For Robert T. Shaunessy ’59, Harvard-Yale is a chance to reconnect with the college sport he loves.

Shaunessy, the captain of the 1958 football team, has gone to every game in recent memory, and tailgated for each one. He has his routine down pat; burgers with old friends before the game, and then he’s packed up by 11:50 a.m., ready to catch the kickoff.

“I just love football,” he said, as he prepared to head into the Yale Bowl.

But as he looked across muddy fields to the student tailgate, Shaunessy said he has also seen a change since his college days.

“We had food and cocktails,” Shaunessy said of tailgates past, as he watched a student sway and trip past him. But today, “these kids drink until they’re on the ground.”

Several students from Yale also stole Shaunessy’s giant ‘H’ flag and tried to burn it.

“The flag’s $50. I can always get another one,” he said. “But it showed a lack of respect.”

The Game is a newer tradition for 1977 Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate William M. Marticorena—he has been to three—but he goes with the same purpose: to reconnect with old friends.

Marticorena, who lives in California, flies across the country each year for the game to see an old friend from HLS, who now lives in New York.

Harvard-Yale “gives us bonding time,” he said. “We can catch up.”