Crimson-Blue Rivalry Steeped In Tradition

Both teams may not be as hirsute as their predecessors of seven decades ago, but their fight will be the same when the Harvards and the Yales battle tomorrow for the 64th renewal of their traditional game.

Once the biggest game in football, tomorrow's clash is still the most important one of the year for the hordes of Yale and Harvard students and alumni who will flood New Haven to see it. Regardices of past records, any alumnus of either institution will tell you that upsets are a dime a dozen in the service, and they'll produce the records to prove it.

The Crimson put its best foot forward back in 1875, handing the Elis a decisive defeat to the tune of four touches and four goals to nothing, and both teams have been at it thick and fast ever since. Yale teams have entered the win columns more often than not, and as the series stands now, they own 36 victories to Harvard's 21. Six games have ended in scoreless ties.

Margine of victory have varied from a lone point after touchdown to astronomical figures. The most lopsided win ever racked up by Harvard was a 41 to 0 triumph in 1915. Since his advent in 1935, Harlow-coached forces have won four and lost six.

Of all the embroglios, probably none has equalled the drama of those from 1929 to 1931 when one of Harvard's all time greats, Barry Wood, played opposite the Eli's "little boy Blue", crafty placekicking specialist Albie Booth. In 1929, both met for the first time as sophomores on the turf of the Bowl. Booth missed a field goal that might have turned the tide, and Harvard walked off victorious, 10 to 6. Sportscribe Arthur Daley has called the game one of football's classics.

Booth had his revenge two years later, when he and Wood met again, both as captains of their teams. Undefeated till that game, the Crimson took the opening kickoff to the Bulldog's seven yard line but falled to score. For three grueling periods the teams battled on even terms until in the closing minutes Booth dropkicked a field goal that meant victory for the Elis, 3 to 0.

In the last formal game before some trouble brewing in Europe and the Far East called a momentary halt to the series, an under-dog Yale squad snatched a 7 to 3 win from the Crimson on a bleak rainy Saturday, scoring an upset that many present-day students still remember. Don Richards, later killed in the Normandy campaign, returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown, only to have the score called back because of an offside penalty.

Two years later the teams renewed the contests, but in an 'informal' manner. It wasn't until one year ago that formal football returned to the college scene here, and with it came a struggle that must have ranked with the best of former years, in spirit and color. Yale was the victor by a score of 27 to 14, but those figures don't tell the whole story. A first-half Crimson.

uprising that stunned the New Haven visitors, rated 10 point favorites at the outset, gave Harvard a 14 to 0 lead at the quarter, and a 14 to 18 edge at the half. As some spectators tell the story, "We won the first half; they won the second."

All-Americans have cavorted on the gridiron when Crimson and Blue met in the past. An incomplete list of them includes "the grand old man of football", Amos Alonzo Stagg, Clint Frank for Yale, George Ticknor, Wood, and Chub Peabody for Harvard. But any member of the backfield is apt to look like an All-American when the Bulldog and Old Jawa come to grips. For both teams, the season is not complete without that win.

Tomorrow will be no exception."Haven't We Met Before?"