Junior wide receiver Andrew Fischer, pictured in the win against Princeton, has been an instrumental component of the Harvard offense this season.

Want to know how many times the Harvard football team has gone undefeated in the last century? Hold up one finger. Now another. There you have it.

That’s right, the Crimson has finished its season without a loss or a tie only twice in the last 100 years. In that span, Harvard earned a total of 16 Ivy League titles. But perfection is much harder to come by.

Both of those flawless campaigns came within the last 15 years. In 2001, Crimson coach Tim Murphy guided the team to a 9-0 record and his second Ancient Eight championship. Three seasons later, current Houston Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 propelled Harvard to another undefeated 10-0 mark in a record-breaking 2004 campaign.

The 2014 Crimson squad has its own rare opportunity to enter the record books. With a victory against Yale at home on Saturday, Harvard will secure an unblemished 10-0 record and its third Ivy League title in four seasons.

It certainly won’t be easy. The Crimson has defeated the Bulldogs seven straight times, but this year’s Yale squad marches into Cambridge with an 8-1 record, good for second place in the Ancient Eight. The 2014 rendition of The Game will be one of the most meaningful in recent memory—a conference championship and an undefeated season hang in the balance.

While this year’s Harvard team has marched to a sparkling 9-0 mark, the journey hasn’t been smooth at times. Sure, the Crimson rolled past Princeton, 49-7, in what was billed as the toughest game of the year. But just last Saturday, the team needed a 17-point fourth quarter to survive Penn’s upset bid and escape Philadelphia unscathed.

“[Going undefeated is] just so hard to do,” Murphy said. “If you just look at the league historically, there are just not a lot of teams that ever do it.”

MODERN PERFECTION

Indeed, the Crimson’s perfect record thus far must be understood in the context of the constant grind of the Ivy League season. With no weeks off, teams must remain locked in for 10 straight Saturdays. Bye weeks give most college programs a chance to recover from injuries or take a mental break. To succeed in the Ancient Eight, you must win a war of attrition.

The undefeated 2001 team understood that fact, as Harvard surrendered just nine turnovers en route to a perfect record. Such disciplined play allowed the Crimson to prevail in several close games, most notably a 28-26 victory at home against Princeton.

When Harvard fell into an early 14-point hole in the penultimate game against Penn—which possessed an FCS-best 11-game winning streak—the team did not panic. It rattled off four consecutive touchdowns to ultimately secure the 28-21 win.

A week later, the Crimson faced the formidable task of securing an undefeated season in a Yale Bowl filled with more than 50,000 screaming fans. Led by quarterback Neil Rose ’02-’03, who threw for four touchdowns and rushed for another, Harvard outlasted its archrival, earning a 35-23 victory.
Rose holds the all-time program record for both career passing yards and touchdown throws. A freshman in 2001, Fitzpatrick served as Rose’s backup and made two starts.

“I think with all sports teams there’s got to be a good camaraderie in the locker room,” Fitzpatrick said. “I know we had that. I had that all four years there. Especially in ’01, I happened to be the backup quarterback that was going in when the starter went down. There was always a good support system.”

Crimson fans found themselves biting their fingernails throughout the fall of 2001, as four of the team’s wins were decided by 10 points or less. But while the nerves certainly existed, so did the enthusiasm. The New York Times ran a Sports Saturday feature on the football fever sweeping Cambridge. Chemistry professors discussed the team in dining halls, then-President Lawrence H. Summers participated in practice drills, and the executive director of the Harvard Varsity Club found children at his doorstep demanding tickets to the Penn game instead of candy.

When all was said and done, Murphy’s squad had earned the program’s first perfect season since 1913.

THREE YEARS LATER...

While the 2001 Crimson pulled out close wins and kept turnovers to a minimum, the 2004 undefeated team found success through another form of consistency—namely, a high-powered offense that could always put up big numbers.