Harvard athlete plays in Oxford-Cambridge rugby match

Will Johnson ’06 tackles a different sports rivalry.

Will Johnson ’06, a six-foot-three-inch, 270-pound offensive lineman for the Harvard football team, played for Oxford in the annual Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge, the culmination of the rugby season for Oxford’s Dark Blues and the Light Blues of Cambridge. Johnson is enrolled in a two-year program in economic and social history at Oxford. The New York Times report quotes Oxford coach Steve Hill to the effect that “[T]he season is a success or failure based on that one day. At the end of that day, you’re either in heaven or in hell. There’s nowhere in between.” Unfortunately for Oxford, they ended up in hell: on the short end of a 31-27 tally at Twickenham on Thursday, December 11.

Most popular

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.

Explore More From Current Issue

A vibrant illustration of a red car parked, surrounded by cheerful people and historic buildings.

Derek Bok donated his car for a good cause.

Three actors perform on stage, with one actor interacting closely with another, set against abstract backgrounds.

The play Spare Parts is a contemporary fable about the quest to live forever.

Two laboratory researchers, one seated and one standing, in a scientific lab with equipment.

The stakes are high for this husband and wife: one of them will die if they don’t find a cure.