Harvard-Yale Gridiron Battle Has Appeal to Outsiders And Alumni Alike Who Jammed Soldiers Field Stadium

The traditional Harvard-Yale grid battle is annually debunked on every side. There isn't a player on either team who has the slightest claim to AH-America honors; neither squad has the faintest claim in high ranking among the football powers of the nation.

The weather is apt to be bad, and the price is often regarded as exorbitant. But despite all that, an overflow crowd flocked into the Stadium today. Most of the general public was seated somewhere behind the goalposts, but if there were more of these seats they would always be gobbled up quickly.

Victory over the Blue naturally means a lot to alumni and to students because of the tradition which has developed around the game, but to outsiders there must be another appeal.

Before they slap down at least $3.85 on the fine they must have some indication that they will get their money's worth in return. That same amount of money could easily take the average spectator to a better football game so why does he persist in getting in a big traffic jam on Larz Anderson bridge?

There is one thing that they know for a fact. Harvard and Yale always give their best 60 minutes of bruising football. No quarter is given or asked. Occasionally there are years when the records of both elevens stand up for themselves, but this year the game rides on just as proudly on tradition alone.

Sixty-four years ago, in 1875, fifteen good Harvard men and true and one substitute invaded New Haven and licked the handle-bar moustaches off the home team in the first Harvard-Yale football game in history. The gruelling contest lasted an hour and a half.

Men were men in those days, for the records show only the one injury, "Keys was kicked in the wind, and the game was sopped for a couple of minutes," a contemporary account states. The only other casualty occurred in the third half-hour when Thompson of Yale fell heavily on the pigskin, which gave the ghost and exploded. Taking a realistic view of the situation, the referee blow the ball up and tossed it up in the air.

Harvard Rules Different

That Harvard drubbed Yale to the tune of our goals and four touchdowns to nothing may be partially explained by the rules difficulties. Football as it was played at Cambridge and football as it was played at New Haven were as unlike as marbles and ping-pong. For years the Yales and the Harvards couldn't get together.