How an 8-0 Victory Became a 53-0 Slaughter

Saturday's 11-6 loss to Princeton has raised lots of questions about the 1985 Harvard football team, but there's a far more important question about the 1882 Harvard squad that must be answered first.

That's right, 1882.

Can someone please explain how the 1882 Crimson squad that opened its season with a 1-0 victory over MIT, followed it with a 3-0 triumph over the same MIT club, a 2-0 victory over McGill and a 1-0 win over Amherst, then won its fifth game of the year, 53-0?

How did a Harvard team that had been averaging less than two points per game that season suddenly score 53 points? In one game?

Maybe that Harvard-Dartmouth game marked the start of a new era in scoring. But then consider that the scores of Harvard's last three contests that year were 3-0, 1-1 and 1-0.

And that makes the 53-0 score that much more absurd.

Speaking of which, we turn to 1985...

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One hundred and three seasons after Edward T. Cabot captained the 1882 Harvard squad to a 7-1 overall record, the 1985 Harvard squad currently sports a 4-2 overall mark that includes a 3-1 Ivy League record.

But despite the fact that Harvard is still in complete control of its own destiny, it won't find the road to the Ivy League title packed with pushovers.

If anything, the Crimson's last three Ancient Eight foes will be better than anything it's seen this year.

And don't be surprised if the Crimson's an underdog in every one of those games, as well as its lone remaining non-league game, scheduled for Nov. 9 at Holy Cross.

The main reason the betting line won't favor Harvard this weekend, or next, is the offensive line.

The squad's biggest question mark at season's start, the offensive line has become the squad's biggest problem area.

That was clear Saturday in the Stadium, when the Crimson's front five allowed the most sacks this decade. Only the nine recorded by Holy Cross last year even approaches the 10 recorded by Princeton on Saturday.

What's more, the offensive line this year has repeatedly failed to open holes for Harvard's talented running backs.

At this point last year, the combined yardage of Harvard's top two runners was more than the combined yardage of all 12 Crimson runners who appear on this year's stat sheet.

And, if anything, this year's Harvard runners are as talented as last year's crop. All of which points to one source of the problem--the offensive line.

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Penn, which hasn't lost an Ivy game since a 28-0 drubbing at the hands of Harvard in 1983, is on target to become the second team in Ancient Eight history to win four straight Ivy crowns.

Dartmouth captured five straight between 1969 and 1973.

And what's more, the Quakers--winners of 12 straight Ivy games and 14 straight Division I-AA contests--are rapidly approaching the Division I-AA mark for consecutive victories. Eastern Kentucky won 18 straight between 1982 and 1983.

Four straight season-ending victories would give Penn its second straight one-loss season, its fourth straight Ivy title, its second straight undefeated Ivy campaign and a share of the Division I-AA mark for consecutive victories.

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More than 13,000 fans are expected for Saturday's crucial showdown between Harvard and Brown (3-2-1 overall, 2-2 Ivy).

Harvard leads the series, 61-21-2, that started with a 58-0 Crimson win in 1893. The Crimson won the first 21 games before a 0-0 tie in 1914 snapped that streak.

The Cantabs have won the past five meetings between the two clubs. Before that, the Bruins owned a four-game winning streak over Harvard.

Harvard, a 24-10 victor over Brown a year ago, has won the last two games at Brown Stadium and holds a 10-5 edge when the Bruins host the game.

From the not that it means anything, but file: the Crimson has an 8-1 record against Brown when the game is played in a year ending with 5. This is tied for the second-best winning percentage after years ending with 0 or 1. Harvard is 8-0 in those situations. The only '5' loss came in 1955, when Brown posted a 14-6 victory over Harvard.

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If Harvard this weekend gets into a special teams duel, it might find itself in a heap of trouble.

And that's not necessarily because it was the Crimson's special teams that gave up all 11 points in Saturday's 11-6 loss.

It's mainly because Brown boasts the best placekicker in the league in Chris Ingerslev.

The senior, who is also a member of the Brown soccer team, has converted nine of 10 field goals in the last two weekends, and last weekend just missed having a second straight five-field goal weekend.

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Despite his 7-for-18 performance Saturday, Harvard senior quarterback Brian White moved into fifth place on the all-time Harvard pass yardage list.

White, whose completion percentage of .421 this year is the lowest of any Harvard starter in years, now has 1833 yards. He moved passed Hawaii senator Milt Holt '75, who had 1800 yards.

The Massachusetts native needs 106 passing yards to move past Don Allard '83 and into fourth place on the list.

In addition, White has 2159 yards total offense, and needs 113 yards to move into fifth place on the career total offense list and 192 yards to take fourth place.

From the not that it means anything but file, part II, comes this fact: of the last three times Harvard has lost to Princeton, it has twice gone on to lose to Brown, as well.

But of the three times that Joe Restic-coached Harvard squads have taken 4-2 records into the Brown game, the Crimson has come away a winner each time.

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THE NOTEBOOK'S NOTEBOOK: Yale's loss to Penn Saturday in the Yale Bowl broke a string of nine straight wins at home...In the second half of its last two games, Harvard has scored just seven points...Of the 116 points the Crimson has scored this year, only 29 have come in the first half...Santiago's 49-yard scamper in the first half last weekend was his--and the team's--longest run from scrimmage this year...Harvard has given up just two touchdowns in the last 10 quarters of play...The crowd for the Princeton game (18,000) was the biggest Harvard has played in front of this year...White this year has thrown half as many touchdowns as he had at this point last year...The Crimson, which a year ago picked off 12 passes, has already recorded 11 interceptions...Princeton's touchdown Saturday marked the first time in series history the Tigers had returned a kickoff for a score...Through six games, Harvard is averaging 70 yards less rushing per game than it did last year...Senior safety Cecil Cox is tied for third in the ECAC with four interceptions...The Crimson defense is third in the ECAC in scoring defense...Harvard has given up 76 points. Through six games a year ago, the Crimson had allowed 118 points...Halfback Rufus Jones is still sidelined with a knee injury and will not play against Brown...Ken Tarczy was named to the ECAC Weekly Honor Roll for his team-high 11 tackles and one interception against Princeton...Harvard's six points were the fewest it had scored since it managed just three in a 3-3 tie at Cornell more than two years ago.

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THE PICKS: Harvard over Brown, Yale over Dartmouth, Penn over Princeton, Bucknell over Cornell, Colgate over Columbia. Last Week: 2-2. Season to date 25-6.

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HOLD THE PRESSES: Late last night the mystery of Harvard's 53-0 victory over Dartmouth in 1882 was solved. According to detectives in the Harvard Sports Publicity Office, it appears that since 1974 Harvard has been trying to pull a fast one on the Big Green.

That was the year the score that had previously been recorded in Harvard football media guides as 8-0 suddenly became 53-0.

Officials in the Harvard office said the typo will be corrected in future Crimson media guides.

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The Football Notebook appears every Tuesday in The Harvard Crimson.