This year at the Palestra- where it arrived just 45 minutes before game time-Harvard capitalized on the burdens of the past. "If we had won the Dartmouth game, we would not have won this one, "a jubilant Harvard Coach Frank McLaughlin said.
And as for last year, he was determined not to let it happen again, "Our team has worked too hard to let the officials control this game like they did the last time,"he said.
So after a first half that saw Harvard take a 39.33 advantage despite a flurry of questionable calls, a shower of red and blue crepe-paper streamers when Penn first scored,and the Quaker band striking up every time Webster touched the ball,the coach went to the top.
"I talked to the supervisor of officials, "he said, then adjourned to the locker room and instructed his squad not to talk to the refs. Then he returned to the empty Harvard bench and paced in front of it, for effect, while the team warmed up.
The whistles were more to his liking in the second period, despite Carrabino picking up his fourth foul. Would he pull the Ivy player of the year? "Why take him out? I told the other guys, you gotta help Joe in the lane".
So Ferry obliged.
And in between foul shots, the senior guard-who played poorly at the Palestra last year after a week on crutches-racked up 16 points from the floor for a total just one shy of his career high and "one of the highlights of my career".
For an ecstatic Assistant Coach Peter Roby,who had never beaten Penn even as a Dartmouth undergrad, highlight wasn't the word.
Speechless with delight, Roby enveloped McLaughlin in a bearhug as the last four seconds of the game ticked away and the squad found its way into the history books.
It still has a long way to go toward the elusive Ivy title, but the team's biggest concern right now isn't Cornell or Brandeis or even the rematch with Penn.
The biggest concern right now according to Ferry "Exams".