A Gridiron Hero: Charlie Brickley' 15

Mike Giardi is looking straight at a legend.

The senior quarterback has now scored 23 touchdowns in his storied career, which puts him dead even with a hero from Crimson past.

Charlie Brickley, '15, is just that hero. The fullback also crossed the goal line 23 times, even though he was hampered by an appendicitis during his senior year. His other accomplishments are so numerous that one does not know where to begin.

Was it that 1914 season which exemplified Brickley's greatness? The captain of the Crimson eleven, Brickley was kept off the gridiron early in the season by an inflamed appendix. Nevertheless, he returned for The Game and booted the final extra point of the 36-0 defeat of the Elis, extending Harvard's unbeaten streak to 26 games to close his career. Or was it proved during the Yale showdown the year before? Harvard had never won at the Yale Bowl and had never beaten the Elis twice in a row.

Since the Crimson won in 1912, it had the chance to exorcise both demons. Brickley completed the task almost singlehandedly.

The fullback shoved his way through the Yale line and kicked five field goals that accounted for all of the Crimson's scoring in the 15-5 victory.

Just as Charlie Brickley overcame the ghosts of the past, so will Mike Giardi. With one more surge into the Cornell end zone this Saturday, he will be alone at the top of the record books and entrenched in the lore of Harvard.

"It's a great honor. It shows the kind of history the football program here has," Giardi said. "But it's something that I don't want to think about too much. We're going for the title, not for a record."

A long time from now, when the year 1993 seems like a dim memory to some and like a fantasy to others, Giardi will be talked of as if he were a mythical figure, a sentinel of the Stadium. And then a golden-legged whipper snapper will rise up and challenge Giardi's mammoth accomplishments. Then the cycle will begin again.