Alfred E. Vellucci, the former Cambridge mayor notorious for his zealous feuds with Harvard, died last Thursday in Cambridge City Hospital. He was 87.

Vellucci’s conflicts with Harvard began in 1956, his first year on the Cambridge City Council, when he proposed separating the University from Cambridge.

His most famous threat was a plan to purchase Harvard Yard by eminent domain and pave it over for public parking, thereby solving Cambridge’s parking problems.

“We will cut all their trees and all their landscape after confiscating their land by police force if necessary,” a 1988 Crimson article quoted him as saying.

In 1964, Vellucci proposed using urban renewal laws to raze Harvard buildings—including Straus, Lehman and Mass. Halls—in order to solve Harvard Square’s traffic problem.

His plans for the Yard changed again in 1968 when he proposed the city government dig out Harvard Yard to build an underground garage and bus depot.

Vellucci’s animosity toward Harvard existed since his early childhood, said Robert W. Winters, a longtime Cambridge political observer.

Born in Somerville, Vellucci dropped out of school in the sixth grade to pursue his first job delivering telegrams to Harvard dormitories for Western Union.

During this time, Winters said, Vellucci developed contempt for everything Harvard.

Vellucci once drove to New Haven for the Harvard-Yale football game and found his way to the Bulldogs’ locker room to deliver a beat-Harvard pep talk.

But proving that your enemy’s enemy is your friend, Vellucci switched allegiances in 1965 when Yale researchers announced that Norwegian Leif Ericson, rather than Italian Christopher Columbus, had discovered America. According to a 1971 Crimson article, Vellucci, an Italian, was incensed.

Along with 50 Italian East Cambridge residents, he purchased a block of tickets for the Harvard-Yale game to root against the Bulldogs. For their victory, the Harvard football team was rewarded with an Italian feast.

Still, Harvard did pay for the mayor’s love for Columbus, as he changed Harvard Square’s name to Christopher Columbus Square for a limited time. Most, however, agreed that this title was better than Piazza Leprechano, as he named the Square one St. Patrick’s Day.

Vellucci held a special animus for the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization which used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

Among other suggestions, he proposed turning the Lampoon building into a dog pound. He later passed a proposal through the Cambridge City Council that declared the Lampoon a public urinal.