After an 1884 ruling by Harvard's Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports, all official play in football was abolished for the scholastic year 1885--because of what the committee labeled undue violence.

Violence also caused a two-year hiatus in football competition between Harvard and Yale during 1895 and 1896.

But Harvard football has also weathered brawls of a less physical, more moral nature.

The Crimson faced the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in the last game of the 1947 season. Fearing racial violence, Virginia officials attempted to prevent Harvard's black tackle, Chester M. Pierce '48, from taking part in the game.

But Harvard refused to play without him, making Pierce the first black to play in an intersectional game below the Mason-Dixon line.

The beginning of the 20th century was characterized by innovation in play and abundant enthusiasm.

Head Coach Percy Haughton, Class of 1899, was rumored to have strangled a bulldog just prior to the 1908 Yale game. Haughton, known as an innovator for his staffing and scouting sytems, oversaw a 33-game winning streak during his nine-year stint--and also developed three-time All-American Edward W. Mahan '16.

The ever-growing football mania gradually manifested itself in a more organized form of madness--pranks.

In 1929, members of the Lampoon stole a fence traditionally used as a backdrop for a photo of Yale's football captain. Substituting a janitor for the Eli captain, the Lampy editors took a mock version of the picture before returning the stolen booty.

Coach Dick Harlow, along with star players like running back Torbert H. MacDonald '42 and guard Endicott Peabody '42, helped build the Crimson's reputation for strong play during the 1930s and 40s.

An expert at dealing with brute force on the field, Harlow showed delicate care in his collection of rare birds' eggs off the field. After his retirement in 1947, Harlow became a curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Along with the inaugural season of official Ivy League play in 1956 came a reassertion of the old pecking order placing academics above athletics.

This policy once led to the post-ponement of a Harvard-Dartmouth freshman game because a majority of the players had an economics test scheduled. To this day, any player on academic probation may not participate in varsity athletics.

As if to combat the pending seriousness, resourceful Harvard students staged a spot of comic relief at the 1955 Harvard-Yale game: during halftime, the Yale Marching Band was forced to share the field with several greased pigs.

But the 1950s were distinguished by more than just porcine playfulness. In 1957, John Yovicsin was named Harvard's 22nd head coach, commencing a career which spanned 14 seasons and produced a 78-42-5 record.