The 1968 Yale vs. Harvard football game was a
college football game between the and the , played on November 23, 1968. The game ended in a 29–29
tie after Harvard made what is considered a miraculous last-moment comeback, scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds to tie the game against a highly touted Yale squad. The significance of the
moral victory for Harvard inspired the next day's ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
'' student newspaper to print the famous headline "Harvard Beats Yale, 29–29". In 2010,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
ranked it No. 9 in its list of the top ten college football ties of all time.
Yale came into the game with a 16-game
winning streak
A winning streak, also known as a win streak or hot streak, is an uninterrupted sequence of success in games or competitions, commonly measured by at least 4 wins that are uninterrupted by losses or ties/draws. Although sometimes claimed as a ...
and its quarterback,
Brian Dowling, had only lost one game when he was in the starting lineup since the sixth grade. Both schools entered the game with perfect 8–0 records. It was the first time both schools met when undefeated and untied since the 1909 season.
The tie left both teams 8–0–1 for the season. The famous headline was later used as the title for ''
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29'', a 2008 documentary about the game directed by
Kevin Rafferty.
Documentary
Actor Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film '' The ...
, who played on the offensive line for Harvard in the game, was interviewed for the documentary.
This game stands as the final tie in the Harvard–Yale series, as subsequent rule changes have eliminated ties from college football.
See also
* 1968 NCAA University Division football season
In the 1968 NCAA University Division football season, the system of "polls and bowls" changed. The Associated Press returned to its pre-1961 system of ranking the Top 20 rather than the Top 10, and voted on the national champion after the bowl ga ...
* Harvard–Yale football rivalry
The Harvard–Yale football rivalry is renewed annually with The Game, an American college football match between the Harvard Crimson football team of Harvard University and the Yale Bulldogs football team of Yale University.
Though the winner d ...
* Brian Dowling (Yale quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
)
* Frank Champi (Harvard quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
)
* Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film '' The ...
(Harvard tackle)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yale vs. Harvard football game 1968
1968 Ivy League football season
vs. Yale 1968
vs. Harvard 1968
November 1968 sports events in the United States
1968 in sports in Massachusetts