A Word from the Ladies

Some of Columbia biggest football fans live here!


Let's face it, this site is a little too male-dominated. We know there are lots of female Lions fans out there and we want to hear from them more often!

Luckily, I did get one great email yesterday from an alumna who fondly remembers my long-running interview subject, Roger Dennis.


She writes:


"I am in the middle of preparing some remarks for my Barnard College 40th reunion, and one of the comments has to do with a freshman year incident involving Roger Dennis.

Just for fun, (and not having thought of Roger Dennis in eons), I googled Roger and came across your Roar Lions Roar feature on him. I decided to just email you and let you know that from my very limited perspective, Roger Dennis was an incredibly nice guy. Here's my response to a question regarding humorous incidents at school (sorry it's a little sketchy, but I haven't thought about this for 44 years!):

It happened within the first few days I was on campus. One evening I went with a group of girls to check on the coffee place on the Columbia campus (not surprisingly, I can’t remember the name – was it the Crypt?). While there, a few older boys came along and started chatting with us on the steps (I think it was closed).

One in particular, caught my interest and he and I talked for a while. The next day I met a guy at a mixer who was in the Columbia Band and he invited me to come with him on the band bus for the first football game of the season up at Baker Field. I had been in the high school band and had spent many an hour practicing marching formations and music. I had a pretty good idea how bands were supposed to operate at sporting events, but I was pretty surprised to learn that the band had not practiced even once before this game. I wondered how that would translate into the half-time show. I can still remember how surprised I was to find out that the Columbia band just ran from one hilarious formation to another – no marching required – and that the commentary sounded like a comedy routine, and a pretty raunchy comedy routine at that. I seem to remember a condom formation, but maybe that was another game involving Yale???

At any rate, the halftime was hilarious. The biggest surprise of the day, however, was finding out who the star football player was for Columbia – none other than Roger Dennis, who had been so nice to me on the steps of the coffee place. I had no idea that he was a star player! A few days later I went out for the first time with Jay, a Columbia Junior, who would be my boyfriend for the next two and half years. Jay, who never missed a football game, was shocked the first time we encountered Roger, who said hello to me, while walking on Broadway! (“That was Roger Dennis, the Roger Dennis… how do you know him?”)

I enjoyed Columbia football all four years I was at Barnard and often took my students to games at Baker Field in the 70's after I started teaching in Washington Heights.

Best regards and looking forward to the next installment,

Linda Greene (Linda Krakower, Barnard College, 1969)


I long for a time when our football players will be recognizeable on campus to just about everyone again.

Perhaps, perhaps.