Crimson to meet Kyoto Gangsters on the gridiron

By Susan Peterson

Gazette staff

Spring break for the Harvard football team will be spent touring a city of ancient temples and playing football surrounded by mountains, halfway around the world.

Plans have been set for a gridiron match between Harvard and Kyoto University, in Kyoto, Japan, on March 29. The game marks the first time most of the Crimson team will play abroad and the first football game between an American college and a Japanese college in Japan since 1977.

As such, it offers an opportunity for the Harvard players to combine their sport with a firsthand education in another culture.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our students and a great educational adjunct to their athletic careers here," said Harry R. Lewis, Dean of Harvard College and chair of the Faculty Standing Committee on Athletics. "The game will be part of a larger itinerary of educational and cultural value."

The Harvard-Kyoto game is a part of Kyoto University's 100th Anniversary celebration and the 50th Anniversary of the Kyoto University Football Club. Kyoto invited Harvard when it was seeking an international opponent with comparable academic and athletic excellence.

"Harvard has the best mix between academia and sports and was the perfect school to invite," said Satohiro Akimoto, who holds two master's degrees and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He is also assistant director of the Japan Society, a New York-based not-for-profit organization that promotes better understanding between Japan and the United States. The Society is cosponsoring the trip with support from several major Japanese corporations.

"We don't see this invitation only in terms of football," said Yaichi Mizuno, Kyoto University's head football coach. "It will provide opportunities for the students of two great universities in the United States and Japan to know more about each other."

The relationship between Harvard and Japanese football teams, in fact, goes back further than the upcoming contest. Akimoto formerly was the head football coach at Keio University, and three years ago arranged for teammates from Keio and Waseda universities to spend a few weeks learning from coaches at Harvard and Yale. The students then played a game in Harvard Stadium.

And while this is the first time most of the Harvard team will play in Japan, for the past five years Harvard seniors have been part of an Ivy League team competing against Japan's top collegiate football players in the Epson Ivy Bowl in Tokyo.

But that history of cultural interaction won't make the Kyoto University "Gangsters" any less of an international opponent. They have a history of winning six national intercollegiate football championships, including the 1996 championship on Dec. 15.

"For us, it is like an overseas bowl game and an educational field trip," said Tim Murphy, Harvard's head football coach. "There will be the opportunity to socialize with the players of the other team before the game, which is consistent with American football bowls. But first of all, we have to prepare for a well-organized team: They practice year-round."

This is an out-of-season game for the Crimson team, who will not have much time to prepare once they arrive in Japan on March 23. Two practices are scheduled for the team during its eight-day spring break tour.

The game, which the Japanese have termed "The International Event," will be televised nationally in Japan.

Harvard's traveling squad will not include the seniors who are graduating this spring, but it will include the freshmen, sophomore and junior team members -- except those playing spring sports. About 15 coaches, trainers, and college administrators will also be making the trip with the team. The group will have many opportunities to learn about Japanese society, will visit with government and business leaders, and sight-see in both Tokyo and Kyoto -- Boston's sister city.

Team captain Brendan Bibro '98 of Pittsburgh is excited about going.

"I've been to Canada to see Niagara Falls, but not to any other country," Bibro said. "There were rumors buzzing when we showed up for camp this year, but we didn't want to get our hopes up. Now we're excited."