Claremont Colleges – A Study In Silver

The new (to me) MIT athletics logo.

Opportunities for MIT grads to cheer on an MIT sports team are few. On the West Coast, they are almost non-existent. Sports at MIT is not big business; sports exist to give the students something to do besides work problem sets and/or go nuts. In the name of student sanity, MIT competes in more different intercollegiate sports than any other US university; but winning, traveling, gathering donations, getting TV time? Not a priority.

I was therefore surprised and pleased to learn that the MIT Engineers football team was to play the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens in Pomona, California on Sept. 7. Hubby and I saddled up and drove the fifty-odd miles from Tarzana to Pomona to cheer on the Alma Mater. We were treated to a free lunch from the Alumni Association, and at the game itself…

Pomona and Pitzer are two of the five Claremont Colleges. They compete at the NCAA Division III level. The Claremont Colleges have a lovely campus, and many students are local. Still the number of grads of Mother Technology (and families of current students) nearly equalled the number of Sagehen supporters in the stands.

The Engineers were not accustomed to Southern California heat. The temperature on the field was 100F and above; our boys were not drinking enough Gatorade, and cramps on the sidelines were common. Still, they squeaked by the Sagehens at 28-26!

I hope this becomes a more common event. Mother Technology, we still love you even if we did move to California!