Early Victories Give Crimson 16-10 Margin in Army Series

Harvard football teams always manage to look pretty good in the record books by virtue of a fantastic number of wins they managed to slip over in the 1880's and 1890's, before anyone else caught on to the science of the game.

The Army series is no exception to this rule, since Harvard still holds a 16 to 10 record over the Cadets. It is only fair to point out, however, that 13 of the wins were rung up between 1895 and 1910. Not only did Harvard take every one of the games played in that period; but it limited the Black Knights of 6 points while amassing 144 in the process themselves.

The series was called off for almost twenty years after a tragic incident marred the 1910 encounter. The Army coach refused to remove his left tackle, Eugene Byrne, from the game, despite that fact he was so obviously exhausted that Harvard's Percy Haughton sent a request to the opposing bench asking that he be taken out. "We'll leave him in there until he drops," was the replay. On the very next play, according to the story, Byrne was removed from the field, dead.

Army Cancels Season

This event caused Army to cancel the rest of their season, and for the next 18 years Harvard did not appear on the schedule. By the time the two teams played again in 1928, a change had come over West Point athletics. The change was due largely to General MacArthur's theory that wars are own on "the fields of friendly rivalry."

Wars weren't the only things that the system succeeded in winning. Since the resumption of the rivalry, the Crimson has come out on the short end of a 10 to 3 record, with two games ending in a tie.

Barry Wood, the Crimson all-American quarterback, led his team to victory in Harvard's first game at Michie Stadium, giving the teams an even split in games there.