Unforgettable: The Game of 1997

It was not just pride at stake that afternoon. For Harvard, it was a shot at perfection

After dominating Penn the week before, the Harvard football team charged into the last game of the season against Yale as Ivy League Champions.

Harvard (9-1, 7-0 Ivy) steamrolled through the Ancient Eight on the way to its first league title since 1987, setting up a showdown with the Elis (1-9, 0-7) that was as hotly contested as any in the 114-year old rivalry.

Whether Yale would ruin the Crimson's only unblemished Ivy campaign in its 123-year history was the only thing to be determined at the Yale Bowl in the last game of the 1997 season.

Murphy's First

The Crimson's position atop the Ivy was the unlikeliest of situations, considering Harvard's inability to post a winning record since its championship 1987 season. Despite beating Yale in the previous two iterations of The Game, the Crimson was painfully aware of its traditional troubles against Ivy opponents going into the season.

"Those seniors were getting kicked around for a few years," senior fullback Grady Smalling said. "They were a close team, but couldn't get the wins."

Smalling is a member of the last class able to bear witness to Harvard's domination during the '97 campaign. He and other seniors recall a tough team intent on shedding its loser label and bringing a championship to Cambridge.

"They were a mean team," said captain Mike Clare. "Those seniors taught us a lot about pride and how to set goals and try to go out and systematically make them happen."

Those seniors were Harvard Coach Tim Murphy's first recruiting class to spend its entire career in his program. Murphy, coming from the University of Cincinnati in 1994, posted a disappointing 10-20 record in his first three years in Cambridge.

But this was Murphy's team--the first completely constructed during his watch.

"Coach had to go into [1997] wanting a title badly," Clare said. "These were his recruits, he had his guys in there making plays."

It was also Murphy's player who would captain the squad.

Although captain Brendan Bibro went down in the fifth game of the year against Holy Cross, he dressed for the rest of the games to lead the team by example.

While Murphy's seniors were the leaders of the team, no one could question the talent of the sophomores on the squad. Superstar running back Chris Menick '00 enjoyed a record-setting year at tailback, setting Harvard marks for yards in a season (1,267) and touchdowns (14). His efforts were rewarded with a selection to the All-Ivy First Team.

The grinding rushing offense of the Crimson was complemented by a lethal passing game. Then-sophomore quarterback Rich Linden '00 led Harvard all season, coming just short of Harvard's single-season passing record.

An airtight offensive line, anchored by current Minnesota Vikings center Matt Birk '00, protected the Crimson's skill players.

The defense, led most of the year by Bibro, got a strong boost from super sophomore linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski '00. Kacyvenski's dominance against the run earned him First Team All-Ivy honors that year and, more recently, a spot on the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

The March to New Haven

Murphy had put all the pieces in place for a legitimate run at the title, and the team began to click from the get-go.

The season began auspiciously with Harvard's biggest win in a decade, a 45-7 decimation of Columbia.

"We came out expecting to win that year," said senior defensive tackle R.D. Kern. "It was awesome to start with such a big win against Columbia."

The tough Harvard defense held the Lions to a paltry 46 yards on the ground and set a precedent for the rest of the year. The Crimson went into its November 22 match-up at the Yale Bowl having allowed less than 14 points per game on average.

Harvard's offense, getting over the loss of star tailback Eion Hu '97 to graduation, led the team to a 35-30 victory over Lehigh and a 34-9 dismantling of Ivy contender Cornell in Weeks Two and Four, respectively.

Week Three would bring the Crimson's only loss of the season, a 24-20 defeat at the hands of Bucknell across the river.

After righting its course at Cornell, the Crimson faced non-conference foe Holy Cross. Menick rumbled for 261 yards, leading the offense to a school-record 623 yards on the day.

After getting by Princeton in the fourth quarter for a 14-12 win, the Crimson traveled to New Hampshire to take on a Dartmouth team that was unbeaten in Ivy play.

"Everyone thought Dartmouth was the best team ever," Kern said. "We were out to show that we could play."

And play they did. Harvard embarrassed the defending Ivy League champions, 24-0, snapping the Big Green's 14-game Ivy winning streak that had spanned two seasons.

Dartmouth's rush could not make it into the black, registering -3 yards on the day. To confound Dartmouth's woes, the Crimson defense made five interceptions. More important than statistics, however, the win meant that only unbeaten Penn maintained a share of the Ivy lead with the Crimson.

Undefeated Harvard started to look toward a championship and a place in history.

"You could say that [we're a team of destiny]," sophomore kicker Mike Giampolo '00 said three years ago. "Someone was on our side up there."

Destiny must have been behind the Crimson's 27-point second half comeback against Brown the next week, as Harvard secured its fifth Ivy League victory on the year.

Harvard was now set to clinch the championship against the Quakers in its penultimate game of the year. Unrattled by the title within reach, the Crimson continued its domination, mauling unsuspecting Penn, 33-0, and securing its first Ivy League title since the Reagan administration.

"The '97 team took things personally out there," Clare said. "Our guys were a mean, physical team who didn't let themselves get pushed around by anyone."

Ebullient celebration quickly gave way to reality, as the Crimson realized that it had one more game to play. In some respects, it was the most important game of the year.

Even though the awful Elis were winless in the Ivy, Harvard approached its hated rivals with a historically appropriate measure of caution.

"It's still Yale, and you know they're going to try to play spoilers," Kern said.

The Game

Futility is a familiar theme in New Haven, and the Elis' best efforts were not rewarded.

Harvard roared out to an early lead, as Menick ran for a touchdown two minutes into the game. On the drive, Menick surpassed Hu for the single-season rushing record and plunged into the end zone for his 14th touchdown, breaking the record set by Mike Giardi '94.

Menick's game-opening performance built up Crimson confidence early in the match.

"It was huge for Menick to break the record against Yale," said Smalling. "We thought we had the game after the first two minutes."

Yale proved peskier than that, however, holding Harvard's explosive offense to one more touchdown and a field goal for the rest of the contest.

While Yale's defense showed up to play that day, its offense could not get on track against the Crimson secondary.

Yale sophomore quarterback Joe Walland had driven Yale into the Crimson red zone twice before Yale's lone strike came in the fourth quarter.

On the Bulldogs' first trip beyond the 20-yard line, the Harvard defense halted the Yale march at the 5-yard line. With only a yard to the first down, the Crimson stuffed the deflated Elis on second and third downs.

The Yale field goal attempt on fourth down did not travel any farther than the line of scrimmage, as a Harvard defender got a hand on the pigskin.

In Yale's second approach to the end zone, the Crimson secondary stifled Walland and the Bulldog receiving corps.

While Walland would complete a 16-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 17-7, The Game belonged to the Crimson.

With 54 seconds left, Linden knelt twice and delivered Harvard its first perfect Ivy season ever. Before 1997, the 1919 National Champion team won the Rose Bowl and went 9-0-1, perfect save for a 10-10 tie against Princeton.

The victorious portion of the 26,064 in attendance at the Yale Bowl cheered, some mocked the losers, and some charged the field, swarming the unbeaten Crimson.

"It was crazy out there," said Smalling. "All I remember is Ted Kennedy congratulating me."

With neither team in contention for this year's Ivy League title, the 117th playing of The Game still offers 14 seniors the chance to erase the memories of two consecutive Yale victories and begin a new tradition of victory.