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"Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins, it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols." -- Thomas Mann
As we ring our bells and fire off our pistols on the eve of the year 2000, the hoopla surrounding our passage into the new millennium will also seal the book on a year spent looking back. For if years and centuries are merely concepts dreamed by mortals, so too is the impulse to make meaning of the events that fill them -- to separate the significant from the trivial and the momentous from the mundane.
Of time's many divisions, it has been the end of a century that has occasioned the most powerful waves of reflection and anxiety. 1999, with its added millennial burden, has proved no different. Our cultural moment has, however, lent the time-honored nostalgic impulse a uniquely postmodern form: the easily digestible, sound-bite friendly list. The ten most important people. The hundred best books. The fifty greatest movies. Somewhere Bill Bennett and E. D. Hirsh are smiling.
All of which is just a long-winded way of saying that we've succumbed to millennia-mania and put together some lists of our own. Because it's fun. Because everyone else is doing it. Because people will disagree and argue about it. Because they'll send us letters telling us so. (A word for the purists: yes, we know that the new Millennium technically begins in 2001, but we've elected join the consensus that 2000 is the big event. Your letter we don't need.)
Here's how it worked: We solicited nominations from a diverse group of 'Fords (including the alumni e-list), and then assembled a smaller group of judges to select the ten most unforgettable events and rank them accordingly. We briefly considered eliminating the ranking so as not to bias any of the entries, but jettisoned that suggestion in hopes of generating some good-natured controversy. For the list of the greatest Haverford sporting events, we've selected one event for each of the century's ten decades, as well as the top women's athletic contest for the 80s and 90s.
As expected, many of the events that define the century for Haverford reflect the conflicts and struggles that have defined the century for both the country and world at large. If not always joyous, they are invariably compelling, and more often than not imbued with additional and unique significance by the distinctly Haverfordian reaction to them. Others, while more parochial, are no less interesting in their specificity. Either way, we hope that you enjoy reading them as much as we've enjoyed presenting them.
