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BY DARCY NELSON

In print | Published September 9, 2004

Ask a Swarthmore student about the Hood Trophy and,chances are, you will find he or she doesn’t know what it is. On the other hand, if you ask a Haverford student about the Hood Trophy, you are likely to get an earful.

The Haverford student might even mention that the Fords have won the trophy every year since 1995. Is this why Swat fans and athletes are clueless? Or do we just not care?

Haverford fans, in sharp contrast to Swat fans, are not merely indifferent to the rivalry. Just check out the busloads of Haverford fans that swarm our campus for head-to-head contests. Ask an upperclassman about the time female Fords fans bore their midriffs at a men’s basketball game in the 2002-2003 season, with each girl donning a painted red letter on her front and back, spelling out “Swat Sucks.”

Sure, some of us chant “safety school” when Fords fans shout “overrated,” but are Swatties all that hell-bent on claiming athletic superiority over our rivals?

Perhaps our apathy toward maintaining the rivalry explains why Swatties have never heard of the Hood Trophy.

Established in 1941 by friends and family of Albert L. Hood Jr. ’31, the trophy is a symbol of athletic superiority between the two blue-route school.

Hood, a Swattie with the friends at both schools, made efforts to increase the competition and rivalry between the two colleges. Although many of Hood’s relatives attended Swarthmore as well, an inter-college relationship was established in his family when Hood’s older sister, also a Swattie, married a Haverford football player.

When Hood died in 1941, the trophy was established to honor him.

Each Haverford-Swarthmore athletic contest is given a point value and the school with the most points at the end of the year wins the trophy. Participating sports include men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, field hockey, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball, and softball.

The trophy itself is a silver Revere Bowl with the inscription, “Given in memory of Albert L. Hood Jr., by his friends of Swarthmore and Haverford colleges.” The names of the two colleges are engraved on the tray on which the bowl sits. During the 1995-1996 season, Swarthmore emerged victorious in the trophy race 9-8. This was the last time that Swat took home the trophy. Last year, Swarthmore lost to the Fords 10.5-7.5 in the trophy race. “Haverford has certainly gone after [the Hood Trophy] more than we have,” Sport Information Director Mark Duzenski said. “I don’t think the Hood Trophy is something we strive for as a department.”

Haverford Associate Athletic Director John Douglas, believes that the Hood Trophy is more widely known at Haverford because of Haverford’s athletic director, Greg Kannerstein.

Kannerstein came to Haverford as a first-year in 1959 and has been around the Hood race for almost 50 years.

“We are more aware of [the trophy] because he talks about it a lot,” Douglas said. “It is better known among alums who remember when games against Swarthmore were a big deal, especially between the two football teams.”

Haverford’s athletic Web site keeps an up-to-date tally of contests between the two schools, recording the date of each event, the score, the point value of the contest and the overall point tallies for each school after the contest. “Haverford is more into it than we are,” Duzenski said.

As far as Haverford students’ interest in the trophy, “The current students are aware of it to the extent that toward the end of the year they will ask, ‘What are the standings?’ or ‘This next game will count toward the Hood Trophy, so we better win it,’ – but it is not a huge deal among the student-athletes,” Douglas said.

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