For Openers, It's Harvard vs. Columbia

For openers:

Saturday's Harvard-Columbia gridiron showdown will mark the 10th straight year the two squads have met in the season opener. The Crimson has won eight of the previous nine, including six in a row, and is 9-2 all-time in opening-day games against Columbia.

Harvard, which knocked out the Lions, 35-21, in the season opener a year ago in New York City, has won four straight away openers. In fact, its last loss in an away opener came in 1949, when Stanford pasted a visiting Harvard squad, 44-0.

If that's not enough history on Harvard's side, then consider its 94-15-2 record in season openers.

And then just consider the opponent.

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Columbia, which didn't win a contest last year, will enter Saturday's 1:30 p.m. game as co-holder of the longest current non-winning streak in all of Division 1-A and 1-AA football. The Lions have gone 14 games in a row without a victory, and that ties them with Tennessee Tech--also in Division 1-AA--for the dubious honor.

Add Division II to this mess, and Columbia falls into a four-way tie for second place among NCAA football teams currently enjoying non-winning streaks. Columbia joins Tennessee Tech, Graham Valley State and Morgan State--all with 14 losses apiece--on the list of teams who haven't won a game since 1983.

Only the University of the District of Columbia of Division II fame has a longer non-winning streak. Its streak--the longest current non-winning streak in all of college football--is at 21.

As far as losing streaks are concerned--these don't include ties--Columbia has the second longest active losing streak in Division 1-AA. The Lions have lost 11 straight. They trail--guess who--Tennessee Tech, which has chalked up 14 consecutive losses.

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Still not convinced the Lions might own one of the worst football programs of the last five years?

Consider this: Columbia has never won a game at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, its record over the last five years is 5-42-2, it hasn't won a game since it beat Yale, 21-18, in 1983, and it hasn't won a game at home since early 1982, when it defeated Princeton, 35-14.

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Harvard Coach Joe Restic is now in his 15th year at the helm of the Crimson, making his tenure the longest among any head coach in the 112-year history of the Harvard program.

His 14-year record of 77-48-5 places him second on Harvard's all-time football coaching victory list, but a win Saturday would tie him with John Yovicsin for first place on the list.

Two victories this season will make Restic Harvard's all-time winningest coach.

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This year marks the second in a row that Harvard has traveled to Columbia for the season opener. That's because the two Harvard-Columbia games before last year were both played here, when construction of the Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Field took place.

Harvard was on hand for the ceremonies when Columbia's new stadium opened last fall, and you better believe Restic & Co. will be happy to be back there Saturday.

Restic, who sports a 13-1 lifetime record against Columbia, has never lost an away game against the Lions. He's 6-0 against Columbia on the road.

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From the Saint's file, senior running back Robert Santiago is looking to become the first Crimson running back since Vic Gatto to earn first team All-Ivy honors two straight years. Gatto turned the feat in 1967 and 1968.

Santiago enters the 1985 season with 1002 career yards and needs just 706 yards to pass Jim Callinan for fifth place on the all-time Harvard career rushing list.

Santiago's 822 yards a year ago put him at number four among Harvard's all-time single-season rushing leaders.

Interestingly enough, the San Antonio, Tex. native rushed for one-quarter of his season total a year ago in the season opener at Columbia. His 204 yards on 24 carries was the second-best effort ever by a Harvard running back, and the best since Vern Struck's 1937 effort of 233 yards against Princeton.

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Columbia Coach Jim Garrett makes his debut back in the college ranks this weekend, but considering the past success of Lion coaches, Garrett might just wish he were back at Susquehanna College, where he compiled a 39-11-1 coaching record from 1960-65.

The average winning percentage of the last four Lion coaches--whose tenures date from 1957-1984--is 245. Bob Naso, the latest casualty at Columbia, lasted five years. That was enough time to pick up a 081 winning percentage.

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This week's trivia question concerns Garrett, who will coach his son, John, a starting wide receiver for the Lions.

Now name the last father-son combination in Ivy League football. Answer below.

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Despite all this talk of Columbia's porous past, let's not forget that with seven minutes to go in last year's game, Harvard (5-4 overall, 5-2 Ivy last year) found itself on top by less than a touchdown, 27-21. Brent Wilkinson, the captain of this year's Crimson squad, returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown with three minutes to go to put the game out of reach.

Other highlights of last year's showdown before a capacity crowd of 10,500 included Santiago's 204 yards rushing and senior quarterback Brian White's first career scoring pass.

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Ever wonder what a Harvard football player does in the summer?

The complete breakdown from this past summer is as follows: 13 percent had summer jobs in banking or finance, 11 percent had jobs in law, 11 percent in consulting or research, 11 percent in engineering, 9 percent in real estate, 5 percent in personal business, 5 percent worked as painters, 5 percent worked as lifeguards.

And on top of the list were 39 percent of the squad members, who worked in construction or maintenance.

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Penn, which last year became the first Ivy team since the 1970 Dart-mouth squad to win all seven of its league games, opens defense of its 1984 crown this weekend against Cornell.

If they pull the trick, the Quakers--who have won three straight Ancient Eight crowns-- would become the first Ivy team since Dartmouth to win four titles in a row. The Big Green did it in the late '60s and early '70s.

Elsewhere around the Ivy League this weekend, Princeton visits Dartmouth and Brown travels to Yale.

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From this week's trivia file come this fact: Harvard and Columbia have identical bowl records. Both are 1-0-0 in bowl games, with each squad earning victories in the Rose Bowl. Harvard beat Oregon, 7-6, in 1919 and Columbia beat Stanford, 7-0, in 1933.

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Answer to this week's trivia question: the last father-son combination happened, coincidentally, at Columbia, where Coach Aldo T. Donelli coached his son, Richard, in 1958.

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THE NOTEBOOK'S NOTEBOOK: Harvard leads the Columbia series, 32-10-1... Its six straight wins leave the Crimson two shy of the series record... The Lions last defeated the Crimson, 21-19, in 1978... The winner of the past 20 Harvard-Columbia games has scored at least 20 points... The loser has scored 20 points just three times in that span... Harvard is looking for its sixth straight winning season. If it's successful, it would mark the most winning seasons in a row since a 10-year string from 1959-68... If the1