Harvard and Yale have tied eight times in the history of The Game. The first tie came in the scoreless match of 1879, but the last tie, in 1968, is the most famous. Both teams arrived for The Game undefeated on the season. Yale was the favorite, but Harvard staged a dramatic comeback, scoring 16 points in the closing 42 seconds, inspiring the now-famous Crimson headline “Harvard Beats Yale, 29–29.”
The Harvard-Yale game typically takes place the Saturday before Thanksgiving and, depending on the outcome, gives one team or another an additional reason to give thanks. Presaging modern-day NFL tradition, the Crimson met the bulldogs on Thanksgiving Day in 1883 and 1887, the only two occasions in the history of the rivalry that The Game was not played on a Saturday.
Mather is a familiar name around Harvard, where Increase Mather served as the University’s sixth president—but the family’s legacy is alive in New Haven as well.
Each year, The Game’s program is a familiar sight: the Harvard and Yale captains posing together in the city hosting that year’s game. Such timeliness takes planning, however, and those photos are most often taken several months earlier, when the captains-elect of the two teams gather for a springtime photo shoot.
Harvard Square’s Pinocchio’s holds a soft spot in the hearts and stomachs of generations of Harvard alumni, but the pizza in New Haven is also noteworthy.
College alumni know that Harvard’s House system provides a sense of community and identity for students—a system echoed in Yale’s residential colleges. Harvard’s Houses and Yale’s Colleges have formed sisterly pairings in the style of the Oxbridge sister colleges. The main function of the Harvard-Yale sister houses is the housing reciprocity they provide each other for each year’s Harvard-Yale game. So where will students from Yale’s Colleges be staying in Cambridge?
Harvard alumni bleed Crimson, and would never root for Eli; but there’s no denying that Yale’s mascot, Handsome Dan, lives up to his name. Yale became the first college to adopt a live mascot in 1889, when an undergrad bought an English bulldog for $5, named him Handsome Dan, and began to parade the dog across the fields before Yale’s sporting events. Handsome Dan XVII will prowl the sidelines of the 130th Game.
Yale has more schools than Harvard—15 to Harvard’s 12—but statistically, Harvard beats Yale in many areas. Here’s how Harvard and Yale match up off the gridiron.
The 130th Harvard-Yale game will kick off at the Yale Bowl at noon on Saturday, November 23—but another Harvard-Yale competition will begin on November 12, when alumni of Harvard and Yale face off in the third annual Harvard-Yale Participation Challenge.
