Greg Gizzi

As a junior in high school, the California Angels and the Pittsburgh Pirates wanted him. As a senior the Clemson Tigers and Louisville Cardinals football teams wanted him. Six weeks ago he stood on the sidelines at Cornell, third on the Harvard depth chart. Saturday, he will start as quarterback in the biggest game of his life.

His name is Greg Gizzi, and just five games ago he thought he had been written off by the Harvard coaches. But in Harvard's crucial game against Princeton, Gizzi, a senior, finally showed his stuff, and he has been the Crimson's number one signal caller ever since.

The team has made a remarkable turnaround since the Leverett House resident took over at the helm. After the Dartmouth game, they were 2-2-1. Since Princeton, they are 3-0-1, the only blemish on their record coming in a tic against heavily favored, non-league opponent, Holy Cross.

Gizzi never doubted his ability. The Harvard coaches did. After two pre-season scrimmages in which he started and didn't perform as well as the coach expected, Joe Restic chose Chuck Columbo to play the season opener against Columbia.

With Columbia leading the Crimson to a 43-14 romp, and sophomore Brian White the back-up quarterback, the all-state high school quarterback from Irvington, N.Y. appeared destined to spend his senior year on the bench.

Successful at everything else he ever attempted, Gizzi was used to being frustrated in a Harvard uniform. Freshman year he split time at quarterback with Columbo, and the next fall, he was asked to switch to Hanker, because of the Crimson's depth behind the center Gizzi says he felt "lost in the shuffle."

"I didn't play baseball at Harvard because, with two sports, I couldn't have survived gradewise." But he really missed the sport. And sitting on the bench in football, he had some second thoughts. "I knew I could play if I had the chance." But things just weren't working out.

Gizzi decided to switch back to quarterback this year and to complete with eight others for the starting job. He sat on the bench for the last few games, until the ineffectiveness of Columbo and an injury to Sophomore Brian White gave him a shot Gizzi played well enough against Dartmouth in relief to get a start against Princeton.

Gizzi knew it was his one last chance to prove to Restic that he really could do the job. Leading the Crimson to a hard tough 28, 26 squeaker. Gizzi won the starting job. Now he is where he has wanted to be for the last four years, leading the Crimson into the 100th Yale game, and says if he had to do it over again, he's glad be chose New Haven over national television.

"It was a question of priorities," he says. "The big football schools just wanted to know how much I weighed. But Harvard and Brown showed me how many students got into graduate schools. I came to Harvard because I want to be something after football is over."

The Economics concentrator is working to maintain a B + average, and hopes to attend law school next fall. He is also considering working on the stock market. "That's where the money is," he says.

But for now, he is happy playing football. "Football is a good release from the pressures of academics.... A lot of good things happen in the locker room," he says.

Whatever he does when he graduates, Gizzi knows what he doesn't want to do. "Two summers ago I worked on a G.M. assembly line. If I ever considered not finishing up my education, that job changed my mind," he recalls. "Then last summer in addition to studying for LSATs, I delivered oxygen for a surgical supply company. I saw some really sad things, people who didn't have much. It really makes you stop and think, and thank God for what you have. I know I never want to go into the surgical supply business."

Gizzi hasn't been able to sit still in classes this week. "All I can think about is The Game," he says, although he claims he is not nervous. "I'll probably get nervous at the national anthem," he adds. "Though that will go away after I get rapped in the head once."

"Yale will be tougher than their record (1-8)," Gizzi says. "But we can determine the outcome if we play our game. On paper we are the better team. We have been improving every game. I think we are ready to peak."

When Greg Gizzi leads the Crimson squad into the Yale Bowl in front of 70,000 people, it will probably be the last time he suits up for a football game. The 5-ft., 10-in., 185-pounder realizes he is too small to have a real shot at making it in the pros.

"I don't know what I'll do on Saturdays. I've been playing organized football for 12 years," Gizzi says. But whatever he does, he will always have the memories of starting for the Crimson football team in the 100th Harvard Yale game.