Harvard–Yale football rivalry

Harvard–Yale football rivalry
Harvard Crimson Yale Bulldogs
First game played November 13, 1875
Played annually since 1897
(Not played 1917-1918 due to WWI; 1943-44 due to World War II)
Games played 133 (through 2016)
Series record Yale leads, 66–59–8
Largest margin of victory Yale 54, Harvard 0
(November 23, 1957)
Highest scoring game Yale 33, Harvard 31
(November 20, 1993)
Lowest scoring game Yale 0, Harvard 0
(last time: November 21, 1925)
Most recent game Yale 21, Harvard 14
(November 19, 2016)
Next game November 18, 2017
Current win streak Yale, 1

The Harvard–Yale football rivalry is renewed annually with The Game, an American college football contest between the Harvard Crimson football team of Harvard University and the Yale Bulldogs football team of Yale University. Both programs conclude the season with the contest in November. Yale leads the series 66–59–8. Geographic proximity, the history of Yale's founding, and social competition between the respective student bodies and alumni contingents animate the rivalry.

The first contest occurred November 13, 1875 at Hamilton Park in New Haven.

Half-time festivities at The Game, Yale Bowl.

Significance

The football rivalry is the second oldest continuing collegiate football rivalry and third on the all-time played list in American sports. The football rivalry is younger than the Princeton-Yale football rivalry, inaugurated in 1873, and has been contested less frequently than that rivalry, at 139 meetings, and the Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry, at 152 meetings.

In 2003, Sports Illustrated magazine ("On Campus" edition) rated the Harvard–Yale rivalry as the sixth-best in college athletics.

Notable contests

Flying Wedge

The game played on November 19, 1882 introduced the flying wedge. Harvard unveiled the formation at the beginning of the second half. Yale withstood the tactic and won, 6-0.[1]

Ancient Greek stadium in Allston

The game played on November 21, 1903 was the first hosted at Harvard Stadium. Yale won, 16 - 0.

Alleged Cruelty to Animals

The game played on November 21, 1908 marked the end of a six-game winning streak for Yale. Harvard won, 4-0, at Yale Field in Orange, CT; however, more remarkable is the myth that Percy Haughton, Harvard's first professional coach and future member of the College Football Hall of Fame, strangled to death a live bulldog during the pregame pep talk.

Contemporary research yields that at worse the first year Harvard coach strangled a papier mache bulldog and tied another to the back fender of his automobile.[2]

Let's Bowl

The game played on November 21, 1914 was the first hosted at the Yale Bowl and the inaugural event at the facility. Recent POTUS William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt were said to be among the spectators, a throng estimated at more than 70,000 but less than 74,000.[3]

Harvard won, 36 - 0.

HYperbole

The game was played on, according to Grantland Rice, "a gridiron of seventeen lakes, five quagmires and a water hazard,"[4] November 24, 1923 in Boston. Yale won, 13-0.

Yale head coach T.A. Dwight Jones, future member of the College Football Hall of Fame, advised before kickoff, "Gentlemen, you are about to play Harvard. You will never do anything else so important for the rest of your lives."[5] Future Yale football head coach Ducky Pond returned a fumble 67 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.[6]

Charles Yeager?

The game played November 22, 1952 was won by Yale, 41-14, in Boston. The box score noted Charley Yeager scored the 40th and 41st points on a pass, a two-point conversion; however, this Yeager was Yale's head football manager, wearing a pristine jersey numbered 99 as he scored, rather than the noted flying ace and Brigadier general.

Future U.S. Senator scores touchdown

The game, Yale won, 21-7, on a snowy day, played on November 19, 1955 had two names familiar to many of a particular age. Ted Kennedy caught a pass for a touchdown in the third quarter for Harvard. Bing Crosby, but not that Bing Crosby, kicked the extra point.[7]

Postponed

The game played November 30, 1963 was postponed from November 23, 1963 in mourning for assassinated POTUS John F. Kennedy, Harvard College, Class of 1940 and Yale University honorand and guest speaker, 1962 commencement.[8] It is the only postponed contest in the football rivalry.

Harvard Beats Yale, 29–29

The game played November 23, 1968 was highlighted by the Crimson scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds to tie a highly touted Bulldog squad. Yale had a 16-game winning streak. Both teams were 8–0 coming into the contest. For the first time since 1909 both adversaries were undefeated and untied for the contest. Yale was ranked 16th in a national college football poll.[9]

The outcome inspired The Harvard Crimson to print the logically incorrect headline "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29".[10] This headline was later used as the title for a 2008 documentary about this Game directed by Kevin Rafferty.[11]

100 and counting

The game played on November 19, 1983 marked the 100th time the programs met on the gridiron. Harvard won, 16-7, in New Haven.

Murphy's law and order campaign

The game played November 19, 1994, Harvard coach Tim Murphy's first year managing the program, was won by Yale, 32-14, in Boston. Including that loss, Murphy's record is an astounding 17-6 versus Yale, including a nine-game win streak. That streak ended November 19, 2016. Yale won, 21-14, in Boston.

Noteworthy Pranks

Dog food

Prior to The Game in 1933, Handsome Dan II, Yale's bulldog mascot, was kidnapped (allegedly by members of the Harvard Lampoon); then, the morning after a 19–6 upset by Harvard over Yale, after hamburger was smeared on the feet of the statue of John Harvard that sits in front of University Hall in Harvard Yard, an image was captured of Handsome Dan licking John Harvard's feet. The photo ran on the front page of papers throughout the country.[12]

IQ Test

The 2004 Harvard-Yale prank was the flying wedge of prank card stunts. Yale students, costumed as the Harvard pep squad, handed out placards to some 1,800 Harvard partisans. When raised on cue, the cards displayed WE SUCK to applause from Yale students, alumni and fans. Harvard won the game, 35-0.

MIT "Hacks"

Perhaps the most famous exploit was carried out at Harvard Stadium during the second quarter in 1982, when a Harvard score was immediately followed by a huge black weather balloon, previously installed under the 45-yard line by students from MIT as the letters painted on its side proclaimed, slowly inflating until it exploded, spraying talcum powder over the field (Harvard won, 45–7).

For the 2006 Game, MIT students secretly replaced the "VE-RI-TAS" insignia on the Harvard Stadium scoreboard with an that read "HU-GE-EGO".

In 2006, two streakers with MIT painted on their bodies attempted to run around the field during the game. One made it the length of the field before being caught and dragged off the field; the other was tackled by security about ten steps out of the stands.[13]

Tailgate

The Game has also become known for the large, joint Harvard-Yale tailgate parties. The parties continue througout the afternoon in the fields next to the host stadium every year. The tailgate party was televised by ESPN in 2004. The tailgate(s) entertain thousands. The Boston Police Department has cracked down on underage drinking at the student tailgates, as well as moving further away from the stadium the festivities and reducing the space available.[14]

Little Red Flag

The Little Red Flag is a Harvard pennant that, since 1884, has been waved by Harvard's "most loyal fan" after each score by Harvard during The Game. The tradition began with Frederick Plummer, class of 1888, who attended the Harvard-Yale game 59 times between 1884 and his death in 1948. In 1950, when the flag appeared among the various unassigned items in Plummer's estate, William Bentinck-Smith (class of '37), then editor of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, suggested awarding the honor of carrying the flag on game day to the Harvard man in attendance who had seen the largest number of Yale games - and, for the 1951 game, it was awarded to Spencer Borden (class of 1894). To this day the flag has been handed off to a deserving fan.

See also

References

  1. ↑ THE GAME: The Yale Harvard Football Rivalry, 1875 - 1983, pgs. 48 - 49, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, Bergin, Thomas, 1984
  2. ↑ "Did a Harvard coach strangle a bulldog to motivate his team to beat Yale?, LA Times, November 2, 2011
  3. ↑ THE GAME: YALE BOWL FACTS and FIGURES, New Haven Register, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, Sports Staff by line
  4. ↑ New York Herald Tribune November 25, 1923, III, 1
  5. ↑ Washington Post, November 18, 1983, HARVARD VS YALE: 100 YEARS, by line John Ed Bradley.
  6. ↑ Bergin, pg. 316, Appendix 1. Summary Of The Hundred Games
  7. ↑ Bergin, pg. 327, APPENDIX 1. SUMMARY OF THE HUNDRED GAMES.
  8. ↑ "Yale University Commencement Speech," New York Times, June 11, 1962, p. 20
  9. ↑ HARVARD BEATS YALE 29 - 29, Edited by Kevin Rafferty, The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., 2009
  10. ↑ "Harvard Beats Yale"
  11. ↑ Documentary
  12. ↑ "First Eli Bulldog Barked at Opponents In 1890; Second Licked Harvard's Feet, Harvard Crimson, Nov 25, 1950"
  13. ↑ "MIT 'Hacks' at Harvard-Yale Games"
  14. ↑ Yale Daily News - Tailgate relocated to 175 N. Harvard St

Bibliography

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