As an icy wind transformed Harvard Stadium from a pleasant, breezy place for a football game into a freezing prelude to winter, the Harvard football season came down to a single play.

Brown had just driven 88 yds. in ten plays, Steve Curtin's two-yd. run with 1:53 remaining bringing the Bruins to within a single point of the Crimson, 17-16.

Brown coach John Anderson--as everyone knew he would--decided to go for the victory. Two years ago the same strategy had resulted in a 31-30 Bruin victory.

This time, quarterback Larry Carbone rolled left, appeared ready to run for the score, then saw his tight end wide open in the endzone.

"If I were playing my responsibilities the way I was taught," safety Mike Jacobs--the man assigned to cover Jordan--said afterwards, "I wouldn't have come up.

But once he committed to chase Carbone, "I had to keep coming." And when Carbone threw to Jordan, Jacobs batted the pass down, saving the ballgame.

Harvard then survived a superb onsides kick and clung to the narrow victory which kept the team's hopes for the Ivy title alive.

These hopes were dealt a strong blow, however, when Yale thrashed Dartmouth in Hanover Saturday, 35-7. Yale now stands 4-0 in the league, with Harvard, Princeton and Brown tied for second at 3-2.

A Glimmer

So, for Harvard to have any chance of sharing the championship, either Princeton (4-3 overall) or Cornell (2-5, 2-2 Ivy) must beat the Elis in the next two weeks. Not impossible, but not terribly likely, either.

For this Harvard team--particularly this defense--playing a meaningless Yale game would be a terrible shame because Soldiers Field has not lately seen a squad of this caliber.

Consider the job Harvard did on Brown quarterback Larry Carbone, the Ivies' top-rated quarterback in passing and total offense. Carbone struggled to complete 11 of 29 passes Saturday for 120 yds. with three interceptions, two of which resulted in Harvard scores.

Every week a different Harvard defender seems to take a particularly outstanding role; this week it was Brad Stinn, the junior linebacker whose 11 tackles led the Crimson and whose second-quarter interception set up Harvard's first touchdown.

And it was the almost obligatory Rocky Delgadillo interception--the junior cornerback now has an Ivy League-leading six--that set up the game's first score, a 42-yd. Dave Cody field goal 6:25 into the first quarter.

The Return