Legalized Larceny

Thirty years earlier, Harvard had upended Yale in the celebrated 29-29 tie of 1968. This year, in the 115th game of the venerable rivalry, the Eli obtained a measure of vengeance. Outplayed on both sides of the ball for most of the game, Yale's resilient team exploited Harvard mistakes in the closing minutes and came away with a more than slightly larcenous 9-7 victory. This stark denouement to a tense and supremely exciting contest consigned Harvard, the defending Ivy League champs, to a losing season and fifth place in the final standings. Yale, 0-7 in league play a year ago, enjoyed its first winning season since 1991.

Record-setting quarterback Rich Linden watched victory slip away in the final minutes of the Yale game. A field goal won it for the Bulldogs, 9-7. Photograph by Jon Chase

Having won all its Ivy contests in 1997, Harvard was widely picked to remain at the top of the heap. The season began badly, however, with a 24-0 drubbing on Columbia's artificial turf. Losses to Colgate (34-14) and Lehigh (21-17) followed. Not since the season of 1950, when a hapless Harvard squad lost its first six games, had a Crimson team started out with three consecutive defeats. Nothing daunted, the 1998 team won its next four. Hard-fought victories over Cornell (19-12), Princeton (23-22), and Dartmouth (20-7) restored Harvard's credentials as a title contender; sandwiched between the Cornell and Princeton games was a tight contest with a scrappy but ill-starred Holy Cross team, decided in overtime (20-14). But in November the roof fell in. Harvard was soundly beaten by Brown (27-6), and hammered by league-leading Pennsylvania (41-10). Those losses scuttled the team's hopes of retaining a share of the title. Penn--which had to forfeit its five Ivy League wins a year ago because it used an ineligible player--won the championship outright. Yale and Brown shared second place.

Though a good many key performers were still on hand, this year's squad did not have the balance and depth that enabled the 1997 team to set Harvard records for scoring and total offense while holding Ivy opponents to four touchdowns in seven games. Offensively, the passing game wasn't as sharp. Junior quarterback Rich Linden threw for 2,099 yards and 16 touchdowns a year ago; the corresponding stats this time were 1,199 yards and three touchdowns. It was a rough year, too, for junior halfback Chris Menick, who played hurt for almost the entire season. Last year Menick was the league's leading ground-gainer: he set new single-season records for rushing yardage (1,267) and touchdowns (14). His seasonal totals this year were 768 yards and five touchdowns.

Harvard's top runner, Chris Menick (at left, pursued by linebacker Scott Benton), picked up 76 yards in 20 carries against Yale. Photograph by Jon Chase

Menick sprained his left ankle and aggravated a thumb injury during a practice after the Columbia game. With his left hand in a cast for the rest of the season, he still provided his share of heroics. He sat out the Colgate game, then returned to run for 114 yards against Lehigh. The next week he had the third best day of his career, carrying the ball 39 times for 176 yards against Cornell. In the Holy Cross game he gained 167 yards in 29 carries and scored all three Harvard touchdowns, including a 16-yard bolt that gave the Crimson its overtime victory. His last score was dramatic because Menick had fumbled inside the Crusaders' 10-yard line and seen the ball run back 83 yards to set up a game-tying touchdown.

Before a crowd of 25,400 at Princeton's spiffy new $47-million stadium, Menick picked up only 57 yards rushing but made the play of the game in the final quarter. He took a pitchout from Linden, feinted toward the right sideline, and threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Josh Wilske. Junior Mike Giampaolo's conversion kick provided the margin of victory in an exquisitely suspenseful game that was full of big plays, and in which Harvard came from behind three times. Menick's pass was the first he had thrown since his junior varsity days at New York's Iona Prep. His rushing yardage moved him past Vic Gatto '69 into second place on Harvard's all-time rushing list. Linden also excelled, throwing for 186 yards and two touchdowns.

Harvard had an easier time at Hanover a week later. The defense throttled a not-too-potent Dartmouth attack, Giampaolo nailed two field goals, and Menick went in for two touchdowns, carrying 34 times for 104 yards. With the 322d pass completion of his career, Linden set a new Harvard record. Defensive tackle Chris Nowinski '00 had a big day, with 13 tackles and three quarterback sacks. The win left Harvard in a first-place tie with Penn and Princeton.

Senior cornerback Glenn Jackson bears down on Yale's ace, Rashad Bartholomew (34). In an exciting defensive battle, Harvard shut down Yale's rushing attack, holding the Blue to a net gain of 29 yards. Photograph by Jon Chase

But not for long. Just a game behind was a strong Brown team that halted Harvard's four-game winning streak with a convincing 27-6 victory the next weekend. Bruin quarterback James Perry--looking, in Harvard coach Tim Murphy's words, "like a 15-year NFL veteran"--had his way with the Crimson defense, completing 30 of 43 passes for 281 yards and a brace of touchdowns. Menick was held to 38 yards by the bruising Bruin defense and limped off with a reinjured ankle.

Things got worse at Penn's Franklin Field one week later. Menick's ankle kept him on the sideline; damage to Linden's ankle and hand forced him out of the game in the second period. Reserve quarterback Brad Wilford's passing closed a 20-3 deficit to 20-10 in the third quarter, but the running of league-leading rusher Jim Finn and the deft passing of quarterback Matt Rader enabled the Quakers to win in a walk, 41-10. Harvard hadn't been subjected to such a mauling since Brown's 47-8 triumph in 1995. "They beat the hell out of us," coach Murphy conceded later. While Penn was beating the hell out of Harvard, Yale's unexpectedly doughty team was busy putting Princeton out of contention. Having trailed in every one of its games, Yale pulled that one out, 30-28, on a late-game scoring pass thrown by junior quarterback Joe Walland.

At windblown Harvard Stadium on November 21, Harvard dominated Yale for three and a half periods and appeared to have victory in its grasp. The Crimson defense, in its most impressive showing of the season, had held Yale to four first downs and just 20 yards rushing. Yale turned in enough big defensive plays to hold Harvard scoreless until the third period, when Linden dove in from inside the one-yard line after a 71-yard drive. Leading 7-0, Harvard had a choice opportunity to ice the game less than three minutes later, when Linden whipped a 34-yard pass to Wilske at the eight-yard line. Junior Damon Jones was stopped at the goal line on the next play, and when Yale stood off two more rushing attempts Giampaolo was sent in to try a 19-yard field goal. His kick hooked wide.

Yale fumbled the ball away on its next play, and as the final period opened Harvard again had a chance to enlarge its lead. Menick's running brought the Crimson to the Yale 12, but Linden was thrown for a 10-yard loss and Giampaolo returned to essay a field goal from the 30. This time his low kick was blocked.

The two teams exchanged punts, and then the momentum began to shift. Connecting on seven of eight passes, Walland swiftly took his team 71 yards downfield and put Yale on the scoreboard with a nine-yard pass to Derek Bentley. But senior linebacker Joe Weidle, who had blocked a field-goal try by Yale kicker Mike Murawczyk in last year's game, batted down Murawczyk's conversion kick to keep the Crimson on top, 7-6. Harvard's luck, however, had run out. Fielding the ensuing kickoff at the left sideline, Damon Jones went out of bounds just eight yards from the Harvard goal-line. Two plays later, Linden rolled out to pass, cut upfield, and was toppled by Yale's Ben Blake at the 15-yard line. Linden lowered his shoulder in an effort to drive for a first down but lost control of the football as he was hit. Yale's Jeff Hockenbrock recovered, Yale advanced to the 10, and Murawczyk lined up for a 27-yard field-goal try. He made it. Yale led, 9-7, with just over three minutes to play.

Diminutive halfback Chuck Nwokocha fanned Harvard hopes with a 24-yard kickoff return, and a pair of Linden passes moved the Crimson to midfield. But Linden and his receivers couldn't connect on the next four pass attempts, the clock ticked down, and however implausibly, it was Yale's afternoon at the Stadium.

Tidbits: Harvard had previously won three straight over Yale, by scores of 22-21, 26-21, and 17-7....After the game coach Tim Murphy ruefully told the Boston Globe's Bob Ryan, "This is one of those days I wish I had gone for my M.B.A."

Stepping up: The Crimson defensive unit all but smothered a Yale offense that had scored an average of 24 points per game. Harvard held Bulldog back Rashad Bartholomew, who had averaged 105 yards rushing per game, to 28 net yards, or 1.9 per carry. Harvard's offense ran off 82 plays to Yale's 61, outgained the Elis 291 to 176, and made 18 first downs to Yale's 8. The New York Times headlined its account of the game, "Harvard Wins in Stats But Loses on Scoreboard."...Menick gained 76 yards on 20 carries; Damon Jones, alternating at tailback, had 70 in 17 carries.

Uptick: This year's crowd of 26,787 was reported as the largest at Harvard Stadium since 1990, reversing a long-term decline in attendance at The Game.

The ones that got away: Walland, Yale's unspectacular but very competitive quarterback, revealed to an interviewer that he'd been turned down by Harvard. Perry, the Brown quarterback who put up spectacular numbers this season, was also interested in Harvard (his brother Tim '90 quarterbacked the 1989 team). Both are juniors and could have given Rich Linden, the incumbent, a run for his job. But Linden has been rewriting the Harvard record book: he's now first in career completions (359) and total offense (4,460); second in passing yardage (4,199) and passing touchdowns (23)....Against Yale, Linden completed 14 of 32 passes for 158 yards and threw one interception. Walland's numbers were remarkably similar: 16 for 33, 147 yards, one interception--and one TD.

Believe it or not: Since 1874, Harvard has played 1,122 varsity football games, with scores ranging from 0-0 (many instances) to 158-0 (vs. Exeter, 1886). Until this year's Princeton game, not one had been settled by a score of 23-22.

You (don't) have a friend in Pennsylvania: Harvard has not beaten Penn at Franklin Field since 1980.

Honors: Two-year captain Brendan Bibro, a defensive tackle, was voted the team's most valuable player. Isaiah Kacyvenski '00, a linebacker who set a Harvard record with 108 tackles this season, and guard Mike Shreve '99 made the all-Ivy first team. Bibro, Menick, center Dean Jacobson '99, and linebacker Scott Larkee '99 were second team all-Ivy choices.... Tight end Chris Eitzmann, of Quincy House and Hardy, Nebraska, will be next year's captain. He caught three of Harvard's six touchdown passes this season.

A century ago: Coach W. Cameron Forbes's unbeaten Harvard 11 defeated Yale, 17-0, for the first time in eight years. Harvard teams and clubs went on to best Yale in every contest, from baseball and crew to rifle and pistol shooting, debating, whist, and chess....N.B. On the Yale weekend of 1998, the Harvard chess club vanquished Yale for the seventh consecutive year. The score was 10-2.

~ "Cleat"

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