This is really the most important game of the year for us We know Harvard always thinks about Yale first but we think of Harvard as our big rivals Brad Mont, football writer.   The Daily Dartmouth

This is going to be one of the most emotional football games. They'll have 10,000 people at a student body rally the night before, and then they're going to pack that little stadium for the game...We just have to be able to ignore all the side attractions.

--Harvard running back Scott McCabe

As far as the people at Dartmouth are concerned this afternoon's confrontation with Harvard is The Game

Classes officially ended at 12.30 yesterday afternoon in Hanover. Seven hours later, virtually everybody on campus turned out for a parade. At 8:30 p.m., the spirited throng gathered around a monstrous bonfire that the freshman class spent the week constructing.

By Ivy League standards, the display might seem a little extravagant, but the Hanoverians feel the commotion is justified.

For starters, this is Homecoming Weekend at Dartmouth. And even more importantly, although this series began exactly 100 years ago, today marks only the seventh time the Green and the Crimson have faced off in Memorial Stadium.

In the past, Dartmouth almost always traveled to its annual showdowns with both Harvard and Yale. Because Memorial Stadium holds only 20,000 and the other two schools can accommodate crowds nearly twice that size. Dartmouth athletic officials found the yearly road trips financially advantageous.

In the early '70s, however, attendance marks at New Haven and Cambridge dropped considerably, and consequently, the Green began hosting its rivals every other year.

History shows that Dartmouth has not capitalized on the home advantage, as Harvard has won four of the six previous match-ups at Memorial Stadium.

But two of those wins came in 1884 and 1946, and an updated look at the rivalry reveals that the Green won the last game in Hanover, 30-12.

In addition, the Crimson has not beaten Dartmouth since the fall of 1978, when every player in today's contest was still in high school.

Still, an even more recent history shows that the Green has an 0-4 season record while Harvard boasts a 3-1 slate.

Dartmouth supporters are quick to note that their team dropped decisions to three very tough non-conference opponents and that going 1-3 at the beginning of last season (0-3 non-conference) didn't stop Dartmouth from sharing the 1981 League title with Yale.

The fact remains, however, that Penn, Colgate, and William and MAry all racked up more than 400 yards total offense against the Big Green defense, with Colgate collecting a whopping 544.