Today's Tidbit... Opponents Versus Visitors

Words matter, and our choice of words to describe others goes a long way to communicating what we think of them. For example, consider the minor controversy after Harvard Stadium's opening. The stadium scoreboards were more advanced than most. One sat atop the stands at the closed end of the stadium, and the other stood behind the goal posts at the stadium's open end.

Harvard Stadium (RPPC, Personal collection)

Like all good scoreboards, Harvard's showed the number of points earned by Harvard and the number made by the opponent.

The scoreboards originally referred to the visiting team as Opponents rather than Visitors or Guests.

Most people would not give a second thought to Harvard using the word "opponent" to describe the visiting team. Still, the term led to a kerfuffle or, at least, a suggestion from Barrett Wendell, Class of 1877, and an English professor, to choose a different label. Wendell believed Harvard did not invite opponents into its stadium; Harvard invited visitors.