We begin this week with a tip of the scally cap in tribute for the 140th edition of “The Game,” the annual late November rock ‘em sock ‘em bitter skirmish between the Crimson of Harvard, and Bulldogs of Yale, with the “Sons of Carmen Cozza,” holding a 70-61-8 series advantage.
But the Charles River footballers have closed the gap capturing 19 of the last 28 encounters which has slowed slightly as Yale University has won the last two of these hoedowns.
The Harvard-Yale classic clash is the third most played rivalry behind only Princeton-Yale, and Lafayette-Lehigh, and the list of luminary alumni from these two Ivy Institutions includes a dozen former Presidents of the United States.
In that vein, we highlight one particular Commander-in Chief, the old Rough Rider himself, Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th POTUS, who as a Harvard first-year student attended the second game ever played between these rivals in 1876.
The reason for shining the spotlight on Roosevelt is that he is often credited with saving the game of college football, and throughout his life highlighted the sport as a metaphor for the “Trust Buster’s” bodacious appetite for living every day to its fullest.
“In life, as in football, the principle to follow is hit the line hard,” this big game hunter often bellowed.
In the game’s infancy, it more closely resembled the sport of rugby, and because it was devoid of rules as to player safety it devolved into a killing field.
When the 1904 season concluded, the death toll had claimed 19-players, with an additional 137-serious injuries, leading Stanford, Cal, USC, and Duke to drop football altogether, while the newspaper editorials across America screamed for the abolishment of the sport.
The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune boldly captured the carnage with its shocking editorial cartoon that depicted the Grim Reaper on a goal post surveying a twisting mass of fallen players plucking them away with his scythe. YIKES!
In 1905 Roosevelt, using his “Big Stick” swung into action and summoned the premier powers of the day: Princeton, Harvard, and Yale, to a meeting in the White House and urged them to set an example for fair play with the goal of saving the sport from extinction.
The result of that meeting would eventually lead to rule changes that are in use in today’s modern game, namely increasing the distance for a first down to 10-yards, establishing a neutral zone between both lines, and the following year the introduction of the forward pass.
Roosevelt’s summit proved to be a watershed moment and the foundation of today’s game in which quarterbacks, thanks to NIL monies, are now driving Lamborghini’s and making an astonishing eye-popping average of $3 million a year, while coaches are signing 10-year$100 million contracts with additional benefits that would be the envy of King Tut.
Only in America!
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, was sitting in his White House office sipping whiskey and puffing on a large cigar when that inaugural game kicked off in 1875.
And 140 years later this Ancient Eight classic continues to carry the feel and buzz of a big game while still captivating the interest of the sporting nation.
On Saturday, let us see which teams carry the “big stick” of a victory, and in doing so give the undergraduates a year’s worth of bragging rights, but for the seniors, most of whom will never again strap on a helmet, it’s a memory that lives on for a lifetime.
Now to the analysis of “The Game.”
The Game
No. 17 Harvard vs Yale
(ESPNU, Noon)
If this were the bright lights of Broadway instead of historic Harvard Stadium, coach Andrew Aurich, the Veritas Boys first new headman in more than three decades, would be the runaway front runner for a Tony Award.
His smashing debut in his first ever head coaching job rivals the success that propelled Grace Kelly to stardom in her breakout performance in the film classic “High Noon.”
Aurich, who humbly says that he is just a small cog in the football operation often deferring credit to his staff, has his Crimson sporting an 8-1 (5-1 in league) record, which includes a seven-game winning streak, and a victory over the Footballers from New Haven will give Harvard its first outright Ivy League title since 2014.
Aurich is also the first league coach to capture at least a share of the title in his first season as coach since 1919, when Robert T. Foster’s squad finished 9-0-1 as Harvard went on to win the 1920 Rose Bowl and with its victory over Oregon, won the then national title. WOW!
[In a historical note: 1919 was also the same year as the Boston Police strike which propelled the Commonwealth’s Governor Calvin Coolidge into national prominence, eventually leading him to the Oval Office as the 30th POTUS, and in another Boston nugget, it was the same year as the “Great Molasses Flood” in the North End which took the lives of 21 people.]
But as sporting fans are aware, with a hat tip to Johnny Cash, in a rivalry that is hotter than a pepper sprout, seasonal records can simply be tossed into the River Charles.
The biggest question for the “Sons of Ryan Fitzpatrick” is the health of its stellar sharpshooter, QB Jaden (20 TDs – 2 INTs) Craig, whose has the ability to hit his target with the precision of a Pedro Martinez fastball, but after last week’s injury he will need the clearance from the staff’s medical personnel before he is allowed to play, and as of now that is seemingly quite unlikely.
Fortunately, the nation’s twenty-second (33) highest scoring squad, can plug in former starting QB Charles DePrima, and unlike his field general teammate, the senior backup does more of his damage on the run.
But nonetheless, DePrima is quite capable of extending Harvard’s winning streak, and with a victory the “Sons of Tim Murphy” will capture its long sought after Holy Grail of an outright Ivy League Title.
Aurich refers to his quarterbacking tandem as; “the two best quarterbacks in the Ivy League.”
The offense of the “Sons of Frank Champi” attacks with more weapons than the Russian Army, led by a trio of high cotton receivers; the impeccable Cooper (17-yds a catch – 9 TDs) Barkate, who has six consecutive games with at least 90-yards receiving, Scott Woods, and tight end Seamus Gilmartin, the principles of the nation’s sixteenth ranked passing attack.
And when the “Sons of Clifton Dawson” take to tilling the earth, tailbacks Xaviah Bascon, and the welcome return of captain Shane McLaughlin, are bone rattling steamrollers that makes life for opposing defenses as difficult as trying to decipher a soliloquy by Professor Irwin Corey. (For the young’ins out there, go to YouTube and look up his routine.)
On D, the “Sons of Isaiah Kacyvenski” the nation’s 18th stingiest eleven (20th), whom Aurich praises for the way all eleven players work in tandem in following their assignments on every play, are led by its missile seeking safety Ty Bartrum, with assists from backer Mitchell Gonser, and corner Austin-Jake Guillory, and have been harder to penetrate than the protection detail around Donald Trump and his Mar-a-Largo compound.
[Note: if the game should come down to a field goal, Harvard will be using freshman backup Dylan Fingersh, who made his first and only seasonal try last week, the game winner against Penn.] Wow!
The footballers from New Haven are arriving in Cambridge laser focused on a single agenda, to spoil the Charles River’s Eleven celebratory party.
Aurich also noted that these “Sons of Brian Dowling” are improving week by the week, and that the Elis employ a havoc inducing defense that creates more turnovers than a South End bakery.
He also added that the Bulldogs have a ton of talent on both sides of the ball, and that this game will be the biggest challenge for his Crimson squad.
The “Sons of Amos Alonzo Stagg,” led by its sharpshooting senior QB Grant (20 TDs, 3 Ints., 68%) Jordan is the pilot of the Wallenda flying Bulldogs, the nation’s eighteenth (33 Pts) highest scoring squad, assisted by a trio of receivers; David (8 TDs, 14-yards per catch) Pantelis, Mason Shipp, and Joey Felton.
And when the “Sons of Calvin Hill” take to churning the earth, they grind behind a quartet of tailbacks featuring Josh Pitsenberger, and Tre Peterson, for an offense that has the ability cause a serious case of agita for opposing d-coordinators.
Yale’s early season numbers tell the tale of Yale’s sieve-like D which currently ranks 77th overall, allowing 28-points a game but in the last quarter of its season, the “Sons of Gary Fencik,” featuring corner Abu Kamara, who averages an eye-popping 8-tackles a game, backer Inumidum Ayo-Durojaiye, and lineman Tomatoa McDonough, who is a one-man wrecking crew with 7 TFLs and 5.5 sacks, have overcome those early season fissures, and have tightened dramatically.
Before the start of this Harvard carpet ride we did a feature on the 41-year-old Aurich who said, “Harvard is the standard of the Ivy League, its name is known the world over, it checks all the boxes, and we are going to win a lot of games.”
Mission accomplished.
But there remains one more box to check.
And if this 2024 edition of the Crimson knocks off the Bulldogs its standing alone at the top of the Ivy League for the first time in a decade.
With apologies to Tommy James and the Shondells, we think it will be a “Crimson and Clover” afternoon celebration in the Ancient Eight Stadium, as the “Sons of John Harvard” strike up band blasting out “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard want victory today….”
A smashing debut indeed!