For some Harvard students, the purpose of their journey from Cambridge was not the football.

“We’re not going to The Game. We’re tailgating. Come on. Come ON,” said Peter D. Stemp ’04, who was wearing purple, silver and green Mardi Gras beads around his neck and a beer-soaked shirt.

Aside from a few new tailgates—including a tailgate sponsored by Latino groups that featured a roasted pig—students agreed that the biggest difference from last year’s cold and muddy game day was the beautiful weather in New Haven.

“It’s a hell of a lot warmer!” said Rebecca E. Keegan ’04 of this year’s Game as she drank and chatted with friends in just a t-shirt.

The warm weather allowed Harvard students to proudly display t-shirts berating their mediocre rival college to the south, with snappy slogans like “We’ll kick their asses today and fire their asses tomorrow” and “What do Harvard and Yale students have in common? They both got into Yale.”

But aside from the biting slogans, there did not appear to be much animosity between students.

“I tried to pick a couple of fights, but no one would have it,” said Jack M. Marsh ’06.

And with Yale giving Harvard little competition on the field, Yalies and Cantabrigians may have even become closer.

“I thought Harvard students were belligerent and that they studied a lot harder than we do. But the ones I met were really nice and fun,” said Yale sophomore Emily Wang.

The Game also brought out thousands of alums, spurring some who had graduated years before to try their hand at beer pong again.

“Harvard-Yale tailgates never get old. I’m sure when I’m ninety, I’ll still be tailgating,” said more recent alum Eliot J. Rushonich ’03.

Some alums had more reservations about returning.

“I feel old,” said Yale alum Lorelei S. Wall ’03. “This is my first year back and I still don’t know anyone here.”

Any alums who ventured into the rows of Harvard tailgates also had to face the antics of the undergraduate revelers—and some alums who were partying like they did in their college days.

There were some run-ins with New Haven police officers, during what Schwed termed events of “drunken debauchery.”