When Two Losing Teams Meet

Last year, the Harvard football team came into The Game at New Haven with a chance to win, or at least to share, its third Ivy title in four years. But Yale stole the show--and gave the league title to Penn--with a 17-6 victory.

In 1974, The Game also decided the Ivy title. Yale came in undefeated in the Ivy League, 6-0, looking to post a rare perfect Ivy slate. Harvard was 5-1 in the Ivies coming into The Game, needing a win to tie for the title. When the dust cleared, Harvard had emerged victorious, 21-16, and in partial possession of league honors.

1968 saw, of course, The Game of Games. Both the Crimson and Elis came into the contest undefeated in the league--Yale, in fact, sporting an unblemished 8-0 mark. But a miraculous 15-point comeback by Harvard late in the fourth quarter brought the final score to a tie, 29-29. The Ivy title was shared by unbeaten squads that year.

The list of Games which had an impact on the Ivy title is almost as long as the list of Games.

The Game. The Ivy championship. The two phrases have nearly always gone hand-in-hand.

This year, however, is different. This year, there will be no titles won or lost on the Stadium field.

This year, there will not be the added drama of an Ivy title at stake. This year, the players on the two teams will enter with inglorious records--Harvard sporting a 2-7 record and Yale not much better at 3-6.

This year, they will be playing for pride.

"You can call it pride, you can call it anything you want," Harvard fullback Brian O'Neil says. "The Yale game is always something big. This year it will mean a little bit more." Yale he says, "is the one team we haven't beaten since I've been here."

Harvard hasn't beaten many teams this year. Its two wins have come against Columbia--a squad soon destined to break the all-time NCAA Division I losing streak record--and Dartmouth, a team whose coach was fired during the off-season only to be reinstated by court order. It has not been the best of seasons for the Crimson gridders.

Nor has Yale impressed many of its opponents. In addition to the Lions and the Big Green, the Bulldogs have only managed to edge Princeton--a mediocre squad at best--last week at home by a single point.

A win "would give us a little positive incentive for next year," says Crimson sophomore QB Tom Yohe. "It wouldn't make the whole season. Still, it's a very important game for us."

"I definitely think a win would salvage the season," Harvard Captain Scott Collins says.

Amazingly, this is the first year since 1958 that both squads come into The Game with losing records. The first time in 28 years. No player on the field today was alive the last time this happened.

In the entire post-war period, there have only been three Games between teams with losing records. Three, in more than 40 years.

After all, the Yale program, with 734 victories, is the winningest program in the history of college football. Harvard, with 670 all-time wins, is not far behind. The two coaches, Harvard's Joe Restic and Yale's Carm Cozza, are the deans of Ivy League coaching. Together, they have 218 wins at their schools.

Two winning programs. Two winning coaches. Two of the most respected colleges in the country. Two losing records.

It almost never happens. But this year is different. This year, they will be playing for pride.

"You play the whole season, game by game, and then it all comes down to Harvard--it's not just the last game," says Tom Giella, the captain of the Yale gridders in 1983. "It is mostly on pride. That's the big thing--especially now."

Giella captained a Bulldog team which limped home to a 1-9 mark. Now working as a corporate bond trader in a New York brokerage house, Giella saw his team's chances to salvage the 1983 season ruined when the Crimson downed the Elis, 16-7, in The 100th Game.

Harvard vs. Yale. A game, a rivalry, an institution. The oldest rivarly in college football, 103 showdowns and counting. One of the longest rivalries in the history of sports.

"There are really two seasons," Harvard reserve quarterback David Landau says. "The first is the Ivy championship and the second is the Yale game. This is our championship. This is how we can go out with something."

"Even if nothing else works out, you've still got the Yale game," Captain Collins says. "It's a season in itself. It's the only game with widespread attention. For the alums, you've had a winning season if you This is how we can go out with something."

"Even if nothing else works out, you've stillgot the Yale game," Captain Collins says. "It's aseason in itself. It's the only game withwidespread attention. For the alums, [who onlycame to The Game], you've had a winning season ifyou beat Yale and a losing season if you lost."

Yale Sucks/Screw Harvard

The rivalry is unique in sports. Why? Becausethe teams don't hate each other. The two schoolsdon't really hate each other, either.

Underneath the hype and rivalry is a sharedrespect. Root against the Yalies during the dayand then drink with them at night. That's theessence of this rivalry.

"Between Harvard and Yale--the institutions andthe football programs are so much alike," Collinssays. "There's a cameraderie after the game isover. You're playing against them in the day andthen they sleep in your room at night. Because ofthat, you gotta win."

In normal years, The Game is also important forits impact on the teams' final records. When yournew-found Yale drinking buddy brags that his teamwon The Game, you can at least say, "Well, Harvardhad a better record overall."

Not this year. With a pair of teams far under.500, teams which haven't seen the break-evenpoint since the second weekend of the season,there is no room for bragging about comparativerecords. This year is different....

The Game is also the last collegiate game forthe many seniors on the squads today, probably thelast organized football game of any sort thatthese men will play in.

It's not only a matter of pride; it's also amatter of posterity.

"We don't play the game [just] to 'beat Yale,'"Landau says. "We want to win it for Harvard andfor the seniors. Especially given the season now,it would be very nice to go out with a win."

"I remember sitting on the bench in thelockerroom before The Game," Giella says, "andputting my helmet on my head and saying to myself'this is my last game ever.'"

Some things won't be different this year.Thousands of current Harvard and Yale studentsstill will stagger to the Stadium from theirpre-Game parties. The numerous alumni still willflood the Stadium parking lot with tailgates andreminiscences. The old players will gather torenew friendships, to renew friendly rivalries.

"I will never miss the Yale game for as long asI live," Giella says, "unless I'm out of thecountry or in prison or something."

And yet, something will be slightly off today.It won't be two, highlytuned, precisely-executingfootball squads battling on the Stadium grass.

It won't be two winning football squadscompeting for the Ivy title. It won't even be twowinning football squads competing.

This year will be different....

"We weren't mentally up for The Game the lasttwo years," Landau says. "It wasn't a matter ofwhether we would win, but by how much. This year,it's a different story....We've got a heck of alot to show ourselves what we can do."

This year, they will be playing for pride.

The Post-War Lean YearsYear  Harvard record  Yale record  TheGame Result1958  3-5  2-6  Harvard, 28-01951  3-5  2-5-1  Tie, 21-211949  1-7  3-4  Yale, 29-6

(records are entering The Game