A Quaker Beating

By Romesh Ratnesar/Swarthmore

An hour before the biggest game of his life, Joe Aleffi lay on his back inside the Swarthmore College field house, staring at the ceiling. Aleffi, a senior running back for Swarthmore's football team, the Garnet Tide, had spent the morning listening to Metallica and trying to calm himself. "This is the most excited I've ever been for a game," he said. "I had trouble sleeping last night." Other Swarthmore players nearby strapped on their pads in silence. The night before, one had gone to the center of the field to meditate alone in the darkness.

Football at Swarthmore has often felt like an exercise in solitude, and in futility. Coming into the season-opening game against Oberlin, the Garnet Tide had been defeated in 28 straight games--the longest losing streak in college football. Their last win was in 1995, and the final score, 2-0, sounded like that of a soccer match. The school had since considered dropping football altogether. Players quit the team in droves. Only a handful of students showed up to watch Saturday home games. But at this intensely cerebral Quaker college, there has been a revived interest in the fortunes of the team, and a sense that if the streak was to be broken, it would happen against Oberlin: the Yeomen had lost 19 straight games going in, and 59 out of their last 60.

No fan relished the opportunity more than Steve Klotz, 41, a retirement-home director from Jacobus, Pa., and the father of Swarthmore defensive back Josh Klotz. Steve had witnessed many of the team's recent embarrassments. In 1997, during a 73-to-0 drubbing by Johns Hopkins, the scorekeepers, in an act of mercy, let the clock run through time-outs. After that season, Steve said, "The players told the administration that they were tired of going out and playing games no one cared about." Last year under new coach Peter Alvanos, Swarthmore was competitive in several games. This summer the players arrived on campus two weeks early to prep for the opener.

By game time against Oberlin, the Swarthmore students weren't behaving like Quakers. Close to 200 showed up for the game--not bad on a campus of 1,380. It is more common to see students at games wearing Swarthmore math department T shirts (WE MATH GOOD) than football jerseys. "A lot of people don't care about football here," said senior Paul Dickson, an engineering major. "It doesn't exactly fit into the culture." But the team's ignominious run has aroused the curious. Said another senior, Abbas Ebrahim: "There's the whole Cinderella thing about the streak." As he spoke, Swarthmore scored on a long touchdown pass. The student section erupted. Ebrahim and Dickson bumped chests.

Like most Swarthmore contests, the game became a mismatch, but this time the Tide turned. Leading 14 to 6 at half time, Swarthmore scored three touchdowns in the third quarter. With the score 42 to 6, coach Alvanos rested the starters, including Aleffi, for the first time in their careers. By then some Swat backers were waxing philosophical about the losing streak. Aleffi's father John, 52, has traveled from Clark, N.J., for every Swarthmore game in the past three years. "I'll tell you," he said, "this has been a tremendous test of character."

When the game ended, Swarthmore students stormed the field and with some difficulty tore down the goal posts. "This is the happiest day of my life," Alvanos told his players. Then he quickly warned them, "Don't do anything to embarrass the family tonight. Be your brother's keeper. Be smart."

It is hard to imagine Swatties doing otherwise. Doug Kneeland, a sophomore offensive tackle who majors in Latin and minors in Greek, plays football because, as he says, "I strive to live by the Greek ideal of being both physically and mentally sound." He said several players planned to celebrate the win by going back out on the field later "to just sit and talk."

After the game, Joe Aleffi couldn't stop smiling. He had run for 104 yds. and one touchdown. "I had to dig deep within myself to get through the past three years," he said. "Now I'm just so relieved." He said that "this is going to be the first Saturday night in a long time that I've been in a positive mood." But revelry could wait. The first thing Joe did after the game of his life was give his mother a kiss.