Fight Fiercely, Harvard!

Ryan Fitzpatrick, the rookie quarterback from Harvard, will get his first NFL start tomorrow against the Washington Redskins. Fitzpatrick rallied his team to victory last week from 21 points down against Houston and turned a lot of NFL heads in the process. Come to think of it, I don't recall any other Harvard QB's having been on an NFL roster in, say, the past 30 years, let alone starting, and I'd bet that since the Super Bowl era, he's the first Harvard alum to get an NFL start at QB (not the first Ivy alum, as you have Columbia's Marty Domres and John Witkowski, both of whom had some NFL starts, I believe (Colts and Lions, respectively), Dartmouth's Jeff Kemp and Jay Fiedler, both of whom were starting QBs for several teams, Princeton's Bob Holly and Jason Garrett (who got a few starts in their careers) and Yale's Brian Dowling. No doubt I'm missing a few here and there, but I don't think there were any from Harvard -- before Fitzpatrick.

In honor of Fitzpatrick's accomplishments, let's recall an old, favorite Tom Lehrer song ("Fight Fiercely, Harvard"):

"Fight fiercely, Harvard,
Fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.
How we shall celebrate our victory,
We shall invite the whole team up for tea (how jolly!)
Hurl that spheroid down the field,
And fight, fight, fight!

Fight fiercely, Harvard,
Fight, fight, fight!
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Oh, fellows, do not let the Crimson down,
Be of stout heart and thru.
Come on, chaps, right for Harvard's glorious name,
Won't it be peachy if we win the game? (oh, goody!)
Let's try not to injure them,
But fight, fight, fight!
And do fight fiercely!
Fight, fight, fight!"

Degree from Harvard. Starting NFL quarterback.

Pretty good life for a young man so far, wouldn't you say?