The fame of The Game
Harvard heads to New Haven on Saturday to play rival Yale in the 130th edition of the football matchup known simply as The Game. Year after year, the game draws alumni from both schools from all corners of the globe. The long Harvard-Yale rivalry in college football is surpassed only by Lehigh-Lafayette (147 meetings) and Princeton-Yale (134). The Game is traced back to Harvard’s 1875 victory on Yale turf. In 1894, following a game known as the “Springfield Massacre,” which saw seven players carried off the field in “dying condition,” Harvard and Yale broke off relations. Each blamed the other for the contest’s unprecedented brutality. The schools didn’t meet in football for two seasons, while the baseball, crew, and track and field teams avoided each other for one. But the allure of competition was too great, and by 1897 the schools were back at it. The Crimson newspaper welcomed the resumption: “Forgetting...