On cold but clear November nights, the Ghost of Crimsons Past can still be seen, hovering high above The Stadium that has seen so much in its 90-year history.

Come here, young one, it calls the unsuspecting visitor. Sit down.

Harvard football used to be the best there ever was, the ghost will tell you. Seven national championships in 29 years. In fact, Harvard virtually invented college football as it is played today.

Really? What about the forward pass?

The forward pass was legalized in 1906 to make football a more wide-open game. The alternative was to widen the field by 10 yards, but The Stadium could not be widened so the forward pass was adopted instead. See?

What about the ultimate running attack, the flying wedge--ten people who form a "V" to protect the runner and run downfield? How come Harvard doesn't do that?

Legend has it a Harvard coach came up with that idea in the 1900s but it was quickly banned across the nation for its "homicidal tendencies."

This is all old stuff. What about hot new plays, run-and-gun attacks from top teams like Florida State and Miami? The shotgun? The no-back set? Men in motion?

Ah, young one, you doubt Harvard's omnipotence. The mind that put those plays in Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden's playbook is on the sidelines this weekend, wearing crimson.

What? Ted Kennedy '54-'56?

No--the coach, Joe Restic. Know his Multi-Flex, young one, and remember it well. For contained within it are the roots of football as we know it today.

Wow...

And the Ghost floats off from where it came.

All true? Yes. Cool trivia? Yes. Useful as insight into The Game? No.

From the stands, Restic's Multi-Flex offense looks like a bunch of guys trying to confuse the other team and occasionally themselves as to who has the ball.