Rubbing John Harvard Foot - Cambridge, MA - Urban Legends and Superstitions on Waymarking.com

The Harvard sports teams may go by the nickname "Crimson" but the mascot of Harvard University was an historical figure, the college benefactor John Harvard, the Pilgrim.

The famous statue of John Harvard is located in front of University Hall, on the campus of Harvard University. The bronze sculpture was created by Daniel Chester French, was given to the college by Samuel James Bridge, and dedicated on October 15, 1884. It now sits in front of University Hall in historic Harvard Yard.

The statue is famous for several reasons. Traditionally, it is supposed to bring you luck if you rub John Harvard's left shoe. However before you rub his shoe you should be aware of that Harvard students have another use for the monument. It's the site of one of the "three traditional deeds" that undergraduates try to complete before graduation. It involves urinating on John Harvard. The others are the primal scream (the naked run on the night before final exams begin) and having sex in the Widener Library stacks.

The statue is also known as the "statue of three lies". Every line of the inscription on the granite base is false.

1. The sculpture does not depict John Harvard. There is no known image of John Harvard. So, when Daniel Chester French needed a model for the statue. Sherman Hoar, class of 1882, believed to be the most handsome student at Harvard, was selected.

2. John Harvard was not the founder of Harvard. He was its earliest benefactor. John Harvard was a clergyman who bequeathing £780 as well as his 400 library of books to the New College. The college then renamed Harvard College in his honor.

3. Harvard College was not founded in 1638 but in 1636. Sixteen thirty-eight was the year John Harvard died.