And a large number of those were rowdy, inebriated students—certainly a departure from most Saturday afternoons, when very few Crimson Crazies actually make it across the river for the game.

The night game has become a regular fixture in the fall social scene in Cambridge, and while in many ways it is viewed as a prelude to The Game—the tailgate is not nearly as big, and the stadium is still lacking 13,000 fans from the capacity crowd that shows up every other November—that doesn’t stop it from being a unique atmosphere appreciated by supporters and athletes alike.

“We’re very grateful for the support we got [Friday night],” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “It was a very exciting, loud, festive atmosphere. The three night games we have had have all been very exciting, down-to-the-wire football games, with big response from the student body and the Harvard community.”

There’s no question that the night game is one of the few times a season that the Crimson truly enjoys a home-field advantage.

In the fourth quarter Friday night, the fans got loud at all the appropriate times—when senior receiver Matt Luft’s feet just barely dragged through the endzone on a pass that was originally declared incomplete, when the game clock stopped working during Brown’s final drive, when the Harvard defense came up with stop after stop as the Bears sought the endzone and the win.

And watching the Crimson players on the sideline turn to the crowd and raise their arms, encouraging the fans’ roars as the seconds ticked away and Harvard’s first victory of the season became a reality, it’s clear that the athletes enjoy the atmosphere even more than the fans.

“It was just fantastic,” Murphy said. “As far as I am concerned, we could play a couple of them.”

While more than one Friday night game might be implausible—Brown and Holy Cross, the two teams to have played at Harvard Stadium at night, are far and away the teams closest to Cambridge—think about it this way:

The last three seasons, Harvard’s first victory has come at home under the lights. In the last two, it has been the first win on the road to the Ivy crown.

If this trend continues, the Crimson Crazies might find themselves under the Friday night lights a bit more often.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.