Playing for History

They don’t call it The Game for nothing.

Though last weekend’s contest against Penn was crucial to the Harvard football team’s Ivy League championship run, tomorrow’s matchup against Yale has enormous historical implications. A win against the Bulldogs would establish the 2004 Crimson squad as the single best team in modern Harvard history.

“I’m honored to be part of a team that good,” said senior wide receiver Brian Edwards. “That’s just a tribute to the coaching staff.”

Led by a phenomenal senior class, the Crimson has gone 9-0 and set the stage for a perfect season. Were Harvard to win tomorrow, it would become the first Crimson team since 1901 to win 10 games and end the season undefeated.

“To have that place in history would be quite an honor, especially with all the great teams and the great players that have played here,” said senior defensive back Sean Tracy.

Yale has played the role of spoiler before, and it will be looking to do so again. The Bulldogs have stood in the way of a Harvard perfect season 16 times—most recently in 2001—and the Crimson has only won five of those matches.

“We always look at [The Game] as a postseason atmosphere,” Yale coach Jack Siedlecki said. “[We] are looking forward to a great game on Saturday.”

In 1906, a 10-0 Harvard squad faced its rival in its season finale. A rowdy New Haven crowd willed the Bulldogs to a 6-0 victory—ending the 1906 team’s hopes for an undefeated season.

Since then, due partly to a reduced schedule and a high level of parity in the Ivy League, no Crimson squad has won 10 games. Not only would a win against Yale break that streak—it would allow the Harvard seniors to bookend their collegiate careers with undefeated seasons.

And while it was nice for the Class of 2005 to have won rings in its freshman year, few of those seniors played regularly with the team in 2001. If the seniors were to succeed tomorrow, this would be a perfect season of their own.

“It was great to be a part of that team freshman year,” senior linebacker Bobby Everett said. “But [a championship] definitely would be more special after having invested so much more in the program [after four years].”

As if The Game needed any more meaning, neither the Crimson nor the Bulldogs have beaten the other team four straight times since the Ivy League’s official founding in 1954.

Harvard, having won each of the past three years, could become the first team since 1922 to accomplish that feat—a strong testament to the Class of 2005.

“Beating any team four years in a row is great,” Edwards said. “But the fact that is it against Yale and it’s the biggest game of the year, that makes it that much more special.”

“It’s obviously something pretty special to say later on that you never lost to Yale,” Tracy added.

The Crimson has been making history all year long. Harvard has scored at least 31 points eight times in nine games—marking the first time since 1893 that the Crimson has broken the 30-point barrier eight times in a season. Apart from contests against Dartmouth and Brown, none of Harvard’s games have been decided by less than 10 points.

But to firmly establish its place with the legendary players and teams who have come before it, the senior class will have to lead the Crimson in winning one more game—the biggest game of them all.

“I do not think The Game needs any added implications of [an] Ivy title,” Siedlecki said. “It stands by itself as the defining closing chapter of every season, gets national and international attention and serves as a fitting finale for all the seniors.”