America's most prestigious college tend to emphasize academics over athletics. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is no exception.
But many of those universities also have hallowed legacies attached to sports. Yale claims 27 national championships in college football; Harvard claims seven. Princeton, meanwhile, is recognized as participating in the first-ever college football game.
MIT isn't as distinguished. Between 1944 and 2013, the Engineers won 80 football games. Granted, the school went several decades without fielding a football team. Over that same span of time, the school's faculty and alumni won exactly as many Nobel Peace prizes.
In 2014, though, MIT has finally broken the mold for its moribund football team. The Engineers are 8-0 and have claimed the New England Football Conference championship. The title qualifies the program for the NCAA Division III playoffs.
It's a huge accomplishment for MIT, which is treating its football team with the highest degree of excitement and attention ever granted to an athletic program at the school.
As its head coach Chad Martinovich told The Wall Street Journal, “It’s nice to walk through campus and have every other person congratulate you and know who you are."
And now, Mr. Martinovich, America knows who you are. Keep on making those Nobel winners jealous.
