The 1968 Yale vs. Harvard football game was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

game between the and the , played on November 23, 1968. The game ended in a 29–29

tie Tie has two principal meanings: * Tie (draw), a finish to a competition with identical results, particularly sports * Necktie, a long piece of cloth worn around the neck or shoulders Tie or TIE may also refer to: Engineering and technology * Ti ...

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 A moral victory occurs when a person, team, army or other group loses a confrontation, and yet achieves some other moral gain. This gain might be unrelated to the confrontation in question, and the gain is often considerably less than what would ...

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%). The ...

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 Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...

'', a 2008 documentary about the game directed by

Kevin Rafferty Kevin Gelshenen Rafferty II (May 25, 1947 – July 2, 2020) was an American documentary film cinematographer, director, and producer, best known for his 1982 documentary ''The Atomic Cafe''. Background Rafferty was born in Boston on May 25, 194 ...

.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.

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

See also

References