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4 unusual facts about Haverford Fords


Haverford Fords

The first intercollegiate basketball game played east of the Mississippi River occurred in Ryan Gym (now a lounging area for students) in 1895 between Haverford and Temple University.

Haverford's soccer team, the nation's oldest, won the first intercollegiate soccer match in 1905, beating Harvard College.

In 1997, Karl Paranya '97 became the first (and only) Division III athlete to run a four-minute mile, clocking 3:57.6. The history of Haverford track also includes former team captain Philip Noel-Baker 1908, who later captained Great Britain's 1924 Olympic team upon which the movie Chariots of Fire is based, and became a 1959 Nobel peace prize winner years later.

Haverford's current team has a heavy contingency from students of South Asian heritage, and the XI team regularly travels to Oxbridge for games.



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