"Let's go, Tigers. One fumble will do it."

And so goes it on a Saturday afternoon in Princeton when you're a Princeton fan and you're losing to Harvard-and losing badly-in football.

The hopeful man was a Princeton track coach sitting up in the press box and wondering why. I was sort of wondering why, too. I laughed when Harvard went ahead early in the game, and then waited for the Tigers to catch up and win. But after a while, I began to hope. Was this to be an upset? Was Harvard actually going to beat Princeton?

Whenever it seemed that Princeton was finally getting serious about the game and was about to score, there was an interception or a fumble. All the self-proclaimed experts-better known as hangers-on-up in the press box were talking about the lucky breaks the Crimson was getting. You had to admit it; the old Orange and Black was jinxed.

But there's more to football than meets the eye, I've learned, especially my eye. Yesterday the word was going around that Harvard had thrown a variety of defenses at Princeton which had totally confused the boys. The Tigers just couldn't adjust, and Harvard took advantage. So the Crimson deserves some credit for the interceptions; it wasn't just because of lousy passing. This ability to confuse Rod Plummer and Tim Testerman is particularly satisfying after last year's debacle in the Stadium. Quarterback Scott MacBean came to the line, read Harvard's defense, and then called the appropriate audible. He exploited every weakness.

Consider, for a moment, the poor Princeton fan. One of the ones with the black and orange "Beat Yale" pins stuck in his hat at Saturday's game. No one even bothered to manufacture any orange black and orange "Beat Harvard" pins. But I'll bet the alums sent out an order Monday for 5000 "Beat Cornell" pins since a win over Cornell on Harvard-Yale weekend will enable the Tigers to finish over 500 in the league.

Meanwhile, Harvard is in a position to end up second. That's right; second only to Dartmouth. It means beating Brown-a task to which we've not always been equal. And it means beating Yale, a slightly more difficult assignment, but by no means an impossible one. Of course, it would probably be a tie for second, but I don't think Harvard would complain.

The sad thing is that the Crimson lost to Columbia. If that game had turned out the other way, then on November 21, all we'd have to do would be beat Yale and have Penn beat Dartmouth, and then Harvard and Dartmouth could be co-champions.

Yeah, and suppose Santa Claus were Jewish.