Princeton University Athletics
Here Comes Harvard
October 18, 2004 | General
Oct. 18, 2004
Let's talk a little history.
Princeton and Harvard meet over the course of nine hours Saturday in four sports within a quarter-mile walk of each other, and all four events have major Ivy League championship implications.
No thanks to President Lowell, Colonel Bingham and of course the Harvard Lampoon.
Unless you happen to be from Harvard, in which case it was all the fault of the hicks from Princeton who couldn't take a joke.
Before we look at the Princeton-Harvard matchups in football, field hockey and men's and women's soccer (the last three of which are free of charge), let's start out with a history lesson.
Back in the early days, Princeton, Harvard and Yale were the "Big Three" of college football, complete with a formal agreement between the schools that addressed issues such as eligibility, recruiting, scholarships and postseason play. In 1926, however, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell and Colonel Willam Bingham, Harvard's first Director of Athletics, entered into a secret agreement with Michigan to replace Princeton on the schedule for two years, and Harvard's faculty also decided that Yale would be the only permanent opponent on the football schedule into the future.
These two Harvard decisions unexpectedly became public prior to the Princeton-Harvard game of 1926, leading to hurt feelings and a sense of acrimony on the part of the Tigers. The situation was not helped by a joke issue of the Harvard Lampoon that mocked almost everything about Princeton, including a cartoon of hogs in a pen with the words `come brother, let's root for dear old Princeton' and a reference to the school song as "Old Nausea."
Princeton shut Harvard out 12-0 on Nov. 6, 1926, and Princeton fans then tore the goalposts down in Harvard Stadium, leading to a series of near-riots around the stadium. Harvard then officially sent notification that it was dropping Princeton from its regular football schedule, and Princeton countered by suspending all athletic contests with Harvard. The schools did not play in any sports for the next five years and did not play again in football until eight years later.
That's your first history lesson of the day. Now for some history of the more recent kind.
Let's start with field hockey, which faces off at noon at the Class of 1952 Stadium. Princeton has defeated Harvard each year since 1993, which also marks the last time Princeton did not win the league championship. Harvard enters today's game at 4-0 in the league, while Princeton is 4-1 with a loss to Dartmouth. Penn is 3-1 and the only other school with fewer than two losses. Princeton is playing as well as it has all season and comes into the game after outscoring Brown and Cornell by a combined 9-0 while outshooting them 68-7.
Should Princeton and Harvard finish tied for the league title, the winner of the head-to-head matchup would get the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid. Given that Princeton's overall record is 5-8, an at-large bid is unlikely for the Tigers this year.
The women's soccer team is wrestling with its own historical demons this weekend as it welcomes Harvard to Lourie-Love Field (7). Harvard leads the all-time series 18-5-1, and Julie Shackford is 1-7-1 against the Crimson as Tiger head coach, including 0-4-0 at home. Princeton and Harvard played to a 1-1 tie in Cambridge last year.
The Tigers' 2-0 win over Columbia last Saturday, along with Penn's wild 1-1 tie with Dartmouth in which the Quakers scored 41 seconds into the game and the Big Green scored with three seconds remaining in regulation to even it, left Princeton alone in first place in the league at 4-0-0, followed by Penn at 3-0-1 and Harvard at 3-1-0. Princeton and Penn play Nov. 6, while Penn has already defeated Harvard.
The Tigers are 11-1 overall and were ranked 11th in Division I a week ago. Princeton has won seven straight entering the Harvard game.
Need more history? While field hockey has favored Princeton and women's soccer has favored Harvard, men's soccer has been anybody's game.
Princeton and Harvard are 1-1 in the last two meetings, 2-2 in the last four, 5-5 in the last 10 and 10-10 in the last 20.
The 2004 Ivy men's soccer race is as bunched as it gets. Princeton and Penn are both 2-0-1, followed by Dartmouth at 1-0-2 and Harvard and Yale at 2-1-0 as the race reaches the halfway point. Kickoff at Lourie-Love Field is at 4 for the men's game.
And lastly, there is football. If ever a team deserved some luck against another team, it is Princeton against Harvard. The Crimson has won the last eight meetings between the schools, some in simply excruciating fashion. Like 1997, when Harvard won 14-12 on four field goals and a safety. Or when two potential 50-yard game-winning field goals either hit the upright (1998) or just missed left (2001). Or 1999, when Harvard scored a touchdown on the final play of the game to win 13-6. Or last year, when Harvard scored 43 points on seven touchdowns and one extra point to win 43-40 in overtime.
This year, the teams enter the game tied with Penn at 2-0 in the league as the race begins to sort itself out, and the Tigers will take another shot at the Crimson.
Welcome, Harvards, to a big day in Princeton. It's been almost 80 years; all is forgiven.