The game was, for the most part, a dominant Yale performance. But the final 42 seconds, when Champi strung together that miraculous 16-0 run, are all history seems to recall.

“We didn’t deserve to win the game,” Crim said. “It almost would have been disrespectful to a very great Yale team that they had lost that game. I remember walking off of the field with Calvin Hill, and it felt okay to me that it felt like we won, but we tied, and that’s the way it should have ended.”

The 1996 change in NCAA rules that added overtime ensured that the 29-29 tie would be the eighth and final in the Harvard-Yale rivalry, locking the game in posterity.

“There are a lot of close games that come down to the wire, and there are thrilling endings,” Champi said. “But typically what happens is that teams get close, they’re fighting to come back, and something happens. But that day, everything fell into place.”

A missed extra point. Six fumbles. A controversial pass interference call. An imperfect onside kick that ended up working out perfectly. Everything did fall into place at Harvard Stadium on Nov. 23, 1968 in a fitting culmination of a highly anticipated game.

And even though the record books show the Crimson and the Elis sharing the 1968 Ivy League championship, those who witnessed and played in that game know the real story, and maintain their opinions, even 45 years later.

“It was absolutely the most winning tie in history,” Cramer said. “No doubt about it.”

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samantha.lin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @LinSamnity.