Here comes odd incident number two. Instead of running the clock out. Roland pitched the ball wildly, and Terry Trusty gladly pounced on it at the Penn 10. Bosnic failed to fluff it this time, skying the ball through the uprights with 0:04 left.

The oddest stuff was yet to come. Consider, for example, a third quarter in which the Harvard offense ran off just seven plays for no first downs. But Penn failed to score, owing mainly to penalties and poor execution despite their dominance in possession time.

And then in the fourth quarter came the much-maligned Crimson defense's finest hour of the year. Reeling backward behind the force of three full-field drives, and giving up 105 yards total offense, the defenders nonetheless failed to allow Penn to score--and that's the name of the game.

A stacked line collectively rejected Roland on a fourth-and-one just into the quarter, and a vicious tackle by end Dave Otto dropped Roland for a five-yd. loss on fourth-and-three at the Harvard 24 with 7:30 left.

Then, with 5:03 left, Penn began a determined march toward the goal line from its own 26. But the Wishbone attack gobbled too many seconds off the clock, and Roland nearly blew it when he tried to stop the clock with 0:21 left when, in trying to throw the ball away, he nearly hit Harvard adjuster John Casto on the numbers.

The ball bounced off the surprised Casto's hands, setting the stage for a second-and-goal at the Harvard 4. Roland rolled left on the play, looking for a trio of receivers flooding that side of the endzone, but the storming Palmer charged unmolested from the opposite side of the field and crushed Roland at the 13.

The final 12 seconds blinked off on the Franklin Field Longines, and for the first time in this bizarre season. Harvard had escaped with an eleventh-hour win.