Saturday's Sideshows

In keeping with the burlesque tenor of Saturday's college football contest at Harvard Stadium, the star of the game was a 70-year-old man.

Something wasn't exactly serious about this ballgame--you could tell very early on. Right around the time when Dean Rosovsky--William and Mary '48--mounted a podium to conduct the Harvard Band's version of "Veritas," football began to yield to the rapidly accumulating absurdity.

And just as the crowd of about 10,000 was getting a chance to unfurl their Harvard Hankies--the Crimson's answer to Pittsburgh's Terrible Towel--the William and Mary defense started doing its impression of the old Chrysler Corporation. First, Crimson quarterback Brian Buckley directed a 12-play, 60-yd. scoring drive late in the first quarter, highlighted by the ejection of a W and M defensive lineman for asking the referee to perform an impossible act.

Seven minutes later, Harvard got going again. On first-and-ten at the Indian 29, Buckley went back to pass and saw his tight end, Bill McGlone, alone in what looked like a medium-sized golf green. Buckley's pass interrupted McGlone's solitude, and he strolled in for the second Harvard score.

Pleased though the Harvard fans were, their reaction to the touchdowns couldn't compare with their enthusiasm for public address announcer Charlie Dale's (age 70) updates of the Yale score.

Dale, the only man ever to wield the Stadium p.a. since its installation in 1931, began with a 7-0 Cornell lead late in the Harvard first quarter. The fans roared; so did a few players. When Dale's count reached 21-0 in favor of the Big Red at halftime, Crimson partisans smelled blood--and a possible Ivy League championship. Yale's loss means that if Harvard defeats Penn next week and the Elis the next, the Crimson will share the Ivy title. Worth yelling about.

Sensing their renewed title hopes and leading 21-0 at halftime, the gridders appeared to lose interest in the matters at hand--and so did the crowd. Its collective attention moved to the Harvard cheerleaders, who were flinging themselves about in a display of "pep" almost unprecedented in these mellow parts. The entire Harvard side of the Stadium rose to watch the cheerleaders flip, flop, and otherwise abuse, a member of the Harvard Band. Good thing, too, because on the field, Buckley had thrown his fourth (and second-to-last) interception, and the Harvard gridders were sleepwalking.

The madness didn't end with the final gun. The William and Mary players returned to Dillon Field House to find their lockers ransacked. "A tragedy," said Joe Restic. But he called the Yale loss, "Beautiful. Wonderful. Great." Charlie Dale had done his job.