The Yalies’ prank attempt at The Game was but a pale, failed echo of last year’s epoch in prank history.
After a wholesome afternoon visiting tailgates, Barrett B. Jackson ’06 and her gaggle of friends received two suspicious text messages from an unidentified number. “Remember: SCHOOL ON MONDAY!!! -John Harvard” read the first message, and “Hi [personalized names]! At the THIRD QUARTER KICKOFF, chant “We Suck” to prove to Yale (forever a safety school) that we don’t care! -John Harvard”
But Jackson was not convinced.
“It was pretty stupid sounding, so I didn’t pay much attention to it,” she said. “It was so corny that it never really registered.”
At last year’s game, a group of Elis successfully fooled Harvard students into forming the words “We Suck” with white and crimson signs.
But this year, while spirited Harvard students ran around the stadium clutching Yale’s bulldog mascot “Handsome Dan,” Yalies waited in vain to hear self-deprecating cheers of “We Suck.”
The origins of the prank are unknown, though Yale freshman Brooks Swett suspects the messages were sent to every Harvard student with a cell phone number listed on the facebook.com. But anecdotal evidence suggests this method was not overly successful, as reports indicate only a handful of students received the missives.
Swett, who has a poster of the Harvard Sucks prank on her wall, was less than excited by this year’s debacle. “[Last year’s] was a pretty creative prank and really impressive that they pulled it off,” she said.
Posters featuring text messages from “John Harvard,” on the other hand, will probably sell about as well as those of Yale football team.
