. '56. Cleary, a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, was on the silver medal-winning team in 1956 at Cortina d'Ampezzo and the leading points-scorer for the 1960 Squaw Valley team that won the gold medal. Cleary would go on to coach the Crimson men for nearly 30 years before becoming Harvard athletic director.

Despite their winter success, the Crimson are known as summer athletes as well, dating back to the first modern Olympiad (1896 Athens), when seven Harvard athletes went to the Games.