The following article is reprinted from the current issue of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.

A short series of consecutive defeats is the most effective way of erasing from the minds of the average graduate and of the general public memories of past athletic victories.

The two college sports which today arouse the greatest interest are undoubtedly football and rowing, and as during the last five years Harvard has won no football games and only one race at New London, there seems to have arisen a feeling that Harvard has for a long time more or less filled the role of athletic doormat for Yale teams in all forms of sport.

The writer has compiled the following short account of Harvard-Yale athletic rivalry in all the sports in which they have met during the 20 years, beginning with the year 1908.

The results in the so-called five "major sports" are accurate, but the minor sports are not vouched for, owing to the fact that no complete records thereof could be obtained in the time available. It is believed, however, that they are substantially correct.

Although the track "H" is awarded to point-winners in the Harvard-Yale cross country meet and to relay race winners, these two sports have been included with the minor sports in summarizing the results.

In a probably vain attempt to render less uninteresting an article which is primarily statistical, a few matters of interest are mentioned, including the names of the several coaches with the years in which they were in control.

A twenty-year period seemed long enough to afford a fair comparison of the more recent dual athletic successes of the two universities, but as a matter of record the total losses and victories for all time in the several major sports have also been given.

A little over 20 years ago, P. D. Haughton '99, came to Cambridge to coach the 1908 football team, of which Francis H. Burr '09, was captain. Haughton had been coaching successfully at Cornell.

If recent graduates are gloomy about the last five years of Harvard football, they may be able to form some idea of the mental atmosphere existing after the 1907 game. At that time Yale had won six straight games, in none of which had Harvard scored a single point. Harvard had in fact won but four games in the previous 28 years of play, although there had been three tie games.

The writer has never seen in print the true story of how Haughton came baok to coach, and even now it should be of interest to many. The man who was the originator of the idea is G. R. Fearing Jr. '93. During the winter of 1907-1908 he spoke of it to several men among others the writer, and said that he wished it could be brought about that Haughton and Burr could meet. The writer arranged a dinner in Boston at which were present Heman M. Burr '77, father of "Hooks" Burr H. C. Leeds '77, Fearing. Haughton, Burr, Bartol Parker '08, captain of the 1907 team, the writer, and possibly one or two others Haughton and Burr met in this way, and the result is known to all.

Of the 18 games played since that time. Harvard has won nine. Yale six. and three have been tied.

Haughton coached through 1916, and coupled with his genius as a coach he was blessed with exceptional material. His teams won five games, lost two, and tied two. The 1914 team christened the Yale Bowl with a 36-0 victory, and the 1915 eleven defeated Yale by the largest score of any Harvard team, 41-0.

Haughton was succeeded in 1919, after the War, by Robert T. Fisher '12, captain of the 1911 team. He coached four successive winning teams, two losing ones, and the 1925 team which so successfully held off, 0-0, what was generally thought to be a much superior Yale eleven. The 1923 and 1924 games were played under the worst weather conditions of any games between the two universities.

Fisher resigned after this game, and was succeeded by Arnold Horween '20, who played on the 1919 team, which defeated Yale, 10-3, and then went west and defeated Oregon, 7-6, on New Year's Day, 1920, at Pasedena. The 1926 and 1927 teams were, as all remember, defeated by Yale.

As has been noted, during the long stretch of years from 1875 to 1908, Yale defeated Harvard with monotonous regularity, which accounts for the fact that of the 46 football games played Yale has won 27, Harvard 13, and six have been tied.

The last 20 years of racing on the Thames have seen much closer competition between Harvard and Yale than any prior period of similar length, for in the first thirty-odd years of rowing Yale won but seven races in 25 years, and during the next 20 years Harvard won only three races. A dismal stretch to live through and to look back upon.

The Harvard crews from 1908 to 1915, inclusive, were coached by James Wray, and won six of the eight races rowed, the 1908 race being the one in which the Yale stroke was taken into the launch at the three-mile mark and the crew finished with seven men in the shell.

In 1914 the second University crew, coached by Robert F. Herrick '90, went over to England and won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley. Mr. Herrick also coached the 1916 University eight which established the present down stream record of 20 minutes, 2 seconds. He was succeeded as coach by William Haines in 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1921. Haines having been assistant coach in 1916. Harvard won the 1918 and 1920 races. The 1922 University, coached by R. Reber Howe '01, lost as did the crew of 1913, coached by Ralph Muller. E. A. Stevens came from the Pacific Coast in 1924 and remained through 1925 and up to June 1, 1926, when he resigned and was succeeded by H. H. Haines. These three crews were all defeated, thus completing a stretch of six consecutive Yale victories on the river. Within the years under review, however, Harvard in 1908-1914 did exactly the same thing.

Three times prior to 1908, Harvard and Yale had won six times consecutively, Harvard in 1866-1871, and Yale in 1892-1898 and in 1900-1905. There was no race in 1896.

The Harvard crew of 1927, coached by E. J. Brown '96, who had coached the class crews at Cambridge for 20 years, prevented Yale from establishing a new record in consecutive rowing victories.

During the last 20 years, therefore, Harvard and Yale have rowed 19 races, including a two-mile race on the Housatonic River in 1918. There was no race in 1917. During this period each university won a series of six consecutive races and of the total number rowed Harvard won ten and Yale nine.

Harvard and Yale have rowed 63 races, beginning in 1852. Of these, Yale has won 34 and Harvard 31.

As in rowing, honors in baseball have been fairly evenly divided between Harvard and Yale since 1907. In 1917 there were no ball games, and of the 19 annual series played. Yale has won ten and Harvard nine. In nine years a third game was necessary and of the a games played. Yale has won 24 and Harvard 23.

L. P. Pieper '03, was coach of the '05, '09, and to teams and won only in 1908. The 1909 series is worthy of note in that in nearly 60 years of Harvard Yale base ball it is the only one in which two extra inning games have been played to settle the issue.

In 1910 a permanent change in Yale's Commencement Day date necessitated for the first time the playing of the first two games on successive days at New Haven and Cambridge. This meant that two good pitchers had to be developed to win the series in two games.

Beginning in 1911, F. J. Sexton, Brown '93, later with the Boston National League team, coached until the middle of the 1915 season, when he resigned and was succeeded by P. D. Haughton '99. During this period Harvard won three of the five series.

In 1913, on Soldiers Field, with S. M. Felton '13, pitching, Harvard won 4 to 3 in 14 innings, the longest game in Harvard-Yale baseball history. In 1914, by mutual agreement, for one year, the coach was banished from the bench and the players left to their own initiative. The following year Harvard, Yale, and Princeton agreed to play a round robin series of three games with each other,