DICK FRIEDMAN, a contributing editor at Harvard Magazine, is one of the foremost experts on the history of Crimson football. In 2023, he spearheaded the magazine’s naming of Harvard’s 150th anniversary all-time team.
Friedman graduated Harvard College cum laude in 1973 with a degree in U.S. history. A career-long journalist, he spent 18 years as an editor and writer at Sports Illustrated. Since 2014, he has written for Harvard Magazine primarily about Harvard football, as well as other sports- and non-sports-related topics.
Friedman is the author of The Coach Who Strangled the Bulldog: How Harvard’s Percy Haughton Beat Yale and Reinvented Football (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). He has been awarded the magazine’s Smith-Weld and McCord prizes for writing, and has received honorable mention in the Game Story category from the Football Writers Association of America. Friedman’s most talked-about article is his cover profile of coach Tim Murphy for the November-December 2015 issue of Harvard Magazine—unless it is his April Fool’s online spoof in 2024 in which he “broke the news” that the Ivy League and the Big Ten were merging.
1. What is your background as a journalist and sports reporter, and how did you get into the field?
I stumbled into the profession because I didn’t want to go to law school like my mother wanted me to. At Harvard, I had been a U.S. history concentrator. I did some freelance writing, then lucked into a job at Time Inc. Thus began a 40-plus-year career at various publications. In 1994, I joined Sports Illustrated, not a big stretch because I had grown up as a crazy Boston sports fan (is there another kind?). I stayed there till 2012 and edited coverage of, among other sports, pro and college basketball, baseball, and golf. I am probably the only golf staffer in SI history whose handicap went up!!
2. How did you come to write for Harvard Magazine, and what are a few of your favorite memories, events, and/or stories covered for the magazine?
After I left SI, I resumed my freelance career. One of the editors at Harvard Magazine, Craig Lambert, and I were acquaintances. So when John Bethell stepped down from football coverage, Craig asked me if I’d like to take over. I’ve been on the beat since 2014, and that season’s Game against Yale—a stirring 31-24 Harvard win that capped a 10-0 season in front of the ESPN Gameday crew—furnished my most exciting moment. My favorite article is my 2015 cover story on coach Tim Murphy, followed closely by working with a panel of experts in 2023 to choose the Sesquicentennial All-Crimson Team.
3. What interests you about Harvard football specifically?
Of course I am interested in the on-field play, and in my game accounts I have tried to write without fear or favor. If Harvard screws up, I say so. Likewise when the opponent plays well. But also I am fascinated by history. I saw my first Harvard game on Nov. 1, 1958 (Penn 19, Harvard 6), which means I have been watching for 67 years—less than half the time the Crimson have been playing (151 years). That respect for the past informs my (shameless plug alert!) 2018 book The Coach Who Strangled the Bulldog: How Percy Haughton Beat Yale and Reinvented Football, still available at the Coop and on Amazon.
4. What is the best part about your job?
The best part of my job has been getting to meet and talk with the coaches and the players. Coaches Murphy and Aurich have been accessible and forthright. As for their student-athletes, I still recall when I interviewed a star tight end who had a strong chance of being drafted by an NFL team. What happens, I asked him, if pro football doesn’t come through for you? “Well,” he said, “I’m a major in biosciences so if I can’t play in the NFL, I’m going to med school.” There have been many like him.
5. What should our readers watch in the next season of Harvard athletics?
The next football season—Harvard’s 152nd—will be interesting if maybe not as successful as the last three. Coach Aurich must replace two all-time great and key players, quarterback Jaden Craig and safety Ty Bartrum. It will be fascinating to see if he can reload. Harvard usually has.
