Once the practices were complete, opening day finally arrived. Maine came to Cambridge fresh off a 38-0 defeat of Fort McKinley a week earlier, and the Black Bears, according to The Crimson, were “prepared to give the University a hard rub.”
The team Harvard put on the field for its opener was an inexperienced one, with a group of players that The Crimson stated “as a whole have had little experience in University football.” Following the graduation of All-Americans such as end L.D. Smith and guard Bob Fisher, both Class of 1912, half of the Crimson’s starting lineup came from the previous year’s freshman team.
Despite its youth—which may have led to what The Crimson called a “distinct lack of team-play” in its first game—Harvard was able to shut out Maine, 7-0. Brickley scored the team’s only touchdown on an early 17-yard run. After bringing the ball to the Crimson 20, the Black Bears had the chance to tie the game on its next drive. On fourth down, Maine ran a fake field goal, but a pass missed a wide-open receiver in the end zone—instead hitting the crossbar directly in front of him—thus ending the Black Bears’ best threat.
Following a week of “hard scrimmages,” Harvard’s offense was much more in sync, as the Crimson topped Holy Cross, 19-0, in a contest dominated by the ground game. Harvard opened with 10 consecutive rushes that led to a Brickley score. Hardwick was featured in the second period, and a 35-yard gain helped set up his first touchdown of the afternoon. Before the period was over, Brickley had added his second score, and in the subsequent half, Harvard put in its bench players, who according to The Crimson “were weaker [than the starters] but far from bad.” Though Holy Cross made it down to the Crimson 12, the Harvard reserves successively forced the Crusaders’ running backs into a combined 15 yards in losses to preserve the shutout.
Reporting on the game the following Monday, the paper stated that Harvard “showed two things clearly; namely, that the changes in the rules which have been the cause of a good deal of skepticism among followers of football have not spoiled the game, and that the Harvard squad has on it men who may be depended upon to turn out a team well up to the standard.”
The Crimson cruised to another win on October 12, topping Williams 26-3. The Ephs’ points—the first of the season against Harvard—came as a result of what The Crimson called a “splendid” succession of forward passes in the second quarter. The following weekend, Harvard dominated Amherst, steamrolling to a 46-0 victory. The shutout came despite the absence of Wendell—who had suffered a cut behind his ear in practice that week—as Hardwick picked up the slack with a 60-yard touchdown run.
With its captain back, the Crimson played its first future Ivy League foe, Brown, on Oct. 26. The Bears—who, according to The Crimson came into the game outweighing Harvard 179 to 175 pounds on average—contained a backfield “composed of the hardest of line plungers.” But despite their size, the Bears were no match for Harvard, which cruised to a 36-10 victory. The successive wins to that point led The Crimson to note that “the early season games have conclusively proved that the 1912 team is well up to the average of Harvard football teams of former years.”
A DATE WITH THE PRINCE
As the calendar turned to November, Harvard was faced with its biggest challenge yet—the defending national champion and, to that point, undefeated Princeton, whom the Crimson had not defeated in a quarter century.
Before the contest, The Crimson stated that “whether [Harvard] is of championship calibre today’s contest will undoubtedly declare.” The game thus aroused “an extraordinary amount of interest” among students, who eagerly picked up $2 tickets at Cambridge locales like Leavitt and Peirce’s, Wright & Ditson’s, and the Co-op and also submitted manuscripts to a football song competition that was open to all members of the university. (The school was resolved to have "good singing at games this year, or none at all," according to The Crimson.) Though Princeton had scored far more points than Harvard—a much more conservative team that tended to punt on first or second down in order to get back on defense—the two squads had similar strengths and weaknesses.
“Both [teams’] backfields have displayed the same consistent, and at times spectacular, ability,” the paper explained, but each squad also “showed the same urgent need of more practice in tackling.”
As the big game approached, The Crimson noted that “predictions as to the result of a game between two teams so evenly matched are practically impossible; but there can be no doubt that it will be unusually interesting and spectacular. Our confidence in our team remains unshaken, for we realize its ability and fighting spirit, and we feel that the memory of last year's [8-6] defeat will help to arouse the players to their greatest efforts.”
On gameday, that was exactly what occurred. The Crimson took a 3-0 lead on a short Brickley field goal. Despite rushing for 109 yards in the first half, Princeton was only able to score via the air, as a 25-yard completion set up a shorter touchdown pass and gave the Tigers a 6-3 lead at the half.
But Brickley’s leg continued to shine, as the sophomore drilled another field goal in the third quarter and then a 47-yarder in the fourth to give the Crimson the lead. Hardwick added a late touchdown run and the extra point to put away a 16-6 victory as the Harvard defense held the Tigers to -9 yards on the ground in the second half.
“Contrary to the general supposition of spectators,” The Crimson noted that Brickley escaped the game with only a few muscle bruises, but Harvard’s coaches nonetheless gave him and the entire team a rest from practice the Monday following the physical match.
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