Skip to main content

The Best College Football Team You Never Heard Of




By: Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor


A clear, warm, early autumn day at Cardinal Stadium, on the campus of The Catholic University of America, in northeast Washington, D.C., witnessed a gridiron clinic.  The football Engineers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did everything correct.  They blocked, wrapped, executed, and out-played a lacking Catholic University squad 38-21.  Most recently they embarrassed the Coast Guard Academy, oddly nicknamed the Bears, at the service school’s Homecoming game, 30-21.

Yes, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a football team.  Don’t laugh.  They are a NCAA Division III powerhouse with a 6-1 record at this writing.

Getting out ahead of what you’re thinking, no, they do not issue scholarships.  Varsity sports are only open to undergraduates.  What can get you on the team is a relatively safe SAT score, under the new standard, of 2300.  A rough high school GPA of 4.10 should accompany that.  Math Club presidency not needed, but helpful.

In an era of concussion awareness you wonder why any student will want to put their genius craniums at risk.  What they do well is the fundamentals.  Drills, proper tackling techniques are emphasized. The helmet is not a weapon, you keep your head up, and wrap the ball carrier.  Play smartly, win safely.  The Engineer quarterback is well blocked.  They are a speedy squad.

MIT’s Engineers first took the field in 1881.  By 1900 they shut the program down.  In 1978 it became a club sport with informal match-ups around the northeast.  That first season as a football club they wore the uniforms of, and purchased equipment from, the Rochester Institute of Technology’s newly defunct program for $2,000.  Due to surprising campus interest MIT re-introduced varsity football in 1988 after an 88 year absence.

Matt Nicolai, who is pictured adjoining this article, is a stalwart on defense as a linebacker.  This guy pursues.  He gets it, too.  The 6’3, Mechanical Engineering major from Northport, N.Y. could not be happier playing football for this school, with these guys.  He told this reporter of the halftime adjustments leading to 17 unanswered points.  “We just sat down, coach pointed out some weaknesses, we made adjustments, and it turned out well.”  Nicolai adds, “we’re pretty close, we have 6 hours of practice a week, if a few players have a rigorous academic week we’ll all help each other out.”

It was a joy to watch the game.  No aggrandizement, over-celebrating, just a squad who knows it’s a privilege to be out there, and plays for the game of it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sports Gaming Boon For Casinos Bust For Others?

By: Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor It is 12:30pm on a Sunday at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.  Business is good on the casino floor with poker tables full with gamblers who have, and will, be there for hours.  It is dreary out, and the brightly lit interior, the hotel lobby, stand in contrast to the foggy Potomac River just outside.  The MGM sits on a bluff overlooking the river, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge linking Maryland and Virginia.  It is in Prince Georges County, a county ravaged by crime, and economically challenged.  The county council, and the state of Maryland pushed hard for the resort property adjacent to the upscale National Harbor area.  The bald eagles nesting atop channel marker two just offshore seem unaware. As busy as the casino is with locals, and a few busloads of gamers, it may be busier.  That’s if the sports gaming case going to the U.S. Supreme Court early next year rules in favor of breaking the monopoly of the Las...
Post a Comment
Read more

For A Boater The Potomac Is A Four Season Waterway

By: Kevin Trainor/ Managing Editor The marina on Daingerfield Island sits just to the right of the southbound runway of Reagan National Airport.  Across from the last airport beacon lies a shallow, weed filled body of water with one clear channel leading from the boat basin of the yachting class to the open waters of the remarkably cleaned up Potomac River.  The same river John Smith, and crew, he of Jamestown Settlement fame circa 1609, sailed up.  They marveled at the oysters.  Oh, the oysters.  So visible from the decks through the clear waters then mostly fresh, or salty, depending on the tides.  Later, oceangoing cuttys, and other maritime pliers, could still tie up at Georgetown.  That harbor locale named for King George II, and not his problematic descendant King George III of the American Revolutionary era.  The arrival of civilization redirected the navigable river channel.  Later, the most upriver port was Alexandria, just downs...
Post a Comment
Read more