Projo Sports Blog

BY MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

Every college football fan should run to the Cable Car Cinema this week and experience Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.

Believe me, Kevin Rafferty's documentary about the epic clash between Harvard and Yale in 1968 is just that. An experience, and worth every one of the five stars collegaue Michael Janusonis awarded it.

I went to the 4 o'clock showing on Sunday, and to my surprise the intimate theater on South Main Street was about 80 percent full of men and women from their mid-50s to their mid-70s. But for 1 hour and 45 minutes all of us were college students or young adults again, dealing with the Vietnam War and racial tension, mounting or resisting campus protests, working our way toward the end of a tumultuous decade.

Rafferty's genius is that he lets the players, sons of the working class and upper class, tell their story and then uses television footage to illustrate it. He catches men who have gone to gray and paunch relaxing and reminiscing in their offices and homes and backyards. No fancy set necessary for this tale.

And the color film of the game and Boston sportcaster Don Gillis's play-by-play are priceless, a snapshot of television sports from another era. Instant replay was novel, and each time it was used the words appeared at the bottom of the screen and in Gillis's description.

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a compelling story on several levels. There's the game, of course, but there's also the strong suggestion of Harvard as working class and Yale as the elite; the spectre of war abroad and assassinations at home; campus and sexual revolutions. It's all there.

Rafferty provides just enough background with black and white boxes similar to those in silent movies. Harvard and Yale were 8-0 when they met for The Game on Nov. 23, 1968, the first time since 1909 each was undefeated. Ivy League football enjoyed more prestige in those days. Yale was ranked No. 16 in the nation, and Harvard Stadium was packed with 39,000 spectators.

We learn from the players that quarterback Brian Dowling had never lost a football game since seventh grade and that some people believe God played quarterback for the Bulldogs. We hear that halfback Cavin Hill will be the No. 1 pick of the Dallas Cowboys, and that the starting fulback is dating Meryl Streep. Old Bulldogs tell us that they were convinced they would win every time they stepped on the field, including the '68 finale at Harvard Stadium.

And that's how it played for 59 minutes.Yale leads at the half, 22-6, and the players throw orange slices at each other. They think the game is over.

Harvard's success during the season was a surprise, except to Vic Gatto, the captain, who believes the team could go undefeated. The Crimson didn't have a solid starting quarterback, and their players come from blue-collar Boston suburbs like Quincy and Everett. Safety Pat Conway is a Vietnam veteran who had seen action with the Marines at Khe Sanh. A teammate is a leader of SDS, the revolutionary Students for a Democratic Society. But on the field they put their political difference aside and rely on each other, not head coach John Yovicsin, for motivation. And to a man, they believe Yale is the superior team.

Yale is protecting a 29-13 advantage with 6:00 to play. We hear the Yalies chant "We're No. 1" and "You're No. 2" and the Yale band playing "Mickey Mouse." We hear the Harvard players tell us they felt humiliated and were better than they had shown. And we see backup quarterback Frank Champi lead them on a rally for the ages.

Harvard scores 16 points in the final 42 seconds. Champi throws to end Bruce Freeman, who finds the end zone. His pass to big tight end Pete Varney for the two-point conversion is incomplete, but the Yale defender, on the field for the first time, is called for interference. Fullback Gus Crim carries for the two-point conversion, making the score, 29-21. Yale's J.P. Goldsmith, eloquent in his recollections, tells us he knew Crim was coming and that he had a chance to be a hero but "whiffed."

Harvard's on-sides kick is less than perfect, but Yale's Brad Lee can't reach it, and Bill Kelly of Harvard falls on the ball at the Yale 49 with 32 seconds to play. Players from both teams tell us of some "force" they felt taking over the game, of everthing happening in slow motion. Champi scrambles for 14 yards, and Harvard picks up another 15 on a face mask penalty against linebacker Mike Bouscaren, who admits he was trying to knock Champi out of the game with a chop to the face. Crim runs a draw play for 14 yards to the Yale 6-yard line with 14 seconds left. Goldsmith tackles Champi for a two-yard loss. With 3 seconds left Champi takes the snap, scrambles again, looks left and spots Gatto, who has just returned after being injured in the first half, in the end zone. Champi says it was like looking through a tunnel. He throws. Gatto says the ball looked as big as a watermelon. He catches it with no time left. Fans storm the field and have to be moved back for the extra point attempt.

Champi drops back for the last time and throws to Varney in the end zone. The big end, who also was a catcher for the baseball team and played for the Chicago White Sox, turns, looks back toward the open end of the horseshoe-shaped stadium and catches the ball . There is bedlam on the field. And 40 years later in the Cable Car Cinema, there are cheers.

The next day the Harvard Crimson published a special edition with a headline that has become a sports classic. Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. Thanks to Rafferty and his remarkable film, those of us who were not in Harvard Stadium that day can experience the thrill of that remarkable game. The film is showing at 9:30 p.m. through Thursday.

 Tags  Cable Car Cinema College football Harvard Yale

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