NEW YORK, Oct. 20--Claude Benham handed the Crimson its first "official" Ivy defeat in history today, and in doing so made it seem almost certain that it would not be the last of the season. The victory was also Columbia's first since this fall's formal opening of the League, and first in eleven games.

Benham passed, ran, faked, blocked, and tackled for 60 minutes this afternoon to lead the Lions to an uphill, 26-20 victory over the Crimson. He passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, and called plays brilliantly.

But while it was a great afternoon for the light Lion quarterback, who was playing with a minor leg injury, it showed Harvard much more than the Ivy's finest quarterback. The game also demonstrated two weaknesses in the Crimson defense that warrant correction.

Pass Defense Weak

Pass defense has often been a Crimson problem, and while the team will not see Benham's equal again this season, it must devise a way to curtail the enemy's aerial yardage. Today, despite many varying defenses, it did not.

The other defect was the left side of the Crimson line. Both in the air and on the ground, this was the side that Columbia probed most effectively. Benham was particularly effective on the option play, pitching out just before being tackled, or else faking the pass or pitchout and running the ball.

The game, however, was decided not through any overwhelming superiority on the part of the whole Columbia team, but on a lucky deflection of Benham's last pass, only his second long heave of the game.

John Simourian had scored the last Harvard touchdown at 11:04 of the final period, and Walt Stahura's conversion put the visitors ahead, 20 to 19.

Phil Haughey kicked off to the ten, and Lion captain Art Wilson returned it up the right side to the 31. Benham then tried a short bullet pass to end Ron Szczypkowski, but was wide of the mark and threw directly into the hands of Crimson captain Ted Metropoulos, who couldn't hold onto the ball.

Thus reprieved, Benham faded back again on the next play and threw deep to halfback Ed Spraker. The toss was a bit short, and safety man Matt Botsford reached up for it on the Harvard 33 but only tipped the ball up toward Spraker, who gathered it in on the 25 and loped across for the winning score at 12:02. It appeared that if the ball had not been tipped up, Spraker would still have caught it but would have had to wait for it and could not have scored.

After the kickoff, Botsford interspersed eight passes with two runs and a Columbia penalty, but only one pass was complete, and Columbia got the ball to run out the clock.

As the game began, it appeared that Harvard would roll up the score. On the first play from scrimmage, Benham passed over the left side of the line, the ball was batted into the air, and Ron Eikenberry took it and raced 36 yards for a touchdown at 0:43. Stahura converted.

After the teams exchanged fumbles, Harvard started a drive from its own 39. Botsford completed two passes, and he, Eikenberry, and Stahura ran to the Columbia nine. After a backfield in motion penalty, Simourian came in and passed to Stahura in the left flat, and Stahura shook off two tacklers to score. The placement was blocked and Harvard led, 13 to 0.

Coach Lloyd Jordan sent in a flock of substitutes, and Benham began to pass, completing one for 29 yards to Bruce Howard. Columbia kept up the drive when the first team returned, and scored on the first play of the second quarter on a flat pass from Benham to Szczypkowski for seven yards. The conversion was missed

Ivy Standings