Memory of Harvard "Victory" Looms Large

In a series as legendary as any in collegiate sports, one particular afternoon stands out from the rest in myth and memory.

In 1968, when Harvard and Yale met for the 85th time, both teams entered the contest with matching 8-0 records. But the Bulldogs were the heavy favorites: they were ranked in the top 20 nationally (before the Division I subdivisions existed), were riding a 16-game winning streak, and boasted the vaunted combination of quarterback Brian Dowling and halfback Calvin Hill.

The matchup generated nationwide hype and an insatiable demand for tickets—the Harvard ticket manager estimated that his office could have sold 100,000 seats.

“The buildup to gameday was unprecedented,” says The Only Game That Matters, a history of the rivalry written by Bernard M. Corbett and Paul Simpson. “For two squads of gridiron combatants that were destined to become stockbrokers, investment bankers, corporate lawyers, and doctors, this was a taste of what it was like to play in the Super Bowl.”

With Dowling, who famously had not lost a game since middle school, and Hill, the next year’s NFL Rookie of the Year with the Dallas Cowboys and later the father of NBA star Grant Hill, leading the way, Yale sprinted out to a 22-0 lead. Little-used backup quarterback Frank Champi ’70 came on for the Crimson, which trailed, 29-13, when it recovered a fumble deep in its own territory with under four minutes remaining.

Then, before a sold-out crowd and scores of media members at Harvard Stadium, Harvard launched one of the most unlikely and thrilling comebacks in the history annals. Champi drove the Crimson the length of the field, at one point converting a third-and-long with a lateral to one of his linemen. The home team punched it in with 42 seconds left, made the two-point conversion, and recovered the ensuing onside kick. As the final seconds ran off the timer, Champi found Vic Gatto ’69 in the endzone for a score, and a moment later, with the clock turned off, completed a pass to Pete Varney ’71 for the game-tying two-pointer.

With 16 points in under a minute, jubilant Harvard had earned a share of the Ivy title, but even more rewardingly, had stunned the experts and foiled the ballyhooed Bulldogs’ perfect season. The shock and satisfaction of the draw was memorialized in this paper’s Monday banner headline: “Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29.”

“It was an incredibly exciting time,” says Peter D. Lennon ’70, who covered the game for The Crimson. “When the last 42 seconds started, you had a sense of inevitability—things were going our way. We knew the team was going to pull off an incredible comeback...It was a victory in every way, even though it was technically a tie.”

The remarkable 1968 showdown is being invoked this week as the Crimson and Bulldogs prepare to square off with unblemished 6-0 Ivy records for the first time since that fateful day.

Again, Yale is the odds-on favorite—its winning streak stands at 10, last season’s Game and nine straight in 2007, it is playing in New Haven, where it has outscored opponents by a combined tally of 141-36 in four games this season, and it currently leads the Ancient Eight in scoring offense and all of I-AA in scoring defense. And again, Harvard has the opportunity to play spoiler and ruin its archrival’s perfect season.

Current Crimson head coach Tim Murphy, who is seeking the fourth Ivy title of his tenure, marvels at how the 1968 Game remains a touchstone for many of the team’s fans, including one who gave him a recording from that distant fall day.

“It just gives you goose bumps,” Murphy says. “It’s amazing as you’re listening to the last couple of minutes of the game, and you realize what an amazing event in Harvard’s athletic history that it was. Still today, so many people will grab me and tell you what an amazing game it was. I guess, quite frankly, it’s been the most famous game in Harvard history.”

This time, there will be no tie, no cannily incongruous headline. If they are deadlocked after 60 minutes, the oldest foes in college football will battle into overtime, into the Connecticut twilight, to crown the Ivy League’s undisputed champ. The memory of 1968, an unparalelled event in the storied history of The Game, endures, but if Harvard “beats” the Elis in 2007, it will actually have to beat them.

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.