Two separate incidents--both occurring the week before the Harvard-Yale football game--showed school spirit had made a comeback. When the dust settled, two students were expelled and 13 were put on probation for their parts in the incidents.

On Sunday, November 19, 1950, the power went out in Cambridge around 6:22 p.m.

Within minutes, students raised the cry "On to Radcliffe" in the Yard and hundreds poured into the Square. As they made their way toward the women's dorms, they seized red lanterns from nearby construction projects. Five students drove their cars to the Radcliffe Quadrangle and directed the headlights on Cabot and Moors Halls.

Estimates of the crowd varied wildly--as high as 2,000--but in any case, hordes of students climbed fire escapes and invaded the residence halls, where usually they were not allowed past the first floor.

A press account the next day compared the Harvard men to "bulls in a China shop."

Some women dropped paper bags filled with water on the students in defense. Residents in the Whitman and Briggs dorms locked their doors in time to keep out the invaders.

A fire alarm was pulled, bringing four trucks and two police cruisers to the scene. Thirty University police officers tried to keep order, though one reportedly lost his badge and hat.

Power was restored at 7:17 p.m. The men of Harvard, afraid of being identified in the light, finally ran from the dorms.

The only injury that night: a firefighter struck in the eye when a student photographer carelessly discarded a used flash bulb.

By week's end, with The Game approaching, the campus erupted again.

On Friday night, November 24, a handful of Yale band members walked through the Yard blaring Yale fight songs. Slowly students gathered in the Square despite a slight drizzle.

Around 11:45 p.m., firecrackers stared going off. Then the mobs came.

More than 1,000 students from Harvard and Yale alike joined in the riot. They lit Roman candles and set off skyrockets. They brought traffic to a standstill and rocked cars stuck in the disorder.

"What do we eat?" cheered Harvard students, who were in the majority. "Bulldog meat."

A few fistfights broke out. The revelers snapped the electric lines that powered trolley busses and tried to climb aboard police cars.