Last Hurrah for Restic, Bulldog

Unless you're a visitor to New England, a second-semester senior writing a thesis, or a biochemistry concentrator, you probably already know that this is the weekend of The Game, the annual football contest pitting Harvard against its delinquent daughter, Yale.

Today and tomorrow, thousands of students and alumni will make the pilgrimage to New Haven, Conn.--home of American pizza, hamburgers and a crime rate five times higher than the national average. Once there, they will take in the athletic events, consume large quantities of alcohol, and consume large quantities of alcohol.

The weekend kicks in today at 1 p.m. with the kickoff of the junior varsity football game, an annual battle waged on the Yale practice fields.

The Game itself is set to start at 1 p.m. tomorrow in the capacious Yale Bowl, located in the leafy suburb of Westwood. Despite the traditional hype, however, this year's contest features two hard-luck squads battling it out for bragging rights to second-to-last place in the Ivies.

Ugly on the Road

Harvard (3-6 overall) will be looking to put a gloss on what can only be described as a roller-coaster season. On the one hand, the Crimson lost squeakers to such perennial Ivy powers as Dartmouth (39-34) and Penn (27-20). On the other hand, Harvard was soundly trounced by such less-than-exceptional squads as Cornell (27-0) and Brown (43-29).

The only constant in '93 has been the team's abysmal play on the road. The Crimson has lost all four of its previous away games this season.

The Bulldogs (2-7 overall, 1-5 Ivy) have been more consistent. Consistently bad, that is.

The only Eli victories came against Holy Cross (27-21) and Ivy dormat Columbia (35-28), and the squad is winless at home.

Restic Finale

An added incentive for Harvard will be a desire to make Coach Joe Restic's last game a happy one. Restic, the winningest coach in Harvard football history, will be retiring after his 23rd season. A brief ceremony in Restic's honor will be held prior to The Game.

Yale, too, will be honoring a distinguished representative of its university tomorrow. After ten years as the Yale mascot, Handsome Dan (a.k.a Dan XIII), a white-and-brown-spotted English bulldog, will be calling it quits.

The dog will be remembered for his ugliness and sour disposition. A highlight of Dan's career came in 1984, when he slipped from his leash, chased after a taunting Harvard student, and sat on him.