It was like something out of a bad dream, really. One expected to wake up momentarily and find out that, no, Harvard hadn't fumbled the ball away in the closing seconds, and no, Harvard hadn't taken itself out of the Ivy title picture. Perhaps we had had too many bourbon-and-ciders at the pre-game tailgate.

But it was not a dream, it was real--and when Crimson halfback Ralph Polillio fumbled quarterback Larry Brown's handoff with 28 seconds remaining on the Princeton 5-yd, line and Tiger tackle Steve Hart pounced on it, Saturday's away game had ended in a 24-24 tie.

Harvard had served Princeton two touchdowns on a silver platter in the first quarter at Palmer Stadium before roaring back and dominating the second half.

Then, just as every reporter in the pressbox was writing the lead for a Harvard victory, Brown slipped on the handoff, the ball bounded forward off Polillio, and Princeton had it.

Brown, depressed after the game like the rest of the squad, showed a lot of class in explaining the mishandled play.

"I put the burden on myself," Brown said. "All we were going to do was set up a straight-on field goal for Bosnic, so we were going to go off-tackle to Ralph. I lost my balance and tried to force the ball through, and as I tried to force it, he knocked it out of my grasp. It was a one-in-a-million play."

Almost incredibly, the two squads kept the Princeton crowd of 17,500 on the edge of their seats for the remaining 28 seconds as first Harvard, then Princeton intercepted passes.

Terry Trusty--subbing for the ill Fred Cordova--picked off a Princeton aerial with 13 seconds to go, followed 10 seconds later by a Steve Rowles pick-off of a Brown spiral.

The Tigers' Chris Howe attempted an impossible 54-yard field goal with three ticks left on the clock, and he gave it a mighty ride, dropping it just five yards short of the crossbar.

It might even have been better for the demoralized Crimson if Howe had made the intercontinental attempt, since it would have added a tone of finality to the frustration-wrought contest.

It's been said that a tie is like kissing your sister, but this one was more like French-kissing your dog. Harvard now stands at 1-2-1 in Ivy league play, leaving the gridders all but out of the title picture.

"I felt badly for the team," coach Joe Restic said after the game, "because they really stormed back."

"Those turnovers in the first half just gave them 14 points, though," he said.

And indeed, the way things went in the first quarter, it looked as if the Tigers would roll over the Crimson the way Hitler ransacked Poland.

Princeton took a 7-0 lead 13 minutes into the game when their gifted new quarterback, Steve Reynolds, threw a wounded duck down the left sidelines to tailback Cris Crissy, who discoed into the endzone past two stumbling Harvard defenders.

On the first play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Crimson halfback Paul Connors (later substituted for by Jon Hollingsworth) took a pitch from Brown and very politely fumbled it over to the Tiger defense. Moments later, Crissy (77 yards rushing, 81 receiving) slipped past the Harvard defense for six points like a trout shooting the rapids.

All of a sudden--hello--the Tigers had a 14-0 lead before 25 per cent of the game had been played.

As the second quarter got underway and alums began passing out from the after-effects of tailgating, Harvard inched its way back into the game.

A 28-yd. off-tackle run by Polillio (101 yards on 17 carries for yet another fine afternoon) set up the first of the numerous ifs, ands and buts of the afternoon.

On a third-and-four from the Princeton 27, Brown play-actioned and chucked a bomb to Dave Kinney in the endzone--the double-teamed Kinney juggled the ball momentarily as he fell, but missed a miraculous catch as the ball slipped away.

Gary Bosnic failed to break the ice for Harvard when he shanked a tough 44-yd. field goal attempt on the following play. Bos did break the ice with 1:55 to go in the half, though, capping a 53-yd, drive with an upright-splitter from 30 yards out.

The first-half statistics showed Harvard had the edge, and it seemed as if it was the Crimson's ballgame.

And for the duration of the third quarter it was, as Harvard's second-half lightning offense shucked and jived past Princeton for touchdowns in triplicate.

First, little big man Rich Horner boogied 54 yards past Princeton defenders into the endzone for Harvard's first punt-return touchdown since 1969. 14-10.

Two-hundred and one seconds later, Larry Brown bamboozled a pair of Princeton defensive backs by guiding a 46-yd. rainbow pass down the sideline to John MacLeod, who strode smoothly into the endzone. 17-14.

One-hundred and seven seconds later, Brown culminated a beautifully mixed series of plays by sending fullback Matt Granger up the middle on a 15-yd. gallop across the goal line. 24-14.

Funny thing about lightning, though--it knows no favorites. Tiger QB Reynolds saved the game for the home team two plays later by rambling 44 yards on a quarterback-draw and killing the rampaging Crimson's momentum.

Reynold's excursion set up a Howe field goal that made the margin just seven, and the Tigers had life.

One fourth-quarter Princeton drive died when split end Ed Arlin dropped a pass on the numbers in the endzone and Steve Potysman cradled an errant Reynolds spiral into his gut four plays later.

Harvard had to punt at 7:02, though, and this time the Tigers made good on their desperation drive. Rugged fullback Gary Larson did the trick by beating the linebacker on a fourth-and-three pass play and strutting eight yards to the goal line.

Princeton coach Frank Navarro, playing it safe with three minutes to go, opted for the point-after kick to tie it at 24-all.

Brown foiled the strategy by coolly directing an upfield drive from Harvard's 39--with Polillio and Hollingsworth doing the bulk of the work--in the waning moments.

But then Brown stumbled, and the ball bounded wildly forward, and the script for the thrilling classic was abandoned for a disastrous ad lib.

The only sensible thing to do, it seemed, was to go out and guzzle all the bourbon-and-cider left over from the morning's tailgates.