It's not just any old game; It's The Game

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Yale, the winningest team in collegiate football history, managed to overpower Harvard 24-21 in the 2000 Yale-Harvard Game.

According to Yale football Head Coach Jack Siedlecki, there are two goals in Yale football. First, win the league title. Second, beat Harvard. Often, the second seems much more important than the first. In November 1999, only the Cantabs stood between Yale and the Ivy League Championship. Before a capacity crowd at the Yale Bowl, the Bulldogs emerged victorious, thanks to a diving catch by Eric Johnson, JE '01, with just seconds remaining on the clock.

The Ivy title may not have been on the line in the 2000 installment of The Game, the 117th meeting between the two teams, but the importance of this match-up was in no way diminished. Before a crowd of 30,898 people at Harvard Stadium, the Elis and the Crimson battled back and forth. Runningback Rashad Bartholomew, MC '01, scored on a 28-yard sprint at the end of the first quarter, putting the Bulldogs on the board. Harvard responded with a touchdown of its own, but quarterback Peter Lee, TD '02, found Eric Johnson in the back of the endzone to put the Bulldogs back up. Johnson's 13th touchdown reception of the season broke the Yale single-season record. Unfortunately for the Elis, the Crimson responded with a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a field goal for a 17-14 halftime lead.

However, the Bulldogs were not discouraged. "The third quarter was the turning point," Siedlecki said. The Bulldogs regrouped and ended the game with 17 unanswered points, including another Johnson touchdown with 8:35 remaining. Two pivotal field goals followed from Mike Murawczyk, MC '01, including the 34-yard game-winner with 4:31 left on the clock. For the 24 Yale seniors on the squad, the 34-24 victory provided a sweet ending for careers that began with a 1-9 freshman season.

In its 117 years, The Game has always marked a moment in the season when all prior performance can be disregarded. Poised to win an undefeated Ivy League Championship in 1989, the Bulldogs were upset by Harvard 37-20. Ten years earlier, Yale entered the game undefeated and suffered an embarrassing loss to a dismal 2-6 Harvard team. Perhaps the most storied Yale-Harvard encounter was the 1968 game, which featured two undefeated teams. An Ivy League Championship was on the line. The Crimson fell behind 22-0 but staged a furious rally, tallying the last 16 points of the game to tie it at 29. The Monday edition of the Harvard Crimson read, "Harvard beats Yale 29-29." Sports Illustrated recently listed the game as one of the five most memorable college football games ever.

Yale and Harvard often save their surprise plays for the tradition-laden season- closer. During a Game in the late '70s, one of Yale's most prolific receivers, John Spagnola, TD '79, heard "Downtown Left" and was astounded. Coach Carm Cozza called a play that the squad had fooled around with during its practices. While Harvard's defenders looked on incredulously, Spagnola caught a lateral pass from quarterback Pat O'Brien, BK '79, and ran 77 yards for a touchdown. After the game, a 35-28 Yale victory, recently-elected New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, for whom Spagnola had worked during the summer, called Spagnola to tell him that the game was the most exciting contest he had ever seen.

The Game has special meaning for the players, fans, students, and alumni; memories of past Yale-Harvard encounters often linger in the minds of those who came to support the teams. Following the 1999 victory that clinched a share of the Ivy title for the Bulldogs, Jeff Hockenbrock, PC '00, commented, "The most telling part of our season and of The Game was the 52, 484 people in the Bowl, along with all the players and coaches, who believed that we were going to win. You could feel it. To look up from the field during the game and see all those fans rushing the field to celebrate with the team after the victory was even more special."

Back to Taking the Field...