![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/sstadium.jpg\")
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Venerable Harvard Stadium, architecturally renowned as the first building
\n in the world to utilize the then-revolutionary but now ubiquitous
\n construction technique known as "reinforced concrete", is celebrating
\n its centennial this year. It is also famous as the site of a momentous
\n moment in football history – the invention of the forward pass.<\/p>\n
Back in the day (1905) football was a lot more violent than in is today. Hard
\n to believe, huh? Well, that year alone there were 18 FATALITIES and dozens
\n of disabling injuries on the college gridiron, and there were only a
\n handful of teams in those days. Of course, they had no protective
\n gear to speak of, and no conditioning, steroids or supplements to steel
\n their vulnerable student bodies.<\/p>\n
So in the face of growing calls to outlaw the beastly sport, the Intercollegiate
\n Football Association voted in 19 new rules,
\n like no tackling out of bounds, "striking the
\n ball carrier in the face," or tackling below the knee. Another new
\n rule would have widened the field, but Harvard, stuck with their new
\n concrete stadium built to the old field size, could not comply. Instead,
\n Harvard convinced the Association to institute the controversial Forward
\n Pass. The
\n rest is history.<\/p>\n
The Dowbrigade’s memories of the Stadium are a bit foggy, as the only
\n occasions he was actually inside occurred back in the dim mists of his
\n undergraduate days. His best friend from high school, Joey Weiss, ended
\n up at Yale, and every year for the hoary Harvard-Yale game they would
\n get together for their own arcane and twisted ritual.<\/p>\n
Each year, for four successive years, they would
\n inhale, approximately 45 minutes prior to kickoff, 500 milligrams (1\/2
\n gram) of mescaline in one nostril, and 500 milligrams of cocaine in the
\n other. This was as part of an ongoing experiment (Dowbrigade majored
\n in Psychology and Social Relations) in hemispheric brain differentiation. As
\n everyone know, the right nostril is connected to the left hemisphere,
\n and the left nostril to the right.<\/p>\n
The experiment required extensive prep work (mostly materials acquisition)
\n and careful budgeting. We would reverse the input configuration from
\n year to year, to create a "double blind" effect. Cross
\n referencing shows that copious notes were taken on the objective and
\n subjective results, perhaps in hopes
\n of future publication, but the Dowbrigade seems to have misplaced them
\n somewhere over the years.<\/p>\n
The most noticeable immediate effect was that one half of your brain
\n froze, while the other half melted. The differentiation extended
\n to ocular input, creating kaleidoscopic effects and and an interesting
\n new parallax between left and right eye signals which introduced a sort
\n of "fourth-dimensionality" into vision. Watching the crowd, undulating
\n like a spastic snake and emitting crackles of tense,
\n inebriated
\n energy
\n into the autumn air, was much more interesting than the game on the field. <\/p>\n
Dr. Weiss is now a cancer researcher in California. The Dowbrigade
\n has left his days of outlaw psychology far behind. Happy, 100th Harvard
\n Stadium.<\/p>\n
. \n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Venerable Harvard Stadium, architecturally renowned as the first building in the world to utilize the then-revolutionary but now ubiquitous construction technique known as "reinforced concrete", is celebrating its centennial this year. It is also famous as the site of a … Continue reading