After it was all over Saturday, Harvard coach John Yovicsin was asked, "Have you ever lost a game like that before?"

"I've never even seen one like that before," he answered with understandable perplexity.

The scene was the post-game press conference in Dillon Field House. The last of the 11,000 befuddled fans were filing out of the Stadium, and sports-writers were confronting the coaches for additional bits of excitement to plug into "stranger-than-fiction" copy on the weird affair that gave Lehigh a 22-17 victory over the Crimson.

Only a game like Saturday's--designed for the tales of a Robert Ripley or a Bill Stern--could lead to such confounding statements as: "I was fairly well pleased with our overall performance," by Yovicsin, the losing coach, and "I was not satisfied with our club," by the winning coach Bill Leckonby. The happy, yet "disappointed" Leckonby added in philosophical reflection, "This game of football, I don't know. The more you play it, the less you understand about it. I wonder."

Linemen Score Three Times

What kind of a game was this season's opener? It was a monsterfluke in which three linemen scored touchdowns, and in which Lehigh, trailing by nine points with about five minutes left in the game, happened into two touchdowns to win by five points.

A victory was never more undeserved. Harvard made 22 first downs as opposed to Lehigh's six, and the Crimson more than tripled the rushing of Lehigh--268 yards to 78. Including passing, Harvard's total offensive output amounted to an incredible 308 yards. Lehigh's was 178, including the long 69-yard pass play in the fourth quarter that brought the Engineers to within two points of the Crimson.

It was toward the end of a good ball game, Harvard had it in the bag with a safe nine-point lead, and fans were getting a bit bored. Suddenly, second string Engineer quarterback John DeNoia dropped back on his own 31-yard line and let go with an unsteady heave that swooned its way into the waiting hands of left halfback Pat Clark, who ran the remainder of the 69 yards for six points. The pass concluded an 87-yard drive covered by three quick plays. Andy Larko made the conversion, and Crimson fans snapped to attention as the scoreboard registered with five minutes left in the game: Harvard 17, Lehigh 15.

Nobody understood how Clark was so open when he received the long aerial--most of all, Leckonby. "We had one miracle," he commented about that pass play after the game, adding, "We never expected two."

Pass Proves Disastrous

The second miracle for Lehigh, misery for Harvard, came three minutes later at 13 minutes of the final quarter when Crimson halfback Tom Boone dropped back in punt formation on fourth down. The ball was on the Harvard 45 yard line when it was centered, a short time later it was in the end zone smothered by Lehigh center Charlie Craze.

It's no secret that the ball went flying over Boone's head on the snap, and that Boone, the referee, and Craze led a mad dash in hot pursuit. Boone reached the pigskin at his own five-yard line, tried to scoop it up, got hit, and heard a thud or two as Craze and Harvard tackle Dick Diehl leaped over him. Craze won the ball, and Lehigh won the game. Larko kicked the extra point to make the score 22-17.

Thus ended a ridiculous contest that can be argued for Lehigh only because Harvard lost six out of its seven fumbles and got sloppy when ahead. As Yovicsin said, "We did a lot of things, but we didn't do the thing we had to do--win." And as the memories of the game grow older, all that is important is the final score.

Harvard began what looked like a great day in Cambridge at 5:16 of the first quarter when Bob Boyda crashed through and blocked a fourth-down punt deep in Engineer territory by Walt King, the Lehigh quarterback. Crimson tackle Darwin Wile recovered the ball in the end zone, and Dave Ward made the conversion to put the Crimson ahead 7-0.

"Cripe, Martha, if their tackle can score, I can too," Lehigh tackle Reed Bohovich mumbled to himself subconsciously, and sure enough, nine minutes after Wile's moment of glory Bohovich was smiling proudly over his own six points. Harvard quarterback Ted Halaby was leading his team into Lehigh territory when he tried to pitch out to Boone on a belly play swinging to the right. Bohovich was trailing the play from defensive right tackle when the ball was batted to him by one of his teammates. And Bohovich was off! The 270-pounder lumbered 65 big yards to paydirt. King faked a kick and threw to end John Chambers for two points to put Lehigh in the lead 8-7.