Shaggy Dog Story

ITHACA. N.Y.--The Harvard and Cornell football teams left Schoelkopf Field with a 3-3 tie, but there was a winner in Saturday's contest.

It wasn't the fans, who watched one of the weakest offensive displays in recent history. It wasn't Cornell, which needed a victory to work its way into the Ivy race. It wasn't Harvard, which was lucky to escape Ithaca with a tie. It wasn't even the referees, who tried to steal the spotlight by throwing their little yellow handkerchiefs onto the turf on one out of three plays.

The unlikely winner enjoyed itself more than any fan, reached the end zone multiple times and stymied the referees' attempts to assert control. The jet-black Labrador retriever stole the show ... and one of the orange endline markers.

The first time it was merely amusing. Cornell led 3-0 in one of the least elegant games of football you'll ever see, and the dog's grab for the orange foam gave the fans one of their few opportunities to cheer an aggressive offensive play. The cheers quickly turned to jeers as a uniformed security officer pursued our hero and retrieved the marker.

But superdog, unlike the football offenses, was not easily deterred. Not put off by the officer's doggery, the canine crusader stalked its prey again, grabbed it around the middle and carried it back away from the endline.

The dogged security man had had enough. He not only retrieved the orange post, but chased the quadruped toward the Harvard sideline. And for a few minutes, that was that. But after a couple of incomplete passes and several insignificant running plays, our creature decided the time was ripe for a reappearance.

So, he raced onto the playing field, broke more tackles than any of the game's running backs, picked a comfortable spot in the middle of the field and settled in for a good catnap. The referees didn't know what to make of it. It look three football players and a good two minutes to remove the dog-tired canine for the final time.

But through the dog was gone, the dog days carried on, and it wasn't until the last drive of the game that the Crimson offense worked itself at least part way out of the doghouse.

The 3-3 deadlock keeps the Crimson in the thick of the dog-eat-dog Ivy race, but unless the Harvard offense stops leading a dog's life, the Cantabs stand less than a dog's chance of taking the title.