1948 Saw First Crimson Victory Over Elis In Seven Years

Harvard is a staid school and football is a staid sport.

But 1948 was a year of changes for the Harvard football team and its fans.

The members of Class of 1949 saw a number of alterations on the field and innovations in the stands in their senior year.

On the gridiron sidelines, the Crimson welcomed a new coach, Arthur L. Valpey, who brought a new single-wing offense with him as he arrived from his old job at the University of Michigan.

On the players' bodies were stylish new black pants, and on their heads were new helmets that were black with crimson stripes "sweeping back from the front to give a Viking effect," according to a Crimson article on September 23, 1948.

In the stands, the Harvard men welcomed their dates into the Harvard cheering section for the first time.

But the change that mattered the most was that Harvard defeated Yale for the first time in seven years, including the two war years in which The Game was not played, with a score of 20-7.

"I think it was a high point that year," says Robert J. McGarry '49. "Yale had good teams at that time, too, so it was quite a victory."

A significant contribution to the victory came from the Crimson faithful.

"The two days before the Yale game, everybody was hyped up," remembers David S. McNamara '49.

A capacity crowd of more than 57,000 was on hand at Harvard Stadium on Nov. 20, 1948, to see the Crimson come back from a 7-6 deficit to win.

The crowd included three full sections of seniors, the biggest single class block since before the war.

The Crimson faithful saw Captain Kenneth P. O'Donnell '49 play the game with his fractured leg in a plaster cast and score the winning touchdown that day.

The festivities after the victory were tremendous, as the whole Harvard campus celebrated.

The Crimson declared: "Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and girl friends were kissed and hugged until their ribs started popping like fire-crackers. The air was filled with hoarse whoops of joy, with the scream of innumerable sirens, and with dozens of red flares.

"Guys that had never cheered for anything in their lives suddenly found themselves down on the field howling like madmen and charging everything that wore blue," it wrote.

After the game, the goalposts lasted all of 15 seconds before being "shredded into a thousand souvenirs."

The victory marked the culmination of a 4-4 season that was also highlighted by victories over Columbia, Holy Cross and Dartmouth.

In the Oct. 3 edition of The Crimson, the paper commented on the quality of the football team in contrast to teams past.

The Crimson wrote: "The 1948 edition of the varsity football team [is] the most interesting to watch in at least a decade. It is a new philosophy, based on the basic premise that an electrifying offense is the best defense."

The riotous revelry for the Yale victory was indicative of the importance the campus placed on football in 1948.

Harvard Stadium served as an unofficial "student center" on Saturday afternoons in the fall of 1948.

"The fan support was enthusiastic," says John R. Furrer '49. "The seats were packed and there was great football. The stands were full every weekend. It was a thing to do on a Saturday afternoon in the fall."

Even the women in the stands got into the game.

"There were a few Harvard games that I went to with my wife, and she had to bat somebody with a rolled-up program to get them to sit down so she could watch," says John W. Jacobsen '49, noting that he still follows and supports Harvard football today.

And the students were treated to good football when they ventured across the Charles River to get away from their studies. Even though the team dropped a home contest to Dartmouth that year, the 1948 squad seldom disappointed.

The Crimson boosters even followed the team to games at Cornell, Army and Princeton.

A Crimson article told of how focused on football the Harvard visitors were at West Point.

"A brown limousine nosed through the post-game crowd carrying General Omar Bradley. All Cadets sprang to the curb and snapped to attention; the Harvard partisans continued undisturbed down the road to the parking lots," The Crimson wrote.

The football team's importance to the campus was further augmented by coverage in The Crimson.

In The Crimson's registration issue on Sept. 23, 1948, the paper devoted seven of 20 pages to football coverage in an attempt to indoctrinate the incoming class with an appreciation for the gridiron game.

Thereafter, throughout the season, the Crimson ran daily updates on the team, including stories on what happened in practice the previous day.

The appreciation for the football team also extended to the Radcliffe women up Garden Street once the co-ed seating change in the Harvard cheering section went into effect.

The Crimson wrote on Sept. 23, 1948: "Previously, a student wishing to bring a girl friend to the game had to turn in his season cheering section ticket and buy a pair of ducats outside the all-male section. Thus, if he brought a woman to every football game in his four college years, he would never get a better seat than the 28-yard line."

Director of the Harvard Athletic Association William J. Bingham '16 decided in favor of the change in the fall of 1947 after a Student Council poll showed a majority of the student body in favor of allowing dates in the cheering section.

In the same edition, The Crimson reported that women were allowed to witness the football team's practice sessions for the first time in at least 12 years.

"Coaches' and players' wives, mothers, and sisters are always welcome," the article said. "On designated occasions girl friends are allowed to pass beyond the fence which surrounds the two gridirons on Soldiers Field."

For a class divided between older veterans and students too young to have been drafted; Radcliffe women and Harvard men; football was a unifying force, serving as the focal point of student life.

"It was a very popular sport," Jacobsen said. "I know that Harvard is well involved with many, many types of sports, but football was the thing. It was really something and we all loved it."