The first Harvard-Yale football game was played on Saturday, November 13, 1875 on Hamilton Field in New Haven. There were three "halves;" Harvard won by scoring four goals and a like number of touchdowns, while holding Yale scoreless.
In most of its traditional rivalries, Harvard was able to build up a lead in games won and lost on the basis of a large number of victories in the early years before other schools caught on to the finer points of the game. But this does not hold true in the Yale series. Both teams, along with Princeton, dominated collegiate football for many years and as a result they traded victories pretty evenly.
Yale's most sustained winning streak teame between 1902 and 1907, when the Eli took six straight games without allowing Harvard a single point. The string was broken by Percy Hanghton's 1908 eleven, which triumphed, 4 to 0, at New Haven, when Vic Kennard dropkicked a field goal from the 28-yard line. These were the days when men still dropkicked, and field goals counted four points instead of three.
When Men Were Men
The great names connected with the Harvard-Yale series are legend. For Harvard--Haughton, Wood, Ticknor, Casey, Brickley, Horwoon; for Yale--Booth, Seymour, Frank, Kelley, Stagg. Moreover, many changes in football rules and strategy are associated with this rivalry.
Latter-day Harvard coaches who introduced new plays for the Yale game had nothing on co-mentors Stewart and Lake, who, in 1893, outfitted their charges in shiny leather suits. One of the main reasons for the suits was said to lesson the weight a player would have to carry in case of rain, but all sorts of dubious motives were ascribed to the Harvards. The opposing captains waged a bitter arguments before the game as to the legality of the suits but the officials could find nothing in the rule book against wearing them so the game went on as scheduled. Although the innovation caused a national sensation, it did not bring about a Harvard victory.
The Harvard-Yale game of 1891 produced America's first football ticket scandal. There were no laws against scalping and there was no such thing as a federal admission tax, but it was strictly against the law to counterfeit tickets, which is exactly what a New York speculator did before his activities were halted by a gendarme.
Post records mean noting when these two teams meet. There have been upsets by both sides, although a Harvard team never before has come up to the Yale game with just one previous victory to show for the season.
One great climax game came in 1931, when Albie Booth, who had been beaten by Harvard in the two previous years, finally gained revenge when he dropkicked a 22-yard field goal with only three minutes left to play to win for Yale, 3 to 0. It was Harvard's only setback of the season and the Crimson last a golden opportunity to win the eastern championship for the first time since 1913.
While some aspects of football have changed considerably over the years, others haven't. For instance, the Boston Globe, writing of the 1891 Harvard-Yale game observed that "It was Harvard beef against Yale science. Harvard muscle against Yale agility. Science and agility won."
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