Yale Football

Patrick Witt, a senior at Yale, is facing the biggest decision of his life—one in which he cannot lose, but that will be incredibly difficult for him nonetheless.

Play quarterback for the Bulldogs against Harvard in The Game at Yale Bowl, or fly to Atlanta to interview for the Rhodes Scholarship.

An enviable position for any young man to be in, to be sure, but one with potentially monumental consequences for his life and his legacy. The Game and The Interview are on the same day (November 19th)—the former in New Haven, Connecticut, and the latter in Atlanta.

Last I checked, scientists still had yet to find a way to physically be in two places at once.

So what should Witt do?

Why He Should Play

The allure of athletic immortality is intoxicating, as it should be. The Bulldogs and the Crimson have been competing on the gridiron since 1875, with Yale owning the all-time lead in the series, 65-54-8.

The Game is arguably the most storied rivalry in all of college football—one that has served as the proving ground for some of the sport's most legendary names, including Walter Camp and Amos Alonzo Stagg from Yale.

Witt has the opportunity to join those giants in the hallowed history books up in New Haven. The former Nebraska Cornhusker is the school's all-time leader in passing attempts and completions, and is fourth in touchdown passes thrown.

A win over an as-yet-undefeated Harvard squad would surely be enough to place him somewhere alongside the greats in Yale football history.

What's more, the 128th edition of The Game would be the last contest of Witt's collegiate career in a sport that he has dedicated himself to so tirelessly since his childhood.

It's also a sport that he may well have an opportunity to play professionally.

Witt has been under the microscope of a number of NFL scouts, and has been projected by some as a sixth- or seventh-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.

Staying in Connecticut on November 19th, then, would help Witt to reaffirm his commitment to football in the eyes of player personnel people around the league.

If that doesn't work out, Witt can always fall back on an existing job offer with the Boston Consulting Group in Los Angeles.

Why He Should Interview

You want to talk about immortality?

Few distinctions carry more prestige, both in the annals of history and around the world, than the Rhodes Scholarship.

From J. William Fulbright and David Souter to Pat Haden and Bill Clinton, Rhodes Scholars are virtually guaranteed to go on to not only make good lives for themselves, but also impact the world around them in immeasurable ways.

The very fact that Patrick Witt is such a serious candidate for the award, after having survived a preliminary round of interviews back in September, speaks volumes of his accomplishments as a student and an athlete.

To not follow through with the next stage would be to leave behind the opportunity to reach even greater heights, both as a student and as a human being. Witt left Nebraska in part because he wasn't getting much of an opportunity to play, but mostly out of a desire for a more challenging and nurturing academic experience.

The Rhodes Scholarship is the very pinnacle of such a pursuit and would represent the greatest possible achievement of Witt's academic career—at least to this point.

Of course, Witt wouldn't be guaranteed a trip to Oxford University to continue his education just for showing up in Atlanta for the interview.

However, it's a chance that a young man of Witt's talent and drive must take.

What He Should Do

As difficult as it is to resist the temptation of gridiron glory, Witt should opt instead to hop a plane to Atlanta for his Rhodes Scholarship interview.

Though his being selected for the award is no guarantee, the same could easily be said for Yale's shot at victory against Harvard. The Bulldogs (4-4, 3-2 in the Ivy League) would likely be underdogs against the Crimson (7-0, 5-0 in the Ivy League), with or without Witt under center.

Meanwhile, an invitation to the next round of Rhodes Scholarship interviews indicates that Witt has an excellent chance to spend the next two to three years of his life cultivating his mind at the highest level of education possible.

As Witt's transfer from Nebraska to Yale indicates, that's been his goal all along and, as such, he should continue to pursue it.

As far as Witt's football career is concerned, success in the NFL would be anything but a given. As a projected sixth- or seventh-round pick, Witt could just as easily end up undrafted.

And supposing that Witt is able to latch on with a team somewhere through training camp, he'd still be up against the odds. After all, the average NFL career spans just 3.5 years, during which he would subject himself to varying degrees of physical harm while playing against the biggest, baddest football players on the planet.

Furthermore, choosing to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship hardly precludes Witt from pursuing a career in the NFL later on. Pat Haden, the former quarterback for the USC Trojans, spent five years with the Los Angeles Rams, albeit before he took off to study across the pond.

More recently, Myron Rolle, a former All-American safety at Florida State, opted for a Rhodes Scholarship right out of college, and later came back to football as a sixth-round pick in the 2010 NFl Draft.

Realistically, then, choosing education over football would hardly preclude Witt from playing professional football later on.

Either way, Witt can't go wrong. The challenge is choosing the path that will take him to where he wants to be in the end.

Best of luck, Patrick.

Recently, sports analysts had selected their opinions of the top quarterback schools—one was inclusive of reaching the NFL and the other strictly based on college “production.”

Sounds fairly simple. For sure, two of the top scoring schools, University of Southern California and Boise State, would be in there somewhere right? Well, somewhat!

Both selected USC, while neither chose Boise State in their list of great quarterback schools. How in the world can that be? Not even to the bottom of the lists.

Get real! Boise State has had a number of quality quarterbacks over the years, and those guys lit up the scoreboards. And as such, created a Boise Bronco fanbase that spreads across the nation.

In fact, due to an apparent study, Boise State ranked second in points scored over a ten-year period with an average of 40.5 points scored each game from 1999-2008.

This data is found on Broncos web page and concurred via scores tabulated from James Howell’s web site—scores by name, i.e., Boise State, Yale, etc. can be found at http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/byName.htm  

This data goes back to the latter 1800’s, the prominent Ivy League, which was the gateway to college football, as we know it today.

In fact, Boise State ranks second—not to USC, but to Yale, who seems to have a lock on first place as a result of Yale’s dynamic 1891 and '92 seasons, which were back to back shut outs.  All the while, the comprising scores were near 100 points a game.

While a tad shocked that the Broncos trail only the former supreme majesty of college football in points scored over 10 years, it is not shocking that the Broncos would lead all others including USC, Florida, Oklahoma, and yes-even Nebraska.

Truly, Boise State fans are not surprised that Bart Hendricks, Ryan Dinwiddie, Jared Zabransky, Taylor Tharp, and Kellen Moore are the reasons that BSU football has risen to that pinnacle.  These guys have placed huge numbers against many foe. And although shutouts, unlike Yale’s era, were and are out of their control, Bronco quarterbacks have always been gifted passers.

Dinwiddie ranks second in college football career passing efficiency, with 168.79, and is currently starting quarterback in the Canadian Football League.

Boise State quarterbacks continue to come from all over in hopes of starring on the famed “blue turf.” Some wait, hope, and never get their chance, due to the talents of Bronco QB’s.

Ok, if it’s based on making the NFL, than these quarterbacks are (at present) excluded.  But if it’s based on college production, these five quarterbacks lay down college stats all day long.

Well maybe it goes deeper than that, maybe it’s academic school production? If that’s the case Boise State football leads the WAC in APR scores with a 966 (information released May 6, 2009 from USA Today).

The Boise State Broncos have also been conference champs all but two years since they were allowed entry. The Broncos have also gone undefeated in three of the last five seasons and won the Fiesta Bowl 43-42, when the BCS invited them—thanks greatly to Jared Zabransky.

That looks like production, if not, that’s another story.

Talking about Tom



Not all the talk about race and college coaching is worth listening to, but Ed Daigneault gets it exactly right in this piece about Yale's new coach Tom Williams.

It's nice that he also points out that Columbia Coach Norries Wilson has brought the Lions back to respectability, which we may not be entirely clear in the won-lost record, but is entirely clear on the field of play, where Columbia outplayed at least half of its Ivy opponents in 2008.

Ivy fans know that while Yale may have the richest alumni and most storied football history in the conference, things can still go bad in a hurry in New Haven.

The Elis went from perennial contenders in the '60s, '70s, and '80s to chumps in the 1990s. Columbia beat Yale four years in a row from 1994-97, and not all of those teams were the Lions' best.

While Jack Siedlecki's tenure was not totally fantastic over the years, he seemed to be getting much, much better in his final three years.

Williams will be taking over a team that will be losing just about all its best players to graduation. That should actually help in his first two years, as knowledgeable fans will realize this and not set the bar too high.

From a Columbia standpoint, I would look at recruiting in the state of Connecticut as a possible measuring stick. With Coach Wilson's strong CT ties, the Lions have been grabbing more and more strong recruits from right under Yale's shadow. If that keeps happening, it may mean the Eli program is really in decline everywhere else as well.

George Seitz, RIP

I have recently been informed that three-year letter winner George Seitz '56 died last week. Sadly, I do not know much about his playing career, except to say he played on Lions teams that twice beat Harvard and took on Army at Yankee Stadium in 1953.

Anyone who has more personal or gridiron info on Mr. Seitz kindly comment below or email me.

Austin Knowlin's teammates looked past the bare stats


The football team held the actual, official awards dinner last night and the honorees were:

2008 Columbia Lions Varsity Football Awards

Phil Fusco Award: Gary Mesko (Sr., WR)

Maniatty-Remmer Unsung Hero Award: Chad Musgrove (Sr., Student Assistant)

John J. Cirigliano Ironman Award: Corey Cameron (Sr., LB)

Lou Little Coaches Most Improved Award: Corey Cameron (Sr., LB)

Ken Germann Freshman Award: Owen Fraser (Fr., DL)

Special Forces Award: Jon Rocholl (Sr., P/K)

Most Valuable Offense: M.A. Olawale (Jr., QB)

Most Valuable Defense: Alex Gross (So., LB)

Sid Luckman Most Valuable Player Award: Austin Knowlin (JR., WR) and Alex Gross (So., LB)

Campbell-Murff Captains Award: Mike Brune (Sr., OL), Drew Quinn (Sr., LB), Jordan Davis (Sr., RB)

Jack Armstrong Outstanding Offensive Lineman: Mike Brune (Sr.)


I was happy and interested to see Alex Gross singled out so many times, as well as Austin Knowlin. It appears Knowlin's teammates realized his diminished receiving stats were not his fault and he still impacted the team in a significant way game after game.

I was also happy to see three players being named official captains for 2008. I wonder if the same three guys named at the end of the season would have been named by the players after the spring game. Probably the answer is "yes," but I can't be sure.

I guess my biggest surprise was not seeing Lou Miller's name after any of the major awards. But he has been honored a lot by the Ivy League in recent weeks, so I can't think he feels slighted in any way.


Yale News?

We're right in the thick of the key recruiting season as a number of prospects get set to make their college decisions.

And that's why I expect to hear the news that Yale has chosen and hired a new head football coach well before the end of the year.

And yet, I still haven't heard any reports of plausible names or negotiations out of New Haven so far.

I do think it might be good for the league if Yale gets some kind of big name. Any added media attention would help right now, and since big names don't necessarily creat success on their own, there's no reason to believe Columbia would suffer on the field against the Elis because of it, (in fact there's just as much likelihood that going up against a big-named coach could make things easier for a time for Yale's opponents!).

Here's a question: When was the last time an Ivy team with a winning record had to look for a new coach for the following season?

The answer is kind of mixed. The last time an Ivy team with an overall winning record and a winning record in the Ivies had to switch coaches was 1997 when both Brown and Cornell, (Brown was 7-3 and 4-3 Ivy under Mark Whipple and Cornell was 6-4 and 4-3 Ivy under Jim Hofher), had to find new coaches. Things worked out really well for Brown under new coach Phil Estes in 1998, as the Bears went 7-3 and 5-2 for a second place Ivy finish. Cornell took a big step back in the first-year coach Pete Mangurian, who went 4-6 and just 1-6 in the Ivies.

Looking at Ivy records only, Cornell's Mangurian guided the Big Red to a 5-2 Ivy record in 2000, (5-5 overall), and left at the end of the season.

The point is, Yale is coming off a 6-4 overall/4-3 Ivy season and winning Ivy teams rarely have to replace their coaches. Just looking at record alone, you'd expect a lot of coaches to be knocking down the door to get a shot to lead the Elis. But a close look shows that Yale is dealing with the reality of serious graduation attrition for the coming year. Mike McLeod, Bobby Abare, and so many other big name stars on this team are donning caps and gowns in five months time. It would appear that 2009 will be a rebuilding year at Yale no matter what. Of course with those kinds of expectations, maybe that's the kind of atmosphere a new coach craves.

Here's another good trivia question: Columbia won its last two home games of 2008. When was the last time the Lions won three or more in a row at home?

The answer is 1996-97, when Columbia won its last two home games of 1996, (Cornell and Brown), and then won the '97 home opener against Towson. The only other time Columbia won three in a row at Wien Stadium was in 1994 when the Lions beat Lafayette, Princeton and Cornell.

Of course, these are just Wien Stadium records. The Lions had many long winning streaks at the old Baker Field stadium before getting their new digs in 1984.

Hello, I'm David Funk, and welcome to this edition of FSD History Flashback for November 13. Today's FSD History Flashback talks about the very first meeting between two schools that has transcended time as well as become one of the best rivalries in the history of sports. "The Game" was first played between Harvard and Yale on November 13, 1875.

The two teams played their first ever game in New Haven, Connecticut at Hamilton Park. Yale had promised Harvard $75 to play the game, and tickets were sold for 50 cents to watch the contest between the two clubs.

The rules for the game were adopted for rugby and soccer. Both Harvard and Yale played the game with 15 players instead of 11 for each on the field. Rules stated that a team scored a point if they successfully scored a touchdown and made the kick after.

Harvard won the game convincingly by scoring four goals (touchdowns) and four tries which gave them a 4-0 win.

Yale would have preferred to play with less to take advantage of their speed, but it was Harvard with their size as well as number of players on the field that helped them prevail.

In 1874, Harvard actually played a rugby-style game against McGill University in Montreal. Harvard was impressed with this style of play, and decided to adopt their rules for the game which was used in the first meeting of "The Game."

According to some sources, this was believed to be the first game in which players used their own uniforms for the first time. However, some list Harvard's first official collegiate game against Tufts University in June 1875 as the game when uniforms were first used.

After the game, seven Harvard students were arrested for what was called "hooting and singing in public streets". They were also fined $5.29 each which would have robbed them from getting a value meal at a fast food restaurant these days.

The very next year, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia organized the Intercollegiate Football Association. The rules were adopted from the Rugby Football Union which made the scoring change of a match being decided by the majority of touchdowns and not goals. The other big change then was going to an egg-shaped ball instead of a soccer ball.

The rules for the new organization constantly changed over the years, and was dissolved by 1894. By then, Yale graduate Walter Camp adopted rules for the American game of football that resemble more of what it's like today. The center to quarterback snap exchange and three downs to get a first down were a couple of the changes. The scoring was different with touchdowns being worth less points than field goals.

By 1905 after the deaths and crippling injuries that prompted then-U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt to get involved, the forerunner to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed. Since that time, this committee has established the rules for what is the American game of football.

Even though Harvard won the first meeting between the two schools, Yale would dominate the early history of this rivalry.

Yale would go unbeaten in the next 11 games(10-0-1 record) against Harvard. They didn't play each in 1877, 1885, and 1888. In 1885, Harvard banned the sport for the upcoming fall which caused the two not to play that year.

It was also in a game between the two in 1892 that the flying wedge was first used throughout a contest by Harvard although other variations had been used before. Yale still won 6-0.

After the 1894 game, the two schools had seven players carried off the field facing death. Because of this, the two schools didn't play for two seasons.

Since 1897, the two have played every year with the exception of two years off during World War I and World War II.

It was in 1898 that "The Game" reference was first known to be used. It was used when former Harvard captain A.F. Holden had sent a letter to coach Cam Forbes saying, "it also makes the Yale-Harvard game the game of the season."

Columnist Red Smith first capitalized the reference in the 1940s, and was first seen on game programs in 1960.

The most well-known matchup between the two took place at Harvard in 1968. After trailing 29-13 in the final 42 seconds of the game, Harvard tied Yale, who had a 16-game winning streak snapped on that day.

Yale quarterback Brian Dowling had not lost a football game since sixth grade, and the Harvard Crimson paper said, "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29" after the contest. One of Harvard's star players in that game was offensive tackle Tommy Lee Jones, who went on to become one of Hollywood's best actors.

Famous pranks have also made for interesting television. In the 2004 game, Yale students handed out postcards to adult Harvard fans and alleged that when they held them up they would spell out "GO HARVARD." Instead, the signs spelled out "WE SUCK." Harvard pounded Yale 35-3 in that game.

Some have not given credit where it's due as to the importance of this rivalry. Not only has it been played since 1875, their games proved instrumental in the development of American football.

Furthermore, Ivy League teams do not participate in post-season games, and The Game has always been the last contest of the year between the two schools (except in 1919). The vast majority of players do not play at the pro level which therefore makes The Game the final contest for seniors on both sides. So with those factors, it's not hard to understand the importance of this game and rivalry.

Yale leads the all-time series 65-51-8. Harvard has won five of the last six meetings. Harvard won last year's meeting 37-6 as both teams entered the contest undefeated.

The 125th meeting between these legendary schools takes place on November 22 in Cambridge, MA at Harvard Stadium.

Thank you to both Harvard and Yale for the impact they have left on the game of American football. The rivalry between these two schools is one of best in sports as well as one of the most influential ever, too.

Photo courtesy of www.the-game.org which shows the program of the first game in 1875.

Thanks for viewing, and I hope you enjoyed today's FSD History Flashback!

Should Jack go?

It must be nice to be just two seasons removed from an Ivy championship and just a year removed from a damn impressive 9-1 season...and still feel so strongly that your school deserves better in a head coach that you can publish an editorial calling for his ouster!

The editorial makes some good points, but the premise that Yale recruits the "best" athletes at just about every position is a little questionable.

The piece also ignores some relatively recent history. When Jack Siedlecki took over, Yale was at the bottom of the Ivy football ladder. The Elis had suffered through five straight non-winning seasons coming into Siedlecki's first season in 1997.

They had lost three straight to Columbia, five out of six to Princeton, and two straight heartbreakers to Harvard. Even Handsome Dan was having accidents on the clubhouse carpet.

Since then Yale has had some struggles, especially against Harvard (Siedlecki is 4-7 against the Crimson but once suffered through a very rough five-year losing streak to Harvard), but the team has won two titles and hasn't even come close to revisiting the Ivy cellar since Siedlecki's first season, when they went 0-7 in the league.

The biggest beef with Siedlecki in Eli-Land is the fact that Yale has blown a number of second-half leads in crucial games in recent years. As gut-wrenching as that can be, I know that every Columbia fan would take a few losses in return for a long string of winning seasons.

You also have to admire what Siedlecki has done by working to the strengths of the team to win. After years of using a rush-oriented attack with running QBs, he modified the team nicely when QB Jeff Mroz came on the scene and got him the receivers he needed to break some school passing records.

Then Siedlecki adjusted quickly again when Mike McLeod proved to be a super runner and restructured the team into a ball-control squad.

The kinks have come into the picture with injuries (McLeod is clearly not 100 percent and surely wasn't by the end of last season) and the increasing difficulty for every Ivy team to recruit good linemen. Not that it was ever easy, but getting big, fast offensive and defensive linemen is harder than ever before in the Ivies.

I'm not an apologist for Jack Siedlecki by any means. I too thought the 2006 loss at the Yale Bowl for Columbia was just ugly, with borderline unsportsmanlike conduct from Siedlecki and McLeod to go along with some very bad calls by the refs.

But I really don't think he should be fired right now. Forcing him to hire a new offensive coordinator seems like a better move.

Recent Bowl History

Columbia's history at the Bowl in the Siedlecki era has mostly been a tale of blowout losses. Jack is 5-0 against the Lions at home (9-2 overall), but two of those wins are a bit tainted.

The 2004 game ended with Columbia losing 21-14 after the refs didn't call what looked like a clear case of pass interference on tight end Wade Fletcher on an end zone pass from QB Jeff Otis.

The 2006 game has been hashed and rehashed on this blog many times. There was the very questionable pass interference call on JoJo Smith that set up Yale's first TD and took the momentum away from Columbia.

There was Craig Hormann's worst decision of an otherwise error-free season to throw a pass right at Bobby Abare that he returned for a TD when Columbia looked like it was on the way to taking the lead.

There was also Siedlecki's decision to call a timeout with the ball and a 14-3 lead with just seconds to go so the Elis could put up one more score.

It was just a rough, rough day for the Lions and their fans.

Some degree of revenge seemed within reach for the Lions last year as Columbia battled to a 0-0 halftime tie against the Elis at Wien Stadium before finally wilting in the third quarter.

But this Saturday can't be about revenge when most of the players on this squad weren't even around in 2006 to remember that game. The game should be about beating a quality opponent on the road, something Columbia almost did against Penn two weeks ago and has every chance of doing this time around.

Yale Bowl Viewing Tips

There a couple of things you should know if this is your first time going to the Yale Bowl.

1) By all means, sit on the Columbia side of the field and cheer the Lions on. But remember that will put the sun in your eyes by the second half and you will need sunglasses and a hat.

2) The bathrooms are actually outside the stadium, so bank yourself some time for potty trips.

3) The tailgating venue is the nicest and most expansive in the Ivies, with room to spread out and even get a pickup touch football game going. It's not too late to plan a little something for Saturday for you and your family and friends. (I will help you eat whatever you bring.)

The College Sporting News is out with its preseason football picks for the Ivy League.

Here's how it looks:

1. Harvard

2. Yale
3. Brown
4. Penn
5. Dartmouth
6. Cornell
7. Princeton
8. Columbia


Should I be worried that this prediction doesn't look all that bad to me?

 

I'll get to the Lions being picked last in a moment, but I too plan on picking Harvard, Yale, Brown and Penn as my top four when I release my detailed picks later this summer.

Unless something changes, Harvard looks like the team to beat with a great offensive line, experienced QB and overall strong defense.

Yale has a shot, because of star running back Mike McLeod, but the Elis have lost a lot of stars on the offensive and defensive lines.

Brown is everyone's favorite to surprise after last season's offensive explosion.

I am surprised by how low they placed Princeton and how high Dartmouth ended up, but you don’t know how hard these guys work on picking the Ivies after the first 2-3 teams.

As far as Columbia's last place prediction, well, you have to expect that after going 0-7 last year.

 

Any team starting a new QB is always a little suspect and Columbia will need to do that this season.

 

Of course, it's always nice to surprise people and the Lions certainly have the opportunity to do that in 2008.


Game of the Day

November 4, 1951

Columbia 21, Cornell 20


Yesterday, I highlighted Columbia's thrilling one-point upset win over Cornell in 1950. The Lions did it again a year later in Ithaca.

 

This time the final score was 21-20.

Once again, an extra point that wasn't the biggest role in Columbia's victory.

 

Big Red kicker, Bill Kirk, simply missed the PAT after Cornell had stormed back from a 21-7, fourth quarter deficit to make it 21-20.

But Columbia still needed an interception by Ben Mione a few minutes later to truly ice the game in front of 21,000 very cold fans at Schoelkopf Field.

Other of the other Lion stars were Wes Bomm, who broke Bill Swiacki's career receptions record with seven grabs on the day.

The Lions won despite being out gained 383-273 from scrimmage.

 

Columbia also lost two fumbles, but made up for it with three interceptions, including the game-clincher.

And the unsung heroes were the snow removal crews from “gorges” Ithaca.

 

The entire field and most of the stands were covered in heavy snow before the game, but the snow plows quickly made the field playable.

With all the negative hype surrounding college football this off-season—arrests, assaults, suspensions, expulsions, and so forth—there is finally one bright spot.

It involves a group of college coaches who will be making a visit to the American troops in the Middle East beginning on May 20 and ending on Memorial Day, May 26.

Five coaches—Mark Richt (UGA), Randy Simmons (Miami), Jack Siedlecki (Yale), Tommy Tuberville (Auburn), and Charlie Weis (Notre Dame)—will make that journey to show their appreciation for the great sacrifices that have been made so that we can continue to enjoy the sports we love, but, more importantly, so we can enjoy our freedom.

Those coaches will not only travel to various bases throughout the Mideast to show their loyalty and admiration, but they will coach flag-football games between teams of men and women who are stationed there, as well as hold question-and-answer sessions for the troops.

“The main thing is to honor our soldiers," Mark Richt said. "I just have a great appreciation for what they're doing for us. The very least I can do is help in any way."

This tour is being coordinated by Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE), an agency of the Department of Defense whose mission is to provide entertainment to U.S. soldiers stationed overseas.

Concerning this invitation offered by AFE, Richt said, “I don't know all of the details. All I know is that when they asked me, I said, ‘Yes.’ ”

Richt has several family ties with the military. His father-in-law served as a Green Beret, and his brother-in-law currently serves a colonel in the Air Force. Richt also has several uncles who have served in the military.

Shannon is also familiar with the importance with supporting the American troops, having a daughter who is currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

In addition, Weis was extremely pleased to be invited for this trip, stating “I am honored to be selected to a group of collegiate football coaches to visit our troops in the Middle East the week leading up to Memorial Day.” 

Weis went on to say “My family and I believe this to be a small way to thank and support our troops for defending our country. As a proud Notre Dame alumnus, I consider this trip to be a privilege and I'm looking forward to this with great anticipation.”

A similar tour, deemed “Operation Hardwood,” was conducted previously with some of college basketball’s elite coaches, including Tom Izzo from Michigan State. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue into the future.

I, for one, applaud this effort to uphold our troops for their courage and the sacrifices they are making.

What an awesome experience for the coaches to see first-hand the environment into which our troops are placed, and what an awesome experience for the troops to have the opportunity to “play” for some of the elite coaches of college football.

Keith Raffel, author of Dot Dead: A Silicon Valley mystery, takes us back to the days when Ivy league football was for real—and the classic Harvard/Yale showdown of 1968.

Name a team undefeated in the Rose Bowl. 

USC? 

Nope. 

Michigan.  Ohio State? 

Nope.  Nope. 

How about Harvard—which played once and thumped Oregon 7-6 on New Year’s Day, 1920?

Here’s the point: way back, when college programs weren’t merely farms teams for the NFL, Ivy League football counted.  Harvard and Yale have won 25 national championships between them.  The last gasp of terrific national-level football in the Ivy League was 1968, my freshman year at Harvard. 

The two teams were mirror images.  The Yale Bulldogs, nationally ranked in the AP poll, were an offensive juggernaut directed by quarterback Brian Dowling, who had led Yale to 16 straight wins.  (Dowling went on to cultural immortality as the model for B.D. in classmate Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip.) 

Calvin Hill, who might be better known today as the father of NBA star Grant Hill, starred at running back.  To give you an idea of how good Hill was—the year after graduation he won the NFL’s rookie of the year award over O.J. Simpson. 

Coming into the battle with Harvard, Yale was averaging 36 points a game, which, if memory serves, was tops in the country.

The Harvard Crimson had no big stars and was expected to finish last in the Ivies (Wait:  the team did have a future star in guard Tommy Lee Jones, but he won that Oscar for his exploits on the silver screen, not the gridiron.)  In Harvard’s first game against Holy Cross, the team scratched out a lucky 27-20 win. 

The team vastly improved—especially defensively—as the season rolled along.  If memory serves, Harvard had the first or second stingiest defense in the country, giving up only seven points a game coming into the showdown with Yale.

So on November 23, 1968 at Harvard Stadium, what did we have?  The country’s top offense against a top defense.  The irresistible force against the immovable object. 

Coming into what was known as “The Game,” both Harvard and Yale were undefeated for the first time since 1931.  Legend has it that in 1908, the Harvard coach strangled a bulldog with his bare hands to inspire his team.  (It’s not true.)  Yale Coach Tad Jones once told his players, without any irony, “Gentlemen, you are about to meet Harvard in a game of football. Never again in your lives will you do anything as important.” 

The stadium held 57,750 and tickets to the game were going for hundred of dollars.  (Not on StubHub, people.  This was a little before the days of the Internet!) 

One couldn’t really go to The Game without a date.  I’d only been on campus two months.  The women I attended classes with lived a mile away and were outnumbered by us guys 4-1.  I had no one to ask, but my friend Howie stepped in and fixed me up with a friend of his date. 

I don’t remember her name, but I do remember that she was blond, beautiful, and rich.  Where did we sit?  I remember that, too—we didn’t sit at all.  We were lowly freshmen and as such consigned to stand up on the rim of the stadium while the freezing November wind tried to send us into suspended animation. 

Things went from bad to worse.  First Dowling ran for a touchdown, then he threw to Hill for a second TD.  And then another Dowling scoring pass.  The second quarter wasn’t half over and Yale had scored 22 points, more than any other team had scored against Harvard in a full 60 minutes. 

And the icing on the cake—my discovery that my beautiful date was a first-class spoiled bitch. 

Harvard did score before halftime, and the mighty Yale team marched into the locker rooms ahead 22-6. 

Harvard received the opening kickoff in the second quarter.  Three downs and out.  But Yale fumbled the punt and Harvard managed to get the ball into the Yale end zone. 

22-13. 

Was there hope?  No. 

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Dowling marched his team down the field and ran into the end zone himself for his fourth touchdown. 

29-13.

Looking across the stadium, I saw hundreds if not thousands of white handkerchiefs waving as the poor-sport Yalies taunted us.  Dowling and his minions were unwilling to settle for a thumping.  They wanted a humiliation. 

Yale started marching down the field.  Again.  Some fans adjourned at this point for local bars—the Yalies for raucous celebration, the home team supporters to cry in their beer.

Only 14 yards away from a fifth touchdown, the Yale fullback fumbled.  So down by 16 with 3:34 remaining, Harvard had the ball. 

By this time, Harvard’s backup quarterback, Frank Champi, had taken over.  With a third and 18 on the Yale 38, he was sacked, but the ball dribbled out of his arms on the way down and a Harvard lineman—the immortal Fritz Reed—picked up the lonely spheroid and thundered to the Yale 15. 

Two more Champi passes and Harvard scored with 42 seconds left in the game.  The two point conversion failed. Okay. 

So now Harvard would lose, but would not be humiliated.  But wait—a flag. 

Yale was called for pass interference.  On the replay, Harvard fullback Gus Crim rumbled in for a score.

Everyone in the stadium knew that an onside kick was coming, but that did not stop Harvard from recovering it.  No one was leaving now.  The white hankies had disappeared. 

Champi marched the team down to the Yale eight yard line. 

Three seconds left. 

Hike.  Scramble. 

As he was hit, Champi threw off the wrong foot.  Vic Gatto, the first 2000 yard rusher in Harvard history, gathered it in.

No time left.  Yale led 29-27.  Champi, the backup, recalled, “I thought, ‘We’ve come this far.’  I was very confident.  It was inevitable.”

And so it proved.  After the field was cleared of fans, Champi hit burly tight end Pete Varney, later a major league catcher.  Game over. 

Harvard had scored 16 points in 42 seconds.  Brian Dowling failed to come off the field with a victory for the first time since sixth grade.

I don’t remember a whole lot after that.  And I don’t remember my date’s name.  But I think I learned more in that game than I did in my freshman year classes. 

What was the lesson?  Keep trying no matter what the odds.  Never give up.  Never.

Yale Coach Carmen Cozza later said, “That tie was the worst loss of my career.”  But it was the banner headline across the front page of the Crimson—the Harvard student newspaper—that best captured what we had witnessed:  “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.” 

Keith Raffel is the author of Dot Dead: A Silicon Valley Mystery
Website: www.keithraffel.com
Blog: www.keithraffel.typepad.com