Scientific Proof That 1 Is Greater Than 24

Originally published on CBS2.com

The California Institute of Technology is one of the finest academic institutions in the world. The school churns out genius faster than Roger Clemens churns out excuses. However, even after 117 years, the school is not exactly what you would call an athletic powerhouse.

Their mascot is the Beavers, perhaps due to the abundance of beavers native to the Pasadena area. For those of you who have never been to Pasadena, you're not alone. Neither has a beaver. But "Isotopes" was already taken as a mascot, and there are already enough Wildcats, Bulldogs, Cougars and Knights out there.

Caltech competes in the NCAA's Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) which, while a very small conference, is a very good conference. All of the schools are very small and very competitive and very local: Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Whittier, Thousand Oaks, Claremont, LaVerne, Pomona and Redlands. It could be called the 210/134 Freeway Conference, with all eight schools separated by about 60 miles along a straight line formed by the two freeways.

Of the eight, Caltech is certainly the least prestigious athletically and most prestigious academically (which really is impressive because there are some fine institutions in there). In the last few years, Caltech has made a constituted effort to improve its athletics by improving its athletic facilities. They are never going to be a recruiting juggernaut because they are never going to accept a student who can't get in based on his or her grades.

Their (relatively) new pool is a fantastic facility, though still dwarfed by such mega-pools as the Rose Bowl and Pasadena City College. They have a beautiful new all-weather track with no stands since no spectators really ever come to any games/meets. They have two gyms, neither much bigger than a high school gym. They have a rock-climbing wall, open gym hours for badminton and ping-pong, and they are most famous among locals for pickup ultimate Frisbee games. Their website features articles with headlines such as, "Women's Tennis Celebrate a Match 'Well Played.'" The program highlight photos at the top of the home page feature a men's basketball player holding up a sign reading, "Who says mathletes aren't athletes?"

Caltech is in the news as often as USC is, but where USC in on there for wins and celebrity athletes, Caltech is there because of world-renowned scientific research into earthquakes and space exploration (partnering with NASA's nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

As it turns out, they are also working on some world-class research into how long a person can bang one's head into a wall without falling down. Last night, their men's basketball team finished its season 1-24, losing its 273rd consecutive conference game. Time to pull the plug on the program?

Of course not.

So they lost five league games by 40 or more points. They also took two league opponents to overtime. So they finished with 20 consecutive losses. Last year they beat an NCAA opponent for the first time since 1996, and they did it again this year. So they averaged more points allowed than fans in attendence. The scientific method (try and try again) doesn't require an audience.

That one win is what these kids will talk about in 20 years, not what came before or after. It doesn't take a genius to know that it is not how many times you fall down, it is that you keep getting up that matters.

Go Beavers!