Suck it Harvard: You can’t razzle or dazzle

The Saybrook men celebrated the win with a final huddle. Courtesy George Harris/YH

Riding the IM bus alone is a bit of an existential experience. The big cheese is usually full of excited amateur athletes, but when you’re 30 minutes late to a game that pretty much no one is going to, there’s not much company. It makes you think of all the times that you’ve been accompanied on this behemoth: the stunned silence of a team that just took a hard loss, the childlike energy of teams that have just brought home a win, the fact that you usually have absolutely no personal space. Now, it’s just you and a handful of other people.

A few thousand Yalies saw the outcome of the Yale-Harvard game, and were saddened by the way The Game turned out. However, a few proud Saybrugians saw a very different version of the Yale-Harvard game.

What gets an old beat reporter, worn out on the IMs circuit, to take a freezing bus ride to a game he’s not even suiting up to play in? In a decades-old tradition, the championship teams from Yale and Harvard meet on the day before The Game and settle it all in an inter-college intramural championship. Since 1935, some of the IM champions from various sports played against their Cantab counterparts. At its heyday, the Yale-Harvard IM game was played between ten different championship teams, including the tackle football squad, the touch football squad, and the Men’s Soccer champions. In addition, in the past, more than just Yale/Harvard’s finest played: Teams as low as fifth or sixth place faced off in humongous tournaments. Unfortunately, in recent years, only one or two teams get the chance to play, so it’s more of a private party than an all day sporting event. This year, Saybrook would be representing the Eli Nation.

Luckily, The (IM) Game was a resounding victory for the Yale teams. Saybrook’s Men’s Soccer and Men’s Football teams faced off against the Harvard Currier House Men’s Soccer team. Harvard’s first place men’s football team was not able to make the trip, so Currier House, one of the top three football teams at Harvard, attempted to match up with Yale’s finest on the gridiron. They were, to be frank, rather unsuccessful. It was through an interesting constellation of circumstances that the games were played. Due to the impromptu nature of The (IM) Game, no refs had been called, and the usual fields were too dark to play on. After running around for half an hour with Carlos Pinela, SM ’82, Director of Intramural Sports, including a completely unnecessary golf cart ride in the cold and dark, and some discussions of “What the hell is going on with this?” We managed to draw up a makeshift field and appoint an emergency referee (me). I figure, as the coach of the Trumbull Coed team, I’m about as qualified as anyone.

The Men’s football game was played under the light on the IM fields, and the Blue Lions got out to a quick start and never looked back. Through excellent execution of the razzle-dazzle offense, Saybrook was able to win the game 47-0, running through a porous Currier defensive secondary and garnering over one billion yards of total offense. The team, led by their captain, Ian Halpern, SY ’10, was executing fluidly and efficiently, capping every possession with a score. The boys in blue made a nice highlight reel for the small group of about 20 Saybrugians that had come to watch, running a clinic on offense and defense for the Currier House team. Currier’s football team was not able to understand the nuance and finesse of the razzle-dazzle offense, and was not able to score or stop the men of Yale.

After a romping victory for the football team, pretty much the entire squad went to the subsequent soccer game. It was a lot slower than the football game, and was a little better planned — there was a real referee, and the game was played in the soccer stadium. Saybrook won the game 3-1, allowing their lone goal of the season. (Interestingly enough, Currier House’s best player was a girl that they inexplicably brought with them.) After wrapping up the coverage of the soccer game, I was able to catch a ride with one of the Saybrook players back to campus.

Over all, up till 2001 (with a couple missing years), the record is Yale 214-Harvard 189-Ties 17. This aggregates all the games across all sports, but clearly shows Yale’s superiority. Recently, though, the rivalry has become more evenly matched. This is due to the different rules for football at the two schools. Harvard uses a flag football system, while Yale has implemented the razzle-dazzle scheme in intramural competition. As a result, when one school visits the other, it is forced to follow the home team’s rules. The plays for offense and defense are very different in these to styles of play, leading to some issues with good execution for the away team. (In order to fight this problem, Yale has begun football All-Star games, where the championship football team plays against an all-star roster made up of the other eleven college’s students. It has produced some positive results, but has not necessarily produced more wins.)

So next year, when you’re packing up to go to Harvard, bring your IM spirit. Some of your friends might be playing for Yale on a slightly smaller stage.

Special thanks to Peter Jasinski, DC ’12, Head Intramural Secretary, for his assistance with this article.

By George Harris

<—Previous                                                                                              Next—>