“I keep saying this will be my last year,” she says.

“You’ve been saying that for years,” Darlene responds.

Later, Michael and Steve arrive and share their pre-game analysis before heading up to report for 830 AM radio in the pressbox.

“I don’t know what tailgates are like in the Big 10, but this is one of the better tailgates around,” Michael says.

When it’s in full swing, two dozen people hover around the tables, eating from red plates with red utensils and cleaning up with football-print napkins.

By 12:15, with kickoff just 15 minutes away, the group scrambles to pack up the platters and lock them away in the trunk. They’ll be back after the game and plan to stay until dark.

After The Game

In the game, Harvard came back from a 14-0 deficit to win 28-21. Students charged the field, joining the players in raucous celebrations.

After the team left the stadium, kids tossed footballs with their parents down on the field and gulls swooped to pick up French fries and popcorn in the stands. Out in the Harvard parking lots, celebrations got underway almost immediately.

One truck with a Harvard banner blared fight songs off a Harvard Glee Club record from the 1950s.

Robert T. Shaunessy ’59 was the captain of Crimson football his senior year. His wife Elaine asks him to turn down the volume so people can talk, but Bob isn’t paying attention. He has been playing this record for more than four decades.

“I used to play this before the game to get excited,” he says, leaning over the steering wheel to crank up the stereo.

President Lawrence H. Summers dropped by the cheerleaders’ tailgate, where the squad feasted on an eight-foot sub and cookies. His 11-year-old daughters had seen them on the field and wanted autographs. Summers reciprocated and took photos with some of the cheerleaders.

Nearby, Steven Ranere ’69, who played on the last team to enter the Harvard-Yale game undefeated in 1968, served his own homemade wine and sausages. He assumed his party would go until the stadium gates closed at 8 p.m.

Across the street in the parking lot of Harvard’s business school, the atmosphere at the University of Pennsylvania tailgates was more somber. But even hours after the game, some faithful remained beside their grills, eating leftovers and second-guessing the game.