For openers:

Saturday's Harvard-Columbia gridiron showdown will mark the 10th straight year the two squads have met in the season opener. The Crimson has won eight of the previous nine, including six in a row, and is 9-2 all-time in opening-day games against Columbia.

Harvard, which knocked out the Lions, 35-21, in the season opener a year ago in New York City, has won four straight away openers. In fact, its last loss in an away opener came in 1949, when Stanford pasted a visiting Harvard squad, 44-0.

If that's not enough history on Harvard's side, then consider its 94-15-2 record in season openers.

And then just consider the opponent.

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Columbia, which didn't win a contest last year, will enter Saturday's 1:30 p.m. game as co-holder of the longest current non-winning streak in all of Division 1-A and 1-AA football. The Lions have gone 14 games in a row without a victory, and that ties them with Tennessee Tech--also in Division 1-AA--for the dubious honor.

Add Division II to this mess, and Columbia falls into a four-way tie for second place among NCAA football teams currently enjoying non-winning streaks. Columbia joins Tennessee Tech, Graham Valley State and Morgan State--all with 14 losses apiece--on the list of teams who haven't won a game since 1983.

Only the University of the District of Columbia of Division II fame has a longer non-winning streak. Its streak--the longest current non-winning streak in all of college football--is at 21.

As far as losing streaks are concerned--these don't include ties--Columbia has the second longest active losing streak in Division 1-AA. The Lions have lost 11 straight. They trail--guess who--Tennessee Tech, which has chalked up 14 consecutive losses.

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Still not convinced the Lions might own one of the worst football programs of the last five years?

Consider this: Columbia has never won a game at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, its record over the last five years is 5-42-2, it hasn't won a game since it beat Yale, 21-18, in 1983, and it hasn't won a game at home since early 1982, when it defeated Princeton, 35-14.

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Harvard Coach Joe Restic is now in his 15th year at the helm of the Crimson, making his tenure the longest among any head coach in the 112-year history of the Harvard program.