With a restful duck pond at the main entrance and an arboretum of 1,400 labeled trees and shrubs dwarfing the few ball fields on its campus, Haverford College looks nothing like an athletic powerhouse.
Founded by Quakers in 1833 and located in the Philadelphia suburbs, Haverford, with a student body of only about 1,200, competes in the N.C.A.A.’s Division III, where athletic scholarships are prohibited. And the academically elite Haverford does not offer a major in physical education or sports management, perhaps among the nation’s trendiest fields of study.
Yet in June, when Haverford pitcher Tommy Bergjans was chosen in the eighth round of Major League Baseball’s draft, the selection was made by a Haverford graduate, Josh Byrnes, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ senior vice president for baseball operations.