NEW HAVEN, Ct.--As jubilant Harvard fans ripped the uprights off the Yale bowl goalpost, and ecstatic Crimson football team completed a devastating upset, trampling previously unbeaten Yale, 22-7, for the first Crimson win over the Elis since 1975.

The win ruined Yale's bid for an undefeated season and turned an otherwise dismal 1979 Harvard campaign into a bacchanalian celebration. More than 72,000 fans--the largest Bowl crowd since 1954--streamed onto the field here two seconds before the final gun, mobbing the Harvard players and wreaking havoc in otherwise boring New Haven.

Though Richie Horner, beat by a mediocre afternoon, did not break any of the records he was chasing at the close of his stellar Harvard career this 96th edition of THE GAME was otherwise a total Harvard party right from the start.

The top-rated Yale defense, which has allowed just 523 yds. rushing coming into THE GAME, looked like aged Swiss cheese as Harvard opened its first series after Paul Scheper's kick-off return to the Crimson 25.

Working outside to Al Altieri, Jim Callinan and Jon Hollingsworth, quarterback Burke St. John put together Harvard's best sustained ground drive of the season.

He threw only twice--both times to Richie Horner--once for an incompletion and once for ten yds. and a first down at the Yale 22. St. John kept the ball twice and directed Harvard to the end zone with 5:05 left in the quarter.

Hollingsworth, on second and 4 at the Yale 4-yd. line, bulled his way over the right tackle into paydirt, carrying a host of Eli defenders around his neck.

Dave Cody capped the 13-play, 74-yd. drive with the extra point to give Harvard a 7 to nothing lead. Harvard became the only team all year to score on Yale in the opening quarter, and the only rival to draw first blood.

With the New Havenites in shock, Harvard's defense held the Elis without a first down on the exchange, but Mike Sullivan's hanging punt slipped away from Tom Beatrice, and the Elis grabbed it for a first and 10 at the Harvard 19.

But in the wild and wooly tradition of THE GAME, the Elis lost the ball and a a golden scoring opportunity on a second-down handoff, when Crimson adjuster John Casto grabbed a loose pigskin to regain possession. The Yale defense stiffened, though, and Duke Millard had to punt from his own end zone when the Crimson stalled at the 9-yd. line.

Yale, moving cautiously deep into Harvard territory, faultered when n speedster back Ken Hill lost a Dennis Dunn pitchout and had to smother the loose ball at the Harvard 30. Dave Schwartz's 47-yd. field goal barely reached the goal line, dropping well short of the crossbar.

Just when it looked like Harvard would have to punt the ball away for a second time, a Yale offside penalty on the kick moved Harvard to a first down and a new life. Hollingsworth took a St. John screen pass on second down and eked his way into Eli territory for a 16-yd. gain to the Yale 43.

It looked like the Harvard drive would end rudely when the Yale secondary picked off a St. John pass, but again the jumpy Yalies were offsides and turned the ball back to Harvard.

The penalties proved costly when, on third down and 6 from the Yale 38, St. John hit Callinan with a thread-the-needle aerial down the sidelines and the halfback tip-toed into the end zone with just 25 seconds gone in the second quarter. The 70-yd., 9-play drive ended with Cody missing the PAT, leaving Harvard with an astonishing 13-0 lead.

With Bulldog fans choking on their pop corn and daiquiris, Yale took the kick-off and started to move for the first time. With John Rogan taking over the signal-calling, the Elis confidently marched down-field. A 29-yd. John Nitti gallop gave Yale a first and 10 at the Crimson 21. Rogan rolled to the Harvard 9 just tow plays later, and Hill scampered to a first and goal at the four.

Two times Hill tested the Harvard line and failed. Right cornerback Steve Wool intervened on third down to break up a Yale pass. Yale scorned the field goal on fourth down, and Rogan once more failed to complete the pass. Finding no holes in the stiffened Harvard defense, he tossed the ball out of the end zone.

Harvard looked like it might open up for more jubiliation following the goal-line stand, Callinan taking a second and 7 handoff at the Crimson 7 and bulldozed his way outside to the 40. But Holden called the play back and Harvard could not restart its engine and Millard had to punt from his end zone again, giving Yale the ball on the Crimson 39.

Rogan looked like he meant business, hitting split end Dan Stratton with a dazzling bomb at the Harvard 3, but the receiver couldn't hold on. Harvard cornerback, Peter Coppinger, stepped in two plays later to pick off an errant Rogan toss; his tight-rope return along the sidelines to the Yale 10 was called back on a Harvard blocking infraction. Starting from its own 39 instead, the Crimson offense stalled and kicked the ball away with half the second quarter remaining.

It appeared Harvard would stymie the Yale offense again after the punt, but a roughing the kicker penalty gave Yale new life at the Crimson 42. Steve Wool stepped in and returned the Yale offense to the morgue by picking off a Rogan bomb at the Harvard 17-yd. line. But the Crimson offense could not move the ball and was forced to punt it away with barely two minutes left at the half.

Yale went into a two-minute offense looking for a last-second score to close out the half. Matt Sabetti sucked the steam out of the Eli drive when he sacked Rogan for a 7-yd. loss at the Crimson 46. Two plays later, the Harvard front line smothered Rogan back at the Eli 45 to give Yale a fourth and 27 with 1:01 to go.

The Elis punted, and Harvard closed out its first 30 minutes with a warm and cozy 13-0 advantage.

On the opening kickoff of the second half, Hill's return to the Yale 37 ended with Harvard's Tony Cimmarrusti sprawled out on the Yale Bowl turf. The junior linebacker left the field on a stretcher.

A 27-yd. Dunn-to-Stratton aerial on second down moved Yale to the Harvard 37, and the Elis quickly grabbed another first down on the Crimson 26.

Slippery Kenn Hill, Yale's leading rusher, moved the team to the 16 with a series of spins and bumps. Dunn hit Bob Rostomily for a first and goal at the Harvard 4. With 6:41 gone in the second half and broadjumped into the endzone to put Yale on the board at last. Schwartz's kick narrowed the battle to 13-7.

After fruitless series by both teams, Harvard took the ball at its own 45. After three runs, the Crimson faced a fourth and inches at the Eli 45. St. John then took the keeper airborne over the pile to give Harvard the first down. But with seconds left in the quarter, St. John underthrew Horner on a third and 7 at the Yale 42, forcing a Harvard punt to close out a lackluster period.

As the fourth quarter opened, Dave Otto stopped any chance of a Yale drive by sacking quarterback Dunn on second down to leave Yale with third down and miles to go. But the Harvard coaching staff put too many men on the field during the punt and handed the Elis a first down in Harvard territory.

Crimson magic appeared again as a Ken Hill fumble at the Yale 49 gave the Crimson first and 10. On the first play, St. John threw long for tight end Chuck Marshall, and the Eli secondary dug itself a hole, getting called for interference at the Yale 13-yd. line.

Taking advantage of the first down deep in enemy territory, St. John hit Tom Beatrice at the five on a third down scramble-for-your-life pass. In came kicker Cody, who split the uprights with a 22-yd. chip shot to give Harvard a 16-7 advantage with 11:13 left in the game.

George Arnold's kickoff mystified Hill, who juggled it before getting nailed at the 6-yd. line. Second and fourth quarter single caller Rogan immediately hit a wide open Stratton at the Eli 47, but the pass was a bit underthrown and Stratton, who had to wait, was collared by two Harvard defensemen.

After Yale crossed into Harvard territory, the Eli receiver caught a case of no-hands disease and stifled the Bulldogs' drive at the Harvard 43. Hill carried the ball on a fake punt, in a fourth and ten situation, but he made just four yards and gave Harvard possession at his own 40 with about ten minutes remaining in the game.

Needing a long possession, Harvard lost ten yards in three downs and had to kick the ball away.

Yale took over near mid-field, but Rogan fumbled on a second down scramble; senior Jim DeBello hauled in the rolling pigskin to give Harvard the ball at the Eli 46. A face-mask violation moved the ball to the Yale 29, where Harvard took it, first and ten.

On third and 15, St. John worked from the shotgun and hit Callinan down the middle for a 23-yd. gain to the Eli nine. Callinan came back on the ground to buck for six more on first down. With the clock running past the 5-minute-to-go mark, Hollingsworth bulled to the two. And just seconds later, the Harvard sideline exploded as St. John rolled right on a keeper and stretched his body out just past the goaline for what was the icing on Harvard upset-flavored cake. Cody's kick was blocked but the Crimson still held a 15 point advantage, 22-7, with 4:29.

Following the kickoff, Yale tried a first-down bomb throw by its split end, but Coppinger came up with his second interception of the day and lowered the final Crimson boom on the waning Eli spirit.

Harvard strung together a series of first downs on the ground that teamed with a frustration-provoked Yale penalty to push the ball to the Bulldogs' 14-yd. line.

As the clock rolled to one minute remaining, the capacity crowd began to stream onto the field as the Harvard fans roared. The Crimson ate up the clock and gave a beaten Eli team possession at its own 16 with 53 seconds to go.

And so Yale's dreams of an undefeated season sank into the sea of Crimson elation.

Freshmen Win 21-14

Harvard's freshman football team avenged last year's 31 to 0 humiliation downing Yale's version of yardlings, 21-14 this morning.