n December 18, 2023, I sat at home in my New York City apartment when an email appeared in my inbox. The subject line was “Welcome to Sports Administration!” I had been named the new Sports Admin reporter.

At the time, I didn’t know much about what covering Harvard sports would entail.

A few weeks into covering the beat, though, long-time Harvard football coach Tim Murphy retired. That Sunday, as I sat in a pitch meeting, the Managing Editor at the time, Miles J. Herszenhorn ’25, told me and my co-writer, Tyler Ory, “scoop the next coach.”

I had no idea where to begin, but over the next week, I made unexpected inroads, and we eventually got the scoop.

The thrill of that first scoop was electric, but more than that, I loved meeting the people of Harvard athletics. I had the chance to speak to dozens of players and alumni about what football meant to them and why they cared so deeply about who would be the next head coach.

I learned how much sports at Harvard matter, most of all to our athletes. Athletes at Harvard give everything to their sports and form lifelong bonds in the process. I felt proud to be covering something that moved people so deeply.

I also stumbled onto the beat at a time when NIL money was taking college athletics by storm. I happened to begin writing just as these deals were beginning to affect Harvard — which, along with the rest of the Ivy League — remained staunchly opposed to letting big money change the culture of its programs.

I realized the way we choose to report on sports tells us something important about our newspaper.

As Harvard students, we all have the urge to root for our teams and to want to see them succeed. It would be unrealistic to suppress that feeling.

But we need to report honestly when a game goes poorly, so people can trust us when we report that our athletes were flawless. We should be the people that athletes know they can trust to talk to when they don’t know where else to turn.

The best way to shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of our athletes is to have a reputation as a paper that looks deeply and honestly at our subjects and reports with as little bias as we can muster.

But for all my faith in the benefit of a strong Crimson sports section, I’d be lying if our mission was the only thing drawing me to 14p day in and day out. As the very wise former Sports Chair Jack Silvers ’25 noted last year: it’s the people, stupid.

There are so many people I want to thank for my time at The Crimson. I will forever be grateful to Miles for guiding me, believing in me, and teaching me how to be a journalist.

I would have never fallen in love with Sport Admin had it not been for the enduring friendship and constant feedback from John Peña ’25 and Azusa Lippit ’26. I also deeply valued my early conversations with Griffin Wong ’24 about the football beat.

Most of all, I am forever indebted to Praveen Kumar, my co-chair of the Sports Board and football co-writer. He taught me an enormous amount about football and was an incredible partner in editing the sports section and an even better friend.

Many of my favorite moments of college happened in the cramped sports cube, looking at Ryan Fitzpatrick’s floating head and chatting with members of the sports board or The Crimson at large until late at night (or early until the next morning).

I feel lucky to know that the board is in the best possible hands now and incredibly jealous of all the reporters who have more stories to write. Enjoy it and take pride in your work — it’s all over far too quickly.

—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @Jo_Lemann.