Playing The Game year round

It all started with Harvard and Yale, but America's first intercollegiate athletic event wasn't The Game. One hundred and thirty-one years ago, a Harvard crew out-rowed a Yale contingent in the first race of what would become the second biggest Harvard-Yale sports rivalry.

But though the regatta draws thousands to the banks of the Thames River near New London, Conn., it traditionally marks neither the end nor the high point of the schools' seasons. Winning the Eastern Sprint Championship is at least as important as capturing the Harvard-Yale race, and one or both of the teams usually travels to England's Henley Regatta or some other race to close out the season.

Because Ivy League rules prohibit members' football teams from competing in any post-season championship event. The Game will always mean the end, the final chance of the year. And unlike squads in sports such as crew and track, the football team never plays the whole league at once. Equally important, the football teams have traditionally held more equal footing than squads competing in other sports. Harvard crews have enjoyed 18-year and 13-year winning streaks in the last half-century of their series with Yale, hardly the balance of which great rivalries are made.

In many sports, Yale isn't anywhere close to Harvard's level. "They don't deserve any attention." Assistant Men's Swimming Coach Ken Oberg says jokingly. "We have something for Princeton called suits on head, where our swimmers warm up with their swimsuits on their heads, but Yale we have a friendlier relationship with." The Elis certainly made friends last year, as the Harvardtidal wave rolled over Yale, 82-31.

In men's sports, disparity in ability is becoming the rule rather than the exception. Last year Harvard won more Ivy championships (nine) than any school had in any previous season. Yale didn't win a single men's title last year. Harvard men won 61 percent of their league games, the best in the Ivies. Yale won 53 percent, fifth in the league.

In women's sports, things are much closer. One of the best Harvard-Yale rivalries has sprung up in field hockey, where scoreless ties in the last two years have kept Harvard out of the NCAA tournament. "A long as it's Harvard and Yale, we're going to see it as the most important game in the season." Yale field hockey coach Robin Cash says. "If we beat Harvard, then everything else in the season will still be okay."

"It's sort of a psychological thing with Harvard," says Eli stickwoman Molly Pyle. "You start to see them as the enemy." Among "the enemy" is sister Jennifer, who plays on Harvard's JV team. Jennifer was recruited by both Harvard and Yale; she could have gone to either school.

"When a player chooses one school over another, which happens frequently between Harvard and Yale, you're going to get players in a game who want to prove they made the right choice," says Harvard men's basketball Coach Frank McLaughlin.

Even more motivation comes when a thinner package from one admissions office makes the choice of schools for an athlete. One such Eli made the All-Ivy team three straight years. "He always played his best game against us," McLaughlin recalls. "He later told me he used to read his rejection letter from Harvard before he played us each time."

In the last few years, the Crimson-KH rivalry has hosted up in another sport. For the first time, Yale has became something of a contender in Eastern hockey, and roofed off a string of wins over the Crimson. The Building surge has been led by a former Harvard captain, Coach Tim Taylor '63.

In 1983, Harvard overlook Yale in the final days of the season to take a playoff spot away from the Ells Last year, the two rivals played before 6000 in the Now Haven Collectors, where the Else look a stunning 5-0 win. But two weeks later, Harvard got its revenge before the biggest crowd over to see a game in Bright Hockey Courier, smothering the Ells, 3-0, on the way to an Ivy crown and an Eastern title.