Gridiron Ghosts

The early days of Harvard-Dartmouth football were consistently disastrous to the representatives of the Big Green. From 1884, when the first gridiron contest between the two colleges was held on Soldiers Field to the beginning of the present century the elevens which issued forth annually from the New Hampshire hills to tackle the Crimson of Cambridge returned home empty handed.

In the 15 contests which took place between Harvard and Dartmouth teams before 1900, Harvard scored a total of 502 points in addition to guarding its goal line successfully against the inroads of the invaders.

With the dawn of the twentieth century, however, the situation changed materially and for awhile Dartmouth maintained a precarious supremacy. The 1901 Dartmouth eleven was first to score against Harvard, rolling up 12 points, but bowing before its rivals' 27.

Green Triumphs in Stadium Clash

In 1903 the present Harvard Stadium was completed and the Crimson athletic officials decided that a Dartmouth football game would be a fitting baptism for the new arena. The Big Green accordingly made its annual trip to Cambridge, dedicated the new Stadium, and incidentally carried off its first gridiron triumph over a Harvard team by an 11 to 0 score. The Dartmouth team in this encounter was described as unusually heavy, the line averaging 220 pounds to the man from tackle to tackle. One of the conspicuous performers for the Crimson on that occasion was John Parkinson '05, who played center and whose son, John Parkinson Jr. '29, is slated to start at one of the guard positions against the Green today.

Two deadlocks, a Harvard, and then a Dartmouth victory, preceded five straight Crimson wins which led up to the break of 1912. The contest in this year, the last before relations were resumed in 1922, was one of those seesaw affairs, with both teams fighting bitterly for an advantage, which finally came to Harvard through the talented toe of C. E. Brickley '15. Something in the way the Dartmouth forwards handled Brickley after one of his other attempts at a field goal which went wide of its mark, or a desire to put Cornell on the Crimson schedule led to a break in football relations between Harvard and Dartmouth following this game.

When the series was resumed in 1922 a well developed forward passing attack gave Harvard a 12 to 3 decision, but in the next year the Crimson tasted defeat for the third time in football history at the hands of a Dartmouth team. The score, 16 to 0, represented the worst beating a Harvard football team had taken since 1907. With the advent of the ensuing lean years on the Stadium gridiron Dartmouth continued to carry off football triumphs until last year's last minute comeback enabled the Crimson to interrupt the string of Big Green successes. By Time Out.