Thank God The Game meant nothing. Harvard and Yale weren't fighting for an Ivy League championship this year. They were just fighting, as they do in most of these meetings, for a little respect.

Yale won the respect with a 26-17 victory over the Crimson at Harvard Stadium.

It was the first time in three years that Yale had won The Game.

The Crimson, picked by many experts to finish in first place this year, wound up 2-5 in the Ivy League, 2-8 overall, its worst effort since 1950, when Harvard went 1-7.

Yale finished the season with a 3-6-1 mark.

Tom Yohe, who was injured in the Crimson's game against Brown four weeks ago, started at quarterback, leading Harvard to 17 points.

"I played because it's the Yale game, and the tradition," Yohe said. "This will probably be the last game I ever play in."

Yohe threw for 78 yards on six-of-14 passing. His backup, Tim Perry, who came on with 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter, completed three-of-10 passes for 35 yards. He also ran for 49 yards on five carries.

"We had been preparing all week for Tom not to play," Perry said. "So most of the week I called the plays. I was ready."

The Game belonged to Yale.

The Ivy League title was split between Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. Cornell beat Penn, 19-6, in Ithaca, N.Y. this afternoon.

Today featured a pair of down-and-out teams fighting only for The Game. Harvard rallied from a 13-0 deficit in the first quarter to take a 17-13 lead in the first half.

"Coming in we had a lot to prove," Yohe said. "I think this an example of the season. We play well in spurts, then something happens to end it."

For Harvard, the Game was the final cruel loss for a championship team gone awry. The Crimson expected to fight for the Ivy League title after returning 11 starters from last year's team.

Harvard's Tony Hinz, the hero in last year's Game, rushed well today. He had 137 yards on 25 carries. In last year's Game, Hinz rumbled for 161 yards.

Yale came out in the first half looking to establish the run early.

On their first possession of The Game, the Elis drove 83 yards in 17 plays, consuming 8:36 of time, all on the ground.

A motion penalty on first and goal from the 10-yd. line did not stop the drive. From the 15, QB Darin Kehler kept the ball, shed cornerback Henry Olson's tackle at the 10 and fought his way to the four-yd. line. Fullback Kevin Callahan jumped over from the one-yd. line a play later.

"We couldn't stop the run, I'm not sure why," Crimson linebacker Greg Ubert said.

"We had a lot of mistakes today," Ubert added. "We had good field position, but we gave it up because we couldn't move the ball."

Harvard was not as impressive on its first drive. Yohe did hit wideout Mark Bianchi for 20 yards on third-and-14. But Don Gajewski was unable to hold onto a third-down Yohe pass and the drive died.

The incomplete pass turned into a big play when punter Alan Hall, who has had only two of his 120 punts blocked in his career, had his punt stuffed by Richard Huff. Brian Hennen picked up the ball in stride and sprinted 35 yards to score.

Down 13-0, Harvard came out on its next drive looking more like it did in last year's Game. David Haller got loose on the kickoff, carrying the ball 38 yards into Yale territory. Hinz moved the ball on the ground, and Yohe beat the blitz with a side-arm pass to Gajewski for 15 yards on third and three.

But then Harvard began to look more like this year's Crimson unit. Harvard is first in the Ivy League in total offense, but has been unable to convert the yardage into points. Yohe was sacked and Jim Reidy was nailed for a loss on third and 10. Hall nailed a 32-yard field goal to get Harvard on the scoreboard.

Yale did not attempt its first pass until there were 12 minutes remaining in the half.

Harvard closed the gap on its next drive. Yohe connected with Gajewski for 29 yards, and Tony Hinz got outside for 17 yards to the 10. On third-and-seven from the seven, Hinz scored the third touchdown of his career against Yale, taking the hand-off and running untouched for the score.

Hall, who nailed a pair of 47-yd. field goals against Boston University two weeks ago, hit one from 44 yards. But Yale was called for unnecessary roughness when a Bulldog ran into holder Rod MacLeod, giving Harvard an automatic first first down.

Harvard Coach Joe Restic elected to take the points off the scoreboard, which would have tied the game.

Restic's gamble paid off two plays later. Yohe faked to Hinz and handed off to Jim Reidy, who cut inside and galloped nine yards for a 17-13 Harvard lead.

Yale inserted backup quarterback Mark Brubaker with two minutes left in the first half to get the passing attack going. Brubaker is considered more of a pure passer than Kehler. He lost the starting job earlier this year after tossing 10 interceptions.

After Brubaker had two potential interceptions dropped by Harvard, Kevin Brice broke up the middle for 26 yards, and from the shotgun formation on third and nine, Brubaker lofted the ball to Callahan on a screen pass. Callahan followed his blocks, and then leaped over from the three-yd. line. There were 26 seconds left on the scoreboard.

Yale went into the locker room leading, 19-17. Neither squad moved the ball well in the third quarter. It seemed that Harvard had finally begun to stall Yale's one-dimensional squad.