1909: Unbeaten Teams and Hoopla, But What a Lousy Football Game!

Since 1875 Harvard and Yale have met almost every year for The Game and only two world wars and the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 have been able to stop it.

It has become one of the longest of Harvard's long traditions, but The Game tomorrow will be the first time in 59 years that both teams have entered the contest undefeated.

That famous Eli-Crimson contest in 1909 featured the old brand of hit-'em-while-they're-down football. The Houghton Machine that Harvard coach Percy Houghton fielded that year had already trounced eight teams before the decisive game with scores as high as 17-0.

Against Army early in the season, Harvard had run its flying wedge over the goal line from the two, killing the famous Army captain Gene Byrne, who was posthumously listed on Walter Camp's All-American team of 1909. The wedge play did win the game 9-0 for the Crimson, however.

As a result of the incident, Army broke off its series with Harvard and the old Ivy League initiated the first of its new reforms, including the free substitution rule allowing players to return to a game after they are taken out.

Football was changing in 1909. The forward pass was starting to break in on the scene; and Harvard's own All-American Ham Fish was leading the way. In naming Fish to his 1913 All-time All-American team, Walter Camp termed him "a leader of men. He is six feet four, and the stretch of his arms into the air, as can be readily appreciable, is considerable," Camp said.

But the game of 1909 was not destined to be a breakthrough for modern football. Both teams relied on their rushing attack and on their rock-solid defenses.

Although over twelve of Walter Camp's All-Americans confronted each other on the field, only Yale's old Mr. Everything, captain Ted Coy, starred.

The contest immediately slipped into a defensive battle. Early in the first quarter, Yale broke through the Harvard line deep in Crimson territory to block a punt and tackle the hapless punter in the end zone for a two point safety.

Yale used five key penalties against Harvard and Coy's high punts to keep the Crimson in poor field position, but the Elis could never muster a drive of their own to penetrate farther than the Crimson 29.

Finally very late in the first half, Coy drop-kicked a 29-yard field goal through the uprights. Yale stormed back in the second half to cap another drive to Harvard's 32 with Coy's second three-pointer of the day, and that was enough to put an end to Harvard's undefeated record.