Harvard Crimson fencing Cross '09 (Team USA; she won a silver medal in team foil) and Noam Mills '12 (Team Israel; épée), who both competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Cross and Mills were the first Harvard University female fencers to qualify for the Olympics. Harvard Crimson fencing The Harvard Crimson fencing team is the intercollegiate fencing team for Harvard University located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team competes in the Ivy League within the NCAA Division I. The university first fielded a team in 1888. The team is currently coached by Peter Brand. Harvard founded the first collegiate fencing team in the United
Harvard University by the 19th century, Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. A. Lawrence Lowell, who followed Eliot, further reformed the undergraduate curriculum and undertook aggressive expansion of Harvard's land holdings and physical plant. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war.