Yale Series Filled With Surprises; Eli Manager Scored Point In '52

Ten years ago Yale crushed Harvard, 41 to 14. Forty of the Elis' points were not particularly galling--after all, the Bulldogs only lost two games that fall, and no one had given the Crimson much of a chance to contain them. But the 41st point touched off a dispute that threatened for a while to strain relations between the two old rivals.

The last Yale point was tallied by manager Chuck Yeager, on a pass from quarterback Ed Molloy. Coach Jordan Oliver had slipped his little manager into the game for one play, and Yeager, wearing No. 99, went almost unnoticed as he caught the aerial on the one-yard line and went over to score.

"It Stinks"

Many people thought the ultimaate humiliation for Harvard had finally come. Crimson coach Lloyd Jordan said publicly "that sort of thing makes football," but insiders felt that he was less than pleased by the incident. Captain John Nichols was less reticent about his feelings, declaring, "Frankly, I think it stinks."

Other surprises have marked this 86-year old series--for instance the unprecedented 54 to 0 rout perpetrated by Yale in 1957. This element of the unexpected, always present in a game whose outcome rests traditionally on the uncertain factor of morale, has made the Harvard-Yale rivalry the greatest in college football.

The Game no longer decides the national championship, as it did for many years. Nor does the Harvard-Yale contest now pit the country's greatest players against each other in a head-to-head competition, as was the case for three fabulous seasons between 1929 and 1931. In those last glorious days of football at the two colleges Crimson quarterback Barry Wood and Eli halfback Albie Booth staged battles that were watched by every sports fan in the land.

Wood took their initial encounter, kicking the extra point and field goal that gave the Crimson its 10 to 6 margin. Wood won again in 1930. He threw two touchdown passes as Harvard triumphed 13-0. The strong Crimson line bottled up Booth almost completely and, the CRIMSON reported, made him "look like an average back, flashy but unconvincing, ion by Fritz Drill.

Booth's Revenge

But Booth wreaked his revenge in 1931. The high-flying Crimson, sporting a 14-13 win over Army, went into the contest undefeated and untied. The teams seesawed back and forth and went into the fourth quarter tied, 0 to 0. Booth completed a pass deep in Crimson territory, and seconds later drop-kicked the ball between the uprights to give Yale a 3-0 victory.

In the eventful history of the series, the 1951 encounter also stands out as a memorable thriller. Yale came from behind to tie the Crimson 21 to 21, late in the fourth quarter. The varsity's three scores all came in dramatic fashion--a fourth-down finger-tip cacth of a pass by end Paul Crowley, an 84-yard run by halfback John Ederer, and a pass intercep-

Drama Absent

Harvard-Yale clashes in the past several years have lacked this spine-tingling quality. Yale humiliated the varsity in 1956 by a 42-14 margin, and then clobbered the injury-ridden Crimson 54-0 the next year.

This set the stage for revenge: Charlie Ravenel paced Harvard to a 28-0 win over the hapless Elis in 1958; he turned in another sprakling performance the next year when the Crimson overwhelmed the Bulldogs 35 to 6. In 1960 Yale turned the tables again, as Jordan Olivar's unbeaten Elis poured it on, 39 to 6.