says, has helped foster that.

“This summer, we had a cookout at Coach’s house before camp,” Staph says. “We’d never done that before.”

History in the Making

So now the football team stands on the cusp of history. A win Saturday would clinch Harvard’s first perfect season since 1913.

But that’s the ancient past. For current Harvard observers, a more meaningfulstandard is the ’97 club, Harvard’s last team to go undefeated in Ivy play.

So, Coach Murphy, which team is better?

“I don’t know man-for-man if this team is as talented as the ’97 team,” he says. “But this team is as hard-working and as resilient as any team I’ve ever coached.”

And, as dramatic as so many of Harvard’s games were this year, this title might be a little sweeter.

“I don’t think in ’97 we had any close games,” Murphy said Saturday. “This one is a lot more special for that reason. It took a lot more character to get where these guys got this year.”

This year’s success is indeed a tremendous tribute to the Harvard players. But it reflects well on Murphy, too. He’d already shown he could win on pure talent. This year, he led a team that faced heavy odds, jarring injuries and previously insurmountable deficits. In the end, he made Harvard a champion again.