Remembrance of Things Past

Official statistics were not kept. No one is sure what the final score was. But one thing seems clear: Harvard beat Brown. Badly.

The time was preseason, in September. The place was Harvard Stadium. The chief weapon was Tom Yohe's arm. The victim was Brown.

Yohe, the Harvard quarterback, tossed a pair of touchdowns to lead the Crimson over the Bruins, 29-0--or some similar, big score. Brown could barely get the ball past midfield. The Bruins looked bad.

So bad that they're now tied for the Ivy League lead with Harvard and Cornell.

So bad that today's game is the last serious obstacle the Bruins, face in their quest for the Ivy championship.

A win today, and the Bruins are champs tomorrow. They face Dartmouth (0-3 Ivy) and Columbia (0-4 Ivy, 0-37 overall and counting) to close out their league schedule.

Bad. So bad, they fell to Harvard, 29-0, in preseason. Or did they?

Was the scrimmage simply a mirage? Official records were not kept. No one is sure what the final score was.

So, did it happen? Can a team so bad then be so good now?

"We know that they're a different team now," Harvard Captain Kevin Dulsky says. "They've got a lot of guys back [who were missing from the scrimmage], and they've got the momentum of the season."

A bad team becomes a good team. A meaningless, preseason game becomes a meaningful, regular-season showdown.

Down, Not Out

Long ago, Brown was down.

"They weren't as prepared then as they are now," Dulsky says.

Now the Bruins are cruisin'.

"They have a good pass defense," Crimson wide-out Brian Barringer says. "We're not sure about their rush defense. We're going to stick with our balanced [passing and running] attack. It's a big game."

These teams have already played this game. Harvard won, remember? The Crimson whipped the Bruins, sent them scurrying across the Stadium field like frenzied chickens, not potential Ivy League champs.

"We know we can beat them," Dulsky says. "But then there's the feeling that we should beat them..."

'Cause you've beaten them before. Badly.

The game was for pride then. Just a chance to work up a little sweat, score a few touchdowns, go home and forget about it.

Glory Days

The game is for glory now. The winner has the inside track on the Ivy title.

There's a lot of pressure," Crimson running back Tony Hinz says. "But it's not the type of pressure where you panic. This is where we want to be."

You beat Brown before. Does the win give you an advantage?

"The scrimmage might be a psychological advantage," Hinz says. "They've got to be wondering about the blowout."

Or a disadvantage?

"If anything it gives us a disadvantage," Barringer says. "We might go in thinking we can breeze by."

Or neither?

Did it happen? Can it happen again?

Once upon a time, there was a preseason battle between Harvard and Brown...

A fairy tale or a foreshadowing?