The Harvard-Yale Game, Through the Ages

1875: Harvard starts out right by whooping Yale’s ass with 4 goals and 4 touchdowns to Yale’s zip in this half-rugby, half-soccer game, one of the first intercollegiate football matches.

1890: Harvard captures the first of its seven national championships, 12-6.

1894: Rugby brutality continues as seven players were reported to be carried out in “dying conditions,” according to newspapers and had to be suspended for two years. Also, first Yale game with William H. Lewis, Harvard’s first black captain and first football scoreboard, invented by Bostonian Arthur Iwin.

1908: Rumor has it that Harvard coach Percy Haughton strangled a bulldog in locker room to motivate players. Harvard did win, 4-0.

1909: “Battle of the Giants” in which 9-0 Yale beats 8-0 Harvard for national championship.

1930: W. Barry Wood ’32 throws a pair of touchdowns and plays the entire last minute for a 13-0 win.

1954: Harvard wins its 500th game by crushing Yale at the Stadium, 13-9.

1957: Most epic Harvard slaughtering by Yale ever: 54-0.

1961: Harvard 27-0 win allows it to earn its first share of the Ivy football title.

1968: In “the best game,” Harvard (equipped with Tommy Lee Jones ’69) pulls through in the last 42 seconds to score 16 points, for the infamous 29-29 “win” ending a Yale 16-game winning streak and achieving the perfect 8-0-1 season.

1974: Milton Holt ’75 makes a 95 yard touchdown in final five minutes to win 21-16.

1975: Harvard finally wins its first Ivy championship, thanks to Michael J. Lynch ’77 who kicked a 26 yard field goal in the final seconds to pull off a 10-7 win.

1982: MIT students exploded a black weather balloon, spraying talcum powder over the field (Harvard still won, 45-7).

1983: The 100th official anniversary of the Game sees a Crimson win, 16-7.

1997: Epic year for Harvard football in which two dozen records are broken, reflected in a 17-7 win over Yale.

2004: Yale pranksters give unsuspecting Harvard students signs that said “WE SUCK.” Harvard still won 35-3, concluding its seventh unbeaten, untied season.

2005: In the first triple-overtime game in Ivy League history the Crimson pulls out a 30-24 win and defeats Yale for the fifth straight year.

2006: Two MIT streakers disrupted the game; one made it the length of the field before being dragged off, the other made it ten steps out of the stands.