Cridiron Chosts

Noted names, famous formations, and sanguinary struggles fill the history of a 24-year series of gridiron contests between the University and the University of Pennsylvania. Twenty games were played between 1881 and 1905, and the Crimson hosts bore off the laurel and the palm in 13 encounters.

The series was perhaps the only rivalry between two large universities which held no tie games. With a few exceptions, every contest was decided by a score which, if not topheavy, was at least decisive.

Played Four Games in Eight Days

Ambition was the key note of Harvard's football program in 1881, and the first game with the Red and Blue of Pennsylvania was an incidental in a stretch of four games played in eight days. On Saturday, October 29, the University engaged the Brittania Football Club at Montreal. Two days later the University of Michigan eleven visited the Boston Baseball Grounds, and two days after that, Pennsylvania and Harvard met on the Polo Grounds in New York. Three days later, on Saturday, November 5, Columbia came to Cambridge. The Crimson flashed in triumph in each of these four games, and then the eleven took a rest.

Harvard took this first meeting by two goals and two touchdowns to nothing. In 1883 a numerical scoring system was introduced, which counted a safety as 2, a touchdown 4, a goal from the field 5, and a touchdown followed by goal, 6. Under this system Harvard took the 1883 game, 4 to 0, and lost the next year by the same score. A 28 to 0 victory in 1886 started the Crimson off on a series of five triumphs by lopsided counts, until the Quakers won by 18 to 4 in 1894, and ushered in. The Golden Age of Pennsylvania football.

It was in the football of the Mauve Decade that the brightest stars shone, and the greatest machines rolled over all opposition. The famous "Deland Flying Wedge" of Harvard was answered by the "Guards Back", devised by George Woodruff of Pennsylvania. From 1894 on, this formation crushed Harvard teams under foot for four years. By sheer force of weight and spirit the University elevens were able to keep the score low, but the Quakers always scored enough to take the game.

Placement Kick Unique

In the 1897 encounter, won by the Red and Blue, 15 to 6, Morice of Penn sprung a surprise when he took the hall on a pass from center, and held it for Minds, great Penn kicker, to boot a placement goal. This was the first placement goal ever kicked in a game which Harvard played.

This struggle also saw the entrance into fame of P. D. Haughton '99, later coach of the Crimson camp in its greatest glory. Minds was regarded as the mightiest kicker of the time, but Haughton consistently outkicked him throughout the game, and the comparative closeness of the score was due in no small measure to Haughton's powerful toe.

In 1898 the "Guards Back" suddenly failed to function, and Harvard won by 10 to 0, and was off on another string of wins. A defense against the "Guards Back" was devised by W. H. Lewis '95, which smeared every attempt.

Briefly, the "Guards Back" play was planned on the wedge principle. With five men on the line of scrimmage, the ends were drawn into the backfield. At the signal, the right guard left his place, and came into the backfield, while the right halfback jumped into the vacant place in the line. The quarterback passed to the guard, who plunged into the line. The quarterback, left halfback, fullback, and ends got behind him and pushed. No line could stand against this sharp-pointed wedge.

Defense Cue From Austerlitz

Napoleon gets the credit, according to Lewis, for the solution of the problem. Faced by a similar wedge directed against his center, at the Battle of Austerlitz, the Little Corporal massed reserves behind the point of attack, and swept cavalry in from the sides, to catch the advancing wedge in a vise.

Lewis turned the cavalry into tackles and ends, and massed his backs in a solid group behind the center. The backs bore the thrust of the head of the wedge, and the tackles and ends swept in to demolish the sides of the Quaker wedge. The play was stopped, Pennsylvania was stopped, and victory lighted on the Crimson banner again.