Yale-Harvard: heated rivalry, 18th-century style

By Jason DeViva

It's November, it's cold, and the leaves on the trees have taken on beautiful, rich colors. To most, this time of year means Thanksgiving and the painful process of easing into winter. But in two New England towns, a different atmosphere pervades. There is a feeling of competition, rivalry, and tradition. It is time for The Game.

You might as well learn now that Ivy League athletics aren't quite what you see on ESPN. The level of play doesn't compare with what you can find at big state universities. But there are some games that are a cut above the norm, some games which are elevated to sacredness. At Yale, where post-season play is prohibited in football, this occurs only once--The Game.

At the annual Yale-Harvard football game, the last game of the season for both squads, you will encounter rivalry in its starkest manifestation. The enthusiasm for such a modest level of collegiate athletics will shock you. But what is more shocking is that you will very quickly find yourself just as wrapped up in it as everyone else.

In late November, Blue fever sweeps the campus and spreads into the homes of alums, who show up in droves sporting their class hats. Attendance at regular Yale football games can't compare: while a usual crowd numbers 10,000, The Game regularly draws 40,000 to 50,000, with a record of 76,000.

Strange things tend to happen at The Game. The records of the two teams tend not to matter. In fact, the whole season up to that point suddenly ceases to matter; on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, there is only The Game. Unlike other moderately dreary bits of Ivy League football, The Game is a huge orgasm that suddenly makes the mediocre sex of the normal season fade from memory.

It has always been this way and probably always will. Yale and Harvard first met on the gridiron in 1875. In 1881, the Harvard Advocate ran the following account of that year's Game: "It is felt by nearly all Harvard men that Yale plays more violently than is necessary or in good taste.... There can be no excuse for the use of teeth in football." Wimps. One past Yale coach made the significance of the match-up quite clear to his team when he told them, "Gentlemen, this is the Yale-Harvard game. This is the most important day of your lives."

What will The Game be like for you, an unsure but enthusiastic member of the Class of 2000? Well, for starters, for your first Game you will have to travel to stinky Cambridge (and yes, you will go--no excuses accepted), where the game is played in a goofy horseshoe-shaped stadium that is open at one end (only, I presume, to give the Cantabs a chance to escape if they start getting really humiliated on the field).

Then, in 1997, The Game will be in the beautiful (and hopefully refurbished) Yale Bowl, which was built in 1914 and is the model for all of the oval stadiums you have ever seen a football game in (including the Rose Bowl). You won't have to cope with the socially inferior atmosphere that is Harvard, and the brutally one-sided Yale win will make the weekend even more satisfying. Another advantage we have over those Cantabs is that after The Game, we get to go home to a week of vacation while they have to stay at school for three more days. Suckers. Some of them may even have to miss the action because they have papers due Monday. Sorry, kids.

Even after you graduate, you will take time off from conquering the world, go to The Game, and watch Yale destroy that school from the Boston area.

The series has see-sawed remarkably over the past few decades; no team had won more than two consecutive Games since 1976-78, when Yale took three in a row. No team has won more than three since 1942-47, when the Elis won four in a row. Yale has been victorious in four of the last six contests, despite a heartbreaking last second 22-21 loss in last year's Game. You will have the chance to see Yale turn things around.

In case you're wondering, Yale owns the series so far. With 112 Games played, Yale leads the series, 61-43-8. If win-loss figures aren't enough, look at the point total: Yale 2,392, Harvard 1,191. That's intimidation. That's domination. So, take heart Yalies--we're great and they're not. We will be victorious, and they will cry a lot and probably call home. The past two Presidents have been Yalies. We have a neat residential college system. Hell, we invented football.

So go to The Game. It is a unique Yale experience. Fan or not, you will enjoy it.

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