Tom Columns

"Harvard's football team moves into the gravy part of the schedule today against Pennsylvania. Although Harvard teams always have the capacity to lose to any given team on any given day, the prospect of an Ivy League title should keep the Crimson from blowing this game."

That statement appeared in the Crimson in 1972, just before Harvard was blown off the football field by an inspired Penn squad, 38-27.

It now seems a yearly occurrence that the Harvard-Pennsylvania battle dashes the Ivy title hopes of one of the teams involved. Last year it was the Quakers who fell from the ranks of the Ivy unbeatens in a spectacular encounter with the Crimson. Two years ago, Harvard was the victim.

The Crimson entered the 1972 clash with Penn at 2-0-1 in the Ivies, while the Quakers had already been beaten twice. With Harvard looking forward to the championship games sure to come later in the year, an unheralded sophomore named Adolph Bellizeare went wild, racking up 203 yards rushing and scoring two touchdowns.

Last year's edition of the Crimson-Quaker war once again featured what looked to be a championship team, as the powerful 3-0 Pennsylvanians took on a Crimson squad fighting to stay alive.

The score was 28-27 in Penn's favor when Harvard began its march to victory in the final three minutes of the contest. Crimson quaterback Jimmy Stoeckel calmly led his charges down the field in a tremendous desperation drive, including the successful conversion of what might have been a game-ending, fourth-down-and-13 situation.

The heart-stopping, first-down pass to Pat McInally was followed seconds later by a fantastic one-hand grab by the split end in the end zone, completing a 30-yard pass play and sending the Quakers to a crushing 34-30 defeat.

Amazingly enough, the cast for this year's spectacle has only a few new faces, as once again Bellizeare will be running up and down Soldiers' Field, Penn quarterback Marty Vaughn will be uncorking passes all over the place, and McInally will be giving Penn defenders fits for one last time.

It won't be a normal football game. But then, few of Harvard's ever are.

* * * * *

Once again, the spirits have made this week's winners known to me:

PRINCETON-BROWN--Two tough defenses match up in Providence, R.I. The Bruins are not as bad as their record may indicate and Princeton's 3-1-1 log belies the fact that it is no more than an average team. The key will be Brown's ability to contain the elusive Walt Snickenberger. Brown 19, Princeton 17.

CORNELL-COLUMBIA--It's not easy to keep losing each week. A last-ditch Columbia effort to blow an 18-point lead to Bucknell last Saturday fell short, and the Lions snapped their seemingly unstoppable losing streak. A new string will begin today. Cornell 31, Columbia 9.

DARTMOUTH-YALE--The Eli defense has yielded an average of 1.67 points per game to its Ivy League opponents so far. With the Big Green offense what it is, prospects of an Eli defeat today do not look to bright. Yale 21, Dartmouth 13.

PENN-HARVARD--Anyone who says that they know for sure what the outcome of this one will be is lying or is just plain dumb. Harvard 31, Penn 30.

CRIMSON-DAILY PENNSYLVANIAN--It's too bad they have to come all the way just for this humiliation. Crimson 23, D.P.2.

Last week, 3 for 4. On the year, 18 right, 7 wrong,.720.