How to Strangle a Bulldog

In 1872, Harvard may not have been the best place to enroll for an education in medicine or physics. But it was definitely the best place to learn a new sport called football.

The Harvard University Football Club--whose purpose it was to set rules and plan intercollegiate competition for the baby sport--had recently been approved by President Eliot to oversee a growing interest in the game.

And those early gridders founded a Harvard football tradition that has produced seven Ivy League championships and 100 All-Americans, and placed 17 players and coaches in the National Football Hall of Fame.

In the Beginning

Harvard played a critical role in the development of modern football. In the late 1800s, the sport resembled present-day rugby more than it did present-day football--and by no means were there standard rules to which all teams adhered.

In 1873, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers adopted a set of rules that did not allow the use of hands in football. However, Harvard stuck with its "hands-on" approach to the game, a choice which other schools eventually accepted.

Another standard was set by the Stadium, completed in 1903 at a cost of $320,000. The first reinforced concrete stadium in America, Harvard's new sports complex proved a major factor in the adoption of a rule allowing forward passes.

A 1905 committee turned down a more radical proposal--calling for wider playing arenas--because Harvard's field could not be widened without destroying football's new temple. The alternative: keeping fields narrow, but legalizing the forward pass for the benefit of struggling offenses.

Perhaps the greatest Harvard football tradition, however, began on November 13, 1875, when Harvard tripped up Yale, 4-0.

Annual trips between New Haven and Cambridge, replete with tailgate parties, alumni and countless shakers of martinis, are now an integral part of the Harvard-Yale matchup--a series which presently stands at 38-56-8 in favor of the Elis.

However, the first "Game" was not Harvard's first intercollegiate football match-up.

In May of 1874, the Crimson hosted McGill University in a two-game match. Harvard emerged victorious in the first game, three touchdowns to none, but the second game ended in a draw.

Harvard's unique football legacy extends from those early days to the present, and ranges far beyond Soldiers Field.

Former gridders like Edward M. Kennedy '54 and Torbert H. McDonald '40 moved on to careers in the Senate and House of Representatives. And Endicott "Babyface Assassin" Peabody, a football hero of the early 1940s, went on to serve as governor of Massachusetts.

But the same football tradition that spawned these respected public figures has not always lived up to high standards of conduct and propriety.

After an 1884 ruling by Harvard's Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports, all official play in football was abolished for the scholastic year 1885--because of what the committee labeled undue violence.

Violence also caused a two-year hiatus in football competition between Harvard and Yale during 1895 and 1896.

But Harvard football has also weathered brawls of a less physical, more moral nature.

The Crimson faced the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in the last game of the 1947 season. Fearing racial violence, Virginia officials attempted to prevent Harvard's black tackle, Chester M. Pierce '48, from taking part in the game.

But Harvard refused to play without him, making Pierce the first black to play in an intersectional game below the Mason-Dixon line.

The beginning of the 20th century was characterized by innovation in play and abundant enthusiasm.

Head Coach Percy Haughton, Class of 1899, was rumored to have strangled a bulldog just prior to the 1908 Yale game. Haughton, known as an innovator for his staffing and scouting sytems, oversaw a 33-game winning streak during his nine-year stint--and also developed three-time All-American Edward W. Mahan '16.

The ever-growing football mania gradually manifested itself in a more organized form of madness--pranks.

In 1929, members of the Lampoon stole a fence traditionally used as a backdrop for a photo of Yale's football captain. Substituting a janitor for the Eli captain, the Lampy editors took a mock version of the picture before returning the stolen booty.

Coach Dick Harlow, along with star players like running back Torbert H. MacDonald '42 and guard Endicott Peabody '42, helped build the Crimson's reputation for strong play during the 1930s and 40s.

An expert at dealing with brute force on the field, Harlow showed delicate care in his collection of rare birds' eggs off the field. After his retirement in 1947, Harlow became a curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Along with the inaugural season of official Ivy League play in 1956 came a reassertion of the old pecking order placing academics above athletics.

This policy once led to the post-ponement of a Harvard-Dartmouth freshman game because a majority of the players had an economics test scheduled. To this day, any player on academic probation may not participate in varsity athletics.

As if to combat the pending seriousness, resourceful Harvard students staged a spot of comic relief at the 1955 Harvard-Yale game: during halftime, the Yale Marching Band was forced to share the field with several greased pigs.

But the 1950s were distinguished by more than just porcine playfulness. In 1957, John Yovicsin was named Harvard's 22nd head coach, commencing a career which spanned 14 seasons and produced a 78-42-5 record.

Yovicsin's reign was interrupted in November of 1963, when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy '40 led to a one-week post-ponement of the Harvard-Yale game. Harvard football mourned its lost teammate both on and off the field, as the Crimson went down to Yale 20-6 the following Saturday.

But Yovicsin's career was also marked by one ofthe most memorable moments in Harvard footballhistory.

On Monday, November 25, 1968, TheCrimson's headline read: "Harvard Beats Yale,29-29." Harvard scored a miraculous 16 points inthe last 3:31 of The Game to tie the Bulldogs.

"When I saw it, I knew I just had to love it.Just take it in my arms and love it," Captain VicGatto said about his game-tying catch of a passthrown by back-up quarterback Frank Champi. Bothteams entered The Game 8-0, and left as Ivy Leagueco-champions.

The only Harvard coach ever to lead his team toan outright Ivy crown (in 1975), Joe Restic becameHarvard football's chief thinker in 1971.

Restic's innovative Multiflex offense--combinedwith superb players like quarterback Milt Holt '75and All-American split end Pat McInally'75--brought a fervor back to Harvard football inthe 1970s.

Already Harvard's winningest coach with 84victories going into the 1986 season, Resticcontinues to lead the Crimson to victory in theHarvard tradition.Football Coach JOE RESTIC