Perhaps Harvard had reclaimed its rhythm. After Princeton had stormed down half the field in under a minute, the Crimson responded, marching 52 yards in 86 seconds to the Princeton 5-yard line.

One, two, three downs later, and Harvard hadn’t budged an inch, let alone a yard. Fourth down proved to be the most disastrous yet, and a blocked field goal meant the Crimson was thwarted again.

With under 2:30 remaining, the Tigers struck for the third time in the quarter. Another touchdown, putting the hosts only two points away from knotting the score at 34. Mercifully, the two-point attempt proved futile, and the Crimson escaped clinging to the narrowest of leads.

But the bad news kept coming for Harvard. Three-and-out, Princeton ball. First down after first down for the Tigers. And then, a prayer, thrown up and brought down in the corner of the end zone. Touchdown Princeton, ahead, 39-34, with eight seconds left.

Moments later, as time wound down on the game clock and the Crimson’s shot at perfection, the stunned orange-and -black faithful stormed the field.

***

This is my 30th—and final—sports column for The Crimson or, barring something fairly unforeseen, any publication.

Of all the types of stories—the recaps, the blog posts, the features—none captivate me quite like column writing. It offers almost total freedom in distilling a story to its core essence.

For that, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the great LA Times columnist Jim Murray, whose collected works I stumbled upon in the summer of 2011. He understood what makes sports, and people, tick.

About baseball’s spring training, he once wrote, “It’s March. Everybody wins the pennant. Every pitcher is Cy Young. Every batter is Ty Cobb.” He understood that, before every season or even game, there exists a sense of optimism, at least of some sort, and uncertainty.

Because you really never know. Often times, things turn out exactly as planned. But sometimes, the unexpected or, to paraphrase Vin Scully, the impossible happens. The hero becomes the goat, or the goat the hero; the heavily-favored defending champion allows 29 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and, inexplicably, loses.

It’s all part of a circularity, of sports, of stories. You never know where it’s headed, never know what’s coming next. And that’s the point.

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at  robertsamuels@post.harvard.edu.