The 2019 Harvard-Yale football game was a double overtime thriller in which the Yale Bulldogs won in dramatic fashion. It was also the final game between the two rivals after the university voted to forgive Harvard for their transgressions during what was supposed to be a bout of rugby style horseplay in 1875. Harvard team captain Nathaniel Curtis reportedly mocked Yale player Walter Camp’s size saying “You don’t mean to let that child play, do you? . . . He will get hurt”.
Those venomous words alarmed and shocked the scholarly Yale students. Coming to defense of their friend, they challenged Harvard to an annual football match. Not more horseplay, but a true violent contest fueled by hatred. This yearly phallus measuring competition grew into the rivalry we know and love today.
Underpinning this 146-year old feud has been that famous verbal attack by Nathaniel Curtis. Of course, Walter Camp would have the last laugh. He became known as the “Father of American Football”, inventing the line of scrimmage and the system of downs, both of which are still used today. Meanwhile, Curtis never did anything in his life important enough to warrant a Wikipedia page.
Fortunately, Yale will no longer harbor ill will towards the long dead football captain or the fortress of indoctrination he called his alma mater. Ever the paragons of class, the Yale student body voted to forgive Harvard for it’s past transgressions and pompous attitude. Yale’s president Peter Salovey released a statement suggesting that it was no longer ethical for the game to continue. “It simply isn’t right for us to be playing so physically with them. Harvard students need to keep their bodies healthy to prepare for the manual labor they will do in the workforce”. Harvard has said that they have learned from their mistakes and will work to be better.