Louie’s Legacy: Mather Inner House Competitions

The Stanley Cup. America’s Cup. The Straus Cup. Across sports — professional, amateur, and intramurals alike — cups have come to symbolize the pinnacle of competitive excellence. However, few on Harvard’s campus still remember Mather’s own competition for house pride and glory: the Louie’s Cup.

The Louie’s Cup was a former competition in Mather House, in which proud Matherites would vie for fame, pride, and a prize from Louie’s, the corner store that Harvard students now know as Surrey Street Market.

Louie, after whom the cup is named, owned the small liquor store conveniently located next to Mather. Louie eventually retired and sold the store, which is why it is now Surrey Street Market. At the end of the semester, the winner of the coveted Louie’s Cup would receive a prize from the store.

“It was huge for the community,” said current Mather House Committee co-chair Lily Xu ’28 when asked about the Louie’s Cup events. “Weekly, there would be a different challenge, and then people would group themselves into teams, and then in each challenge, you could compete for points, and a lot of the challenges used to be super fun.”

The competitions for the Louie’s Cup served as a sort of in-house Olympics, with weekly contests ranging from flying paper planes off the top of Mather’s renowned 19-story tower to cooking contests. Different games provided the most spirited and talented groups of Mather residents with awards, just like how Olympians receive medals for their successes.

The Louie’s Cup wasn’t just an effort from college students. Mather faculty members, staff, and resident tutors also got involved in the fun of the occasion.

“There was one challenge where it was like making a paper plane,” said Xu. “But then flying it from like the top floor of the tower to see whoever won.”

Other events involved cooking competitions like Concrete Chef, which was Mather Faculty Dean Amala Mahadevan’s favorite. The Harvard Undergraduate Dining Staff would put together sets of ingredients, and groups would compete to create the tastiest dish.

Some events were more physically demanding than others, such as relay races across the Mather courtyard, foosball tournaments, and fierce ping pong competitions amongst different groups.

However, the Louie’s Cup has largely left the Mather landscape, spurring the current House Community Chairs to think about how they could revive the Mather competition tradition. The Mather House Committee is determined to reintegrate it into the lives of all Matherites.

Andrew Lim ’28 has recently been named as the house’s official Games Commissioner, and although no concrete (get it) plans have been formally introduced to restart the Louie’s Cup competitions yet, the Mather community knows that it is in good hands.

“He’s got the energy for it,” asserted Xu.

Through a shared love of friendly competition, the reemergence of the Louie’s Cup has the potential to bolster Mather’s close-knit community. As Matherites gather under the concrete ceilings to compete in various challenges, people from different backgrounds, academic interests, and blocking groups will unite in their love for Mather.

— Staff writer Isabel C. Smail can be reached at [email protected].

— Staff writer Neeraja Kumar can be reached at [email protected].

— Staff writer Sofia Zhang can be reached at [email protected].