Today a nation stands transfixed as once again two presidential candidates representing Harvard and Yale square off. The parallels and improbabilities seem surreal. One can only hope that one day, when we look back at this moment in history, we will feel something approximating the sense of wonder that surrounds the memory of that great contest in 1968.

The morning after the game, in one of the most extraordinary confessionals ever recorded, Harvard's improbable hero Frank Champi confided that the night before he had a dreamlike premonition of what would happen the next day. For all the eeriness and surrounds both that Harvard-Yale football matchup and this Harvard-Yale presidential contest, perhaps, just perhaps, we can take some measure of comfort in knowing that there is a larger, guiding force that will see us through this contest--hopefully with the same sense of calm that Champi exhibited 32 years ago.

John F. Ince is the First Marshal of the Class of 1970. He is now a freelance writer living in Sausalito, Calif.