It wasn't too long ago that Harvard-Yale game was a premiere social event at Harvard. The Game inspired school spirit and ignited an age old rivalry. Alumni who return to campus each year are drawn not only by this year's contest, but by the significance of what once was.

Make no mistake, times have changed. For much of The Game's history, there were no Harvard women representing their alma mater in the stands--those in attendance came from Radcliffe. Male Harvard students twenty years ago dressed up and brought dates to The Game, which played the role of both sporting event and social activity.

Few considered staying home.

"It was the thing to do," Thomas F. Myles '37 said of the event in a recent interview.

The Game takes on a different meaning for more recent alumni, who are familiar with college football as a contest that draws national attention rather than as an event associated with a college and its spirit. Alumni from this era recall the social trappings of the contest and traditional spirit rousing rallies the night before.

"As a freshman I remember pre-game rallies on the steps of the athletic center," said Marlowe A. Sigal '52. Sigal recalled how the Harvard football coach at the time would attend the rally to inspire the crowd and that his greeting would be followed by student renditions of traditional fight songs.

But The Game was equal parts sporting and social event, a chance for students to dress up for a date with friends. As with most Harvard traditions, there was protocol.

"The Harvard-Yale game was a social event and one took a date. One dressed for the game. Coats [and] ties were quite typical," said Sigal.

Myles remembered that trains would come up from New York, carrying mostly alumni headed for The Game.

"The people coming off were beautifully dressed [some] wearing mink coats," he said.

After the game, students occupied themselves with a different activity.

"Fifty years ago it was a sport to tear down the goalpost. They were fairly easy to tear down, being made of wood," Sigal said. "what a dangerous sport that was.

Uprooting the goalposts became an inter collegiate contest in itself. According to Gus B. Lindquist '44, "There was always a fight for the goal post. One would defend it, the other would fight for it."

Once the goalpost were down, the post game celebrations would get underway. Myles recalled that students and their dates would go back to the Houses for cocktails, and then to dinners and dances.

"We Just had a grand time," he said.