It has come to my attention that not only is it possible for Caltech to win a basketball game, but that MIT has made the Division III playoffs of the NCAA. And beaten their first round opponent, Ithaca College (a subset of Cornell, I presume). I am almost certain this phenomenon occurred because the intrepid roundballers were expert in calculating the precise trajectory that a basketball departing the hand at a certain speed and at a certain vector angle would travel when acted upon by the forces of gravity, and how to plot that angle of decay so that the spheroid would pass precisely between the metal rim of a hoop without touching either side, given the circumference of a basketball is known and allowing for a certain amount of wind resistance. Either that or they just knew how to throw down on those wusses from New York.
Since 1983, MIT has been busily expanding its athletic facilities, and students from our day and age (1978) would not recognize the place. For us, athletic facilities consisted of at least one gymnasium, the Rockwell Cage, which had a dirt floor that Steve Tyler of Aerosmith once puked on, so I am told. It was a great place to play flag football and intramural lacrosse. There was a basketball court on top of Walker Memorial, too, and while it didn't have the panache of the Boston Garden, it certainly had the parquet floor - loose floorboards and all. Walker also had some tennis courts, on whose surfaced played some of the greats of macroeconomics. And there was a tennis bubble on the West Side of Campus that collapsed in the Great Blizzard of '78.
There is also the Steinbrenner track, which annually hosts the alumni reunions.
As I explained earlier, Steinbrenner's name is not on that building. And so far, MIT has been fortunate not to be gifted by Donald Trump.
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