When the Harvards meet the Yales at the Stadium this afternoon, they will be playing the sixty-third game of a series that dates back to 1875, in the days when men were men and a man was ostracized if he didn't own a moustache cup.

It all began with a Crimson victory--although they called it Magonta then--of four goals and four touches to 0, but the Elis have been predominant in most of the subsequent seasons, holding a 35 to 21 edge with six games ending in ties, all scoreless affairs, in the 71-year-old rivalry.

Many Upsets

Like all traditional intercollegiate embroglios, the Harvard-Yale series has been dotted with upsets, and any alumnus of either institution will tell you that records don't mean a thing when the two elevens meet.

Heaviest era of Bulldog predominance, in which they amassed the commanding series edge they have never relinquished, was the period from 1876 to 1912, when Yale won 23 games to Harvard's five. There were four deadlocks in the period.

Since the first World War, the annual classic has assumed a far less one-sided aspect. Even in the years when the Boola lads had everything their own way, scores were rarely overwhelmingly large. Yale's largest margin of victory was 48 to 0 massacre in 1884, while the best the Crimson has done to retaliate was the 41 to 0 affair perpetrated by the 1915 eleven.

Wood-Booth Rivalry

Of all the games played between these two institutions, none have probably equaled the drama of the years 1929 through 1931, when the famous Barry Wood-Albie Booth rivalry held the nation's interest. Wood, one of the greatest athletic figures in Crimson history, was tall, dark, and powerful. Booth was small, crafty, and renowned for his place-kicking ability.

Both men played in the 1929 contest their Sophomore year, and Booth missed a field goal attempt that would have tied the Crimson, Harvard winning 10 to 7. Wood made it two in a row over Booth the following season, with the Crimson scoring a 13 to 0 victory.

Albie's poetic justice came in 1931, when both he and Barry captained their respective eleven's. Harvard marched into the Stadium with an unbeaten record, took the Elis' opening kickoff back to the Bulldog seven yard-line, but failed to score. The grueling contest which followed was decided late in the game when Booth place-kicked a field goal that gave Yale a 3 to 0 victory.

Since the advent of Dick Harlow to the Crimson coaching scene, there have been nine Harvard-Yale affairs, with the Bulldogs holding a five to four edge. Percy Haughton, most famous Crimson coach, compiled a record of five victories, two losses, and two ties in the nine years he directed affairs at Soldiers Field.

Most familiar in the memory of present undergraduates have been the post-1940 contests, for the surviving members of the class of 1944 who are still without degrees can well recall the Crimson's thrashing of the Elis at New Haven, 28 to 0, in the third-highest margin of victory the Cantabs ever gained over the Boola Boos. The Series to Date Year  Harvard  Yale  Year  Harvard  Yale 1875-76  4g-4t  0  1910  0  0 1876-77  3t  1g  1911  0  0   (Yale won)  1912  20  0 1878  0  1g  1913  15  5 1879  0  0  1914  36  0 1880  0  1g,1t  1915  41  0 1881  4s  0  1916  3  6   (Yale won)  1919  10  3 1882  2s  3t,1g  1920  9  0 1883  2  23  1921  10  3 1884  0  48  1922  10  3 1886  4  29  1923  0  13 1887  8  17  1924  6  19 1889  0  6  1925  0  0 1890  12  6  1926  7  12 1891  0  10  1927  0  14 1892  0  6  1928  17  0 1893  0  6  1929  10  6 1894  4  12  1930  13  0 1897  0  0  1931  0  3 1898  17  0  1932  0  19 1899  0  0  1933  19  6 1900  0  28  1934  0  14 1901  22  0  1935  7  14 1902  0  23  1936  13  14 1903  0  16  1937  13  6 1904  0  12  1938  7  0 1905  0  6  1939  7  20 1906  0  6  1940  28  0 1907  0  12  1941  14  0 1908  4  0  1942  3  7 1909  0  8  1945  0  28 1909  0  8

Harvard won 21; lost 35; tied 6

That was the year of Captain Joe Gardella, Franny Lee, and Charley Spreyer, when the blossoming line which featured Chub Peabody, Loren MacKinney, Dick Pfister, Tom Gardiner, and Vern Miller was coming into its own. Remnants of the class of 1945--and there are many--will be eager to relate the 14 to 0 pasting handed the Bulldogs in 1941, when Peabody, later to be named on everybody's All-America list, played the entire game with charley-horses in both legs, and still was the bulwark of the Crimson forward wall.

As for 1942, all kinds of people who are still rambling around the Yard journeyed down to New Haven that rainy afternoon, to see an underdog Eli team snatch a 7 to 3 win from the Crimson, a game in which Don Richards, later to be killed in action in the Normandy campaign, ran back a punt 60 yards for an apparent touchdown, only to have the play called back because the Crimson was offside.

There was a two-year interim during World War II, but the Harvards and the Yales were right back at it last fall. The result: Yale 28, Harvard 0. But this is another year.