Harvard Tournament

[SherryHall]

Greetings All:   It has taken me a while to write this, but so many people already know it, that I felt an official announcement was warranted.  It is with a mixture of emotions that I announce that Dallas and I will no longer be hosting the Harvard Debate Tournament for College Debate in October.  (We are still hosting the High School Tournament in February).  After 30 years for me and more than 40 for Dallas, it is time for us to pass this baton on to others.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people that have helped make this tournament a success for so many years.  When I first arrived at Harvard Debate, the invitations were hand addressed and mailed out, and the tournament was paired on index cards.  Even after other schools were starting to use computers to pair the tournaments, Dallas held firm to the faithful index card.  We have two people to thank for pushing DP into the computer era – Richard Edwards for writing the software and Marcia Tiersky for encouraging him to use it and serving as the person to provide advice on how to do it.  For many years Stefan Bauschard ran the tab software.  Last year, Brian Manuel took over this task.  David Glass has provided great assistance over the years with many tournament tasks as well.  It goes without saying that many Harvard debaters and assistant coaches over the years have contributed a lot to the tournament.

I have many people to thank for helping with the hospitality over the years.  Many a Harvard debater has volunteered to help with mundane food preparation tasks in addition to the tasks that they are required to do.  My friends: Rebecca Bjork, Joel Rollins, Laura Lyn Rollins, Lindsay Harrison, Anjali Vats, and Cathy Thomas have been great.  But the most important contributions have been made by members of my family.  In particular, my Aunt Vickie Hall worked with me in the kitchen for over a decade.  Now that she has passed away, some of my fondest memories of her are working with her in the kitchen to cook for my debate friends.  Once she was no longer able to come help her daughter, Terri Arnold, and last year, her granddaughter, Amanda Taylor stepped into the kitchen.  I have fantastic memories and great stories of working with all these amazing friends and family members over the years.
 
I know that it is probably not going to really sink in that I am closing this chapter in my life until I go through an October without planning a menu, but I will say that it has been a lot of fun and it has been a privilege to host so many people that I care about over the years.

[sharris]

Just wanted to thank you for so many memorable experiences at the Harvard tournament.  Thank you for having been amazing hosts.

[jvreed]

Thanks for all of the wonderful food and hospitality over the years and for running such a great tournament.  I always loved being there and will sorely miss it!

jv

[eric emerson]

The Harvard tournament and its amazing hospitality was one of my fondest memories of debating in college.  Thank you!

[CouldaBeenaContenda]

Back in the 1970s, the Harvard Tournament was held in late January or early February and ran Tuesday through Thursday, followed by Dartmouth's tournament on Friday through Sunday, which made it more affordable for the western schools.  I remember the Dartmouth tournaments from that era having over 200 teams participate, even though I'm pretty sure there was a limit of two teams per school.  Harvard's field wasn't as large, but it had the same top teams.  How large were the recent fields?

[Ermo]

Harvard has been in the area of 80 recently, which was their cap based on classroom availability. However, they are not planning to host in the fall, and Gonzaga (and perhaps others) plan to host that weekend.

The largest of majors run 125-150 teams.