Kegs Banned at H-Y Tailgate

Kegs and hard liquor will be banned at the Harvard-Yale tailgate this year, in keeping with restrictions in place two years ago when The Game was last played at Harvard Stadium.

The rules, released on Friday, remain relatively unchanged from 2008.

They grant House Committees organizing tailgates a parking space and allow them to use vehicles less than 16 feet long, while barring box trucks such as U-Hauls.

The tailgate will conclude at noon, as it did in 2008.

This year’s match on Nov. 20 is the 127th in a tradition that, to many, epitomizes the long-standing rivalry between Harvard and Yale.

The Game’s location alternates between Boston and New Haven, Conn., and regulations at Harvard differ from Yale’s more relaxed tailgate guidelines. At Yale last year, kegs and U-Hauls were permitted and the tailgate continued until the third quarter of the Game.

Last year, Yale Senior Associate Athletics Director Ryan G. Bamford attributed the dissimilarities in tailgate rules to fundamental differences between the Boston area and New Haven.

This year—in a change from the policy in 2008—students will be required to wear a bracelet indicating they are of age in order to drink alcohol at the event.

Two years ago the bracelets were “highly encouraged,” according to that year’s tailgate rules.

HoCo chairs said the 2010 guidelines did not take them by surprise.

“They’re pretty much the same as they were two years ago,” said Ryan K. Schell ’11, co-chair of the Pforzheimer HoCo. “It’s sort of restrictive, but we should be able to have a good time either way.”

HoCo chairs were able to review the guidelines before they were released, several chairs said.

Some HoCo chairs criticized the ban on kegs.

Sami Majadla ’11, one of the Currier HoCo co-chairs, said that it would “be a waste of money to buy beer balls or cases” of beer, and Eliot HoCo Co-Chair Bryan W. Dunmire ’11 said that the ban could have environmental repercussions.

“It’s hard that we’re not allowed to bring kegs, only because kegs take down the trash,” Dunmire said. “Now, there’s going to be a ton of trash everywhere, so that’s troublesome.”

The first Harvard-Yale tailgate that faced a ban on kegs was in 2002. Announcing the decision in 2000, then-Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 wrote in an e-mail that there were “a couple of incidents in which students could easily have died.”

Since then, restrictions have varied. In 2004, the administration centralized alcohol distribution and instituted ID checks after several alcohol-related hospitalizations, including a near-death, in 2002.

In 2006, following criticism by the Boston Police Department, students were prohibited from bringing alcohol into the tailgate. But in 2008, HoCos were permitted to serve beer and wine, though the tailgate had to end at noon.

Despite the restrictions, Adams HoCo Co-Chair Elyse M. Traverse ’12 said that due to the variety of social opportunities at the Game, she said she expected that people will have a good time.

“It’s going to be great regardless,” she said.

—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.