"Guys that had never cheered for anything in their lives suddenly found themselves down on the field howling like madmen and charging everything that wore blue," it wrote.

After the game, the goalposts lasted all of 15 seconds before being "shredded into a thousand souvenirs."

The victory marked the culmination of a 4-4 season that was also highlighted by victories over Columbia, Holy Cross and Dartmouth.

In the Oct. 3 edition of The Crimson, the paper commented on the quality of the football team in contrast to teams past.

The Crimson wrote: "The 1948 edition of the varsity football team [is] the most interesting to watch in at least a decade. It is a new philosophy, based on the basic premise that an electrifying offense is the best defense."

The riotous revelry for the Yale victory was indicative of the importance the campus placed on football in 1948.

Harvard Stadium served as an unofficial "student center" on Saturday afternoons in the fall of 1948.

"The fan support was enthusiastic," says John R. Furrer '49. "The seats were packed and there was great football. The stands were full every weekend. It was a thing to do on a Saturday afternoon in the fall."

Even the women in the stands got into the game.

"There were a few Harvard games that I went to with my wife, and she had to bat somebody with a rolled-up program to get them to sit down so she could watch," says John W. Jacobsen '49, noting that he still follows and supports Harvard football today.

And the students were treated to good football when they ventured across the Charles River to get away from their studies. Even though the team dropped a home contest to Dartmouth that year, the 1948 squad seldom disappointed.

The Crimson boosters even followed the team to games at Cornell, Army and Princeton.

A Crimson article told of how focused on football the Harvard visitors were at West Point.

"A brown limousine nosed through the post-game crowd carrying General Omar Bradley. All Cadets sprang to the curb and snapped to attention; the Harvard partisans continued undisturbed down the road to the parking lots," The Crimson wrote.

The football team's importance to the campus was further augmented by coverage in The Crimson.