the
GAME
HARVARD VS. YALE 2012
PREVIEW PAGES 4-5 REFLECTION PAGE 6 MEMORABLE MOMENTS PAGE 12 LAST ELI VICTORY PAGE 14 PLAYERS TO WATCH PAGES 18-19
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 OPINION
NEWS’ VIEW Dear Harvard, We need to talk. It seems like we do this every year, and quite frankly we’ve had enough. When this started back in 1875, we thought you might be the one. You were older, you were richer and you lived on the water in Cambridge. At the time this all started, we were just a young upstart, barely 174 years old. We thought The Game could have been something special. But we’re tired, Harvard. We’ve done this 129 times, and we’re tired of having to deal with you. How many times have we tried to drink with you Friday night, only to find out you’re “too hungover to tailgate” for The Game the next morning? Or even worse, how many nights did you sneak back to our colleges, walking a perfectly straight line and reeking of sobriety? We could deal with your antisocial, borderline-agoraphobic, Boo-Radley-meets-Walden tendencies. We even stuck by your side after you banned us from actually enjoying your tailgates or thought “Incest
Fest” would be a cool name for a party. You tried to make all your parties “invite-only” to seem exclusive, only to have us realize that no one inside your creepy final clubs was good-looking. Still, we stayed committed to this rivalry. We could even deal with your sad obsession about the size of your acceptance rate. Remember, it’s not about size — it’s really all about how you use it. But of course, you have to keep reminding us: 6 percent. Every time we left Cambridge unsatisfied, we put up with it because at least you were honest. But then you cheated, Harvard. You threw out the pledge that we all took — to be the best and brightest, to be the most elite universities we could be. You broke our trust, Harvard. And for what? Some “easy class”? Some intro-gov gut class that anyone could ace without even trying? We never expected this from you. So we’re leaving you, Harvard. You suck. We should have seen the
signs; everyone around you warned us. Your newspaper tried telling us — see Nov. 16, 2007 Crimson column “Harvard Sucks.” Even your own fans tried telling us — see Nov. 20, 2004
Harvard fan statement “We Suck.” We should have listened. But luckily for us, there’s another school down south. We never really thought they mattered, and they probably don’t,
but they respect us. They want to be us. Sure, they’re smaller, poorer and from New Jersey. But at least they’re honest. We wish we could say the same about you.
Enjoy your Monday classes,
Yale 2012 IN REVIEW AT GEORGETOWN
Cameron Sandquist ’14 caught a 98-yard touchdown pass from Eric Williams ’16, the longest play from scrimmage in Yale history.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 TABLE
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OF CONTENTS
2 NEWS’ VIEW
13 OUTSIDE THE BOWL
9 LEADERSHIP
BY THE YALE DAILY NEWS
BY CLINTON WANG
Harvard may have dominated the last halfdecade of football, but it still sucks. The News explains why.
BY MARIA GUARDADO
The Yale-Harvard rivalry does not end with The Game. Find out how Yale has fared so far against its enemy up north.
Yale’s football program doesn’t have a captain for the first time in 140 years. But leaders have emerged amidst the controversy.
10 OFF-FIELD CHALLENGES 14 BACK IN 2006...
4 PREVIEW
BY CHARLES CONDRO
6 SENIOR REFLECTION
BY MAREK RAMILO
BY MARGARET NEIL
Can the ragtag Bulldogs overcome a slew of injuries and a frustrating first nine games to take down the Crimson?
11 ELIS LEND A HAND
BY CHRIS DOOLEY AND COLLIN BIBB
Yale has never lost The Game six straight times. In 2006, a strong Bulldogs team prevented the program from earning that dubious distinction.
Roy Collins ’13 anchors the Yale offensive line, but after practice, he takes on the challenges of his pre-med requirement and type 1 diabetes.
15 PAST THREE YEARS
BY KEVIN KUCHARSKI
BY YALE DAILY NEWS
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a group of Bulldogs led by Jackson Ligouri ’14 traveled to the Lower East Side to provide supplies and help.
A defensive lineman and quarterback reflect on their time at Yale and their final chance to take one from the Cantabs.
7 BATTERED, BUT BATTLING 12 MEMORABLE MOMENTS BY EVAN FRONDORF
BY GRANT BRONSDON
New coach, new quarterback. It’s been a rebuilding year for the Elis, but don’t count them out yet.
“The Hampden Park Blood Bath,” “Yale Beats Harvard 29–29?” A look back at past games that make this historic rivalry great.
8 ENTER RENO
There have been heartbreaking and stunning defeats in Yale’s last three losses to Harvard. The News looks back on what went wrong.
16 WEST COAST BY ASHTON WACKYM
In 2013, the Yale football team will fly to LAX to face Cal Poly Tech in a rare west coast matchup.
18 X’S AND O’S
BY THE YALE DAILY NEWS
BY ALEX EPPLER
Players to watch on all sides of the field.
How Yale’s first-year head coach journeyed from Yale to Harvard and then back again.
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INSIDER'S GUIDE Elizabeth Chrystal Catherine Dinh
2012 IN REVIEW AT GEORGETOWN
Canadian transfer Tyler Varga ’15 made a great first impression with two rushing touchdowns and 103 yards on the ground.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 PREVIEW
Elis look to right ship, BY CHARLES CONDRO STAFF REPORTER Injuries and tough losses have made the 140th year of Yale football one to forget, but that would change with a victory over Harvard tomorrow. Ya l e (2–7, 1–5 Ivy) travels to
Overall
ADVANTAGE
Boston tomorrow to play Harvard (7–2, 4–2), No. 24 in the Division I Football Championship Series, for the 129th time in the storied contest. The rivalry has gone decidedly in favor of the 10,000 men of Harvard recently. Last year the Cantabs invaded New Haven and torched Yale, 45–7, tied for the worst defeat the Elis have ever been dealt at the hands of the Crimson. Harvard has won 10 of the past 11 meetings, and this year’s Bulldogs are eager to help Yale regain its place on top. “It’s a game that I haven’t won yet,” linebacker Will McHale ’13 said. “It would be a phenomenal way to go out. It would mean a lot to me and it would mean a lot to my senior class.” The Elis are 33-point underdogs to end Harvard’s five-year winning streak. Although it has faltered twice in Ivy League play this season, Harvard has been a juggernaut. The Cantabs have the topranked offense and defense in the Ancient Eight; Yale is ranked seventh on both sides of the ball. Harvard quarterback Colton Chapple leads the Ivy League with 22 touchdown passes and also has eight rushing scores; Yale has just 17 total touchdowns.
NEWS’ PICKS
Harvard has seven wins; Yale has seven losses. Wide-receiverturned-quarterback Henry Furman ’14 said that the Elis are attempting to put the long, difficult season behind them against Harvard. “Obviously our season hasn’t gone the way we’ve wanted it to,” Furman said. “But I think we’ve done a good job so far of letting that go. This is The Game. This is why you come to Yale. This is what you play for. Letting go of the season’s negative aspects is critical.” One thing that Yale should not let go of on Saturday is the football. The Elis pace the Ivy League this year with 26 turnovers. With just 12 giveaways this season, the Cantabs are second-best among the Ivies. Yale head coach Tony Reno said turnovers have taken the Bulldogs out of several games this year. “If we can eliminate turnovers and can win crucial situations in the game, then we’ve shown what we can do,” Reno said. “When you play a good football game you can beat good teams, but when you make mistakes it’s hard to win football games.” The ground attack has been an asset for Yale this year, and
Offensive
ADVANTAGE
Defensive
the Bulldogs have averaged 191.8 rushing yards per contest. But the running backs in blue will be tested on Saturday by a stingy Crimson defense. Harvard has allowed an average of only 63.8 yards on the ground this year, good for second in the FCS. Furman said that the Elis will not back down offensively because they believe in their running backs. Injured quarterback Eric Williams ’16, who confirmed that he will not dress on Saturday due to a separated shoulder, added that the Bulldogs will also have to deal with a Harvard defensive line that leads the Ivies with 40 sacks in 2012. “Harvard’s defense is solid,” Williams said. “Especially up front. They have four defensive lineman who can get to the quarterback. They don’t have to blitz, but when they do it’s coming hard and fast.” Williams originally injured his shoulder in Yale’s 27–13 victory over Penn on Oct. 20. Quarterbacks Derek Russell ’13 and Logan Scott ’16 were also injured that day, forcing Yale to scramble to find put a signal caller in the pocket. Russell also separated his shoulder diving into the end zone for a 3-yard scoring run, and Scott broke his throwing hand
ADVANTAGE
Special Teams
ADVANTAGE
ZOE GORMAN/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
2012 IN REVIEW AT CORNELL
Wide receiver Austin Reuland ’16 had a standout freshman performance with a 29-yard reception and a touchdown catch.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 5
sink Harvard when he was tackled attempting to convert a fourth-and-six from the Quakers’ 26-yard line, according to Reno. Furman stated that both Russell and Scott are attempting to return to the field this week, but that he is preparing as if he will start for the second-straight week. Williams said that he is disappointed about missing The Game, but he will still be working to give Yale an edge. “During the game I’ll be up in the box with the coaches reading defenses and helping to call plays,” Williams said. “I know my position now — to help the team, and that’s to help Hank [Furman].” The Crimson too have their roster problems this week. Citing an “unprecedented rash of injuries at the offensive line position,” the Harvard Athletic Department cancelled the JV game that was to be played at 1:00 p.m. today. Harvard is also reeling from a 30–21 defeat at the hands of Penn that knocked the Crimson out of first place in the Ivy League last week. Yale remains the only Ivy League team to defeat Penn this season, even with the injuries the Elis suffered at quarterback that afternoon. The Crimson will be tough coming off the loss, as Harvard is a perfect 10–0 following a defeat since 2007. When that streak began, Reno was still an assistant head coach under Yale’s Jack Siedlecki. He was the special teams coach at Harvard from 2009 to 2011 after coaching at Yale from 2003 to 2008. Reno’s switch back to Yale this January created a clothing conundrum for the rookie head coach. “I had a lot of clothes I had to throw away twice,” Reno said. “[But] my wife kept all the blue for some reason.”
Reno also lured three assistant coaches away from Cambridge when he left. Offensive line coach Joe Conlin, defensive line coach Dwayne Wilmot and tight ends coach Kris Barber ’97 all followed Reno to New Haven. Barber has experience in the Yale Bowl, having quarterbacked for the Elis for two seasons after transferring from Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. Defensive backs coach Steve Vaschel also has a history with the Crimson, but he has not worked at Harvard since 1994. Connections aside, the players are anxiously awaiting their chance to get out onto the field and add the next chapter to the history of The Game, according to Varga. “I’m really excited,” Varga said. “It’s one of the most storied rivalries in college football … There’s a lot of history behind it. A lot of hype. I’ve never played in something like that before.” Yale leads the all-time series 65–55–8. Contact CHARLES CONDRO at charles.condro@yale.edu .
RIGHT, MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR LEFT, SARA MILLER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
THE GAME PREDICTIONS
2012 IN REVIEW AT CORNELL
“Quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quoteEric Williams ’16 continued his excellent play, completing 73 percent his passes to goLAST27-for-37 for 211 yards and a touchdown. quote quote quote quote quote. Quote quote quoteofquote.” FIRSTNAME
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 SENIOR
REFLECTION
The making of a man BY CHRIS DOOLEY AND COLLIN BIBB To the average Yale fan, Saturday’s Yale-Harvard game — what will be the 129th installment of the oldest rivalry in modern football, an age-old grudge match known simply as “The Game” — is an exciting social event. It represents the end of three long months away from home, toiling in basement libraries and the beginning of Thanksgiving break. It’s a chance to trash talk, don funny T-shirts, call up the old prep-school cronies from Hahvard and responsibly tailgate. To the 92 members of the Yale football team, it represents something more complex. Simply stated, The Game is not just a game. It is the embodiment of a tradition we constantly strive to uphold, a desperate effort to defend the honor of Yale, and to prove to ourselves and the Old Blues alike that yes, we are worthy to wear the Y. It is the culmination of four years of constant, unrelenting effort. Of winter workouts. Of crawling out of bed feeling defeated at 5:30 in the morning. Of iced-over cleats and rolled ankles, of up-downs and broken fingers, mat drills and suicides. Of silent Commons breakfasts after morning lift. Of one more, just one more, always one more. It is a representation of Yale Football, a program that takes 30 boys from around the country each year and molds them over four years into men. It is often said that football is a microcosm of life, and it’s true. Everything we have learned in our four years at this great university can be attributed in some way to football. Because only when faced with adversity does the true character of a man emerge, and only then is that man able to learn about himself. Football has stripped from us any inkling of entitlement and left us with an appreciation for hard work and merit. It has taught us the importance of passion and the meaning of sacrifice. That the only way you can judge a man
is by his actions and not his words. That in the end, grit and courage is more definitive than talent. It is a representation of the relationships that were forged through a passion for football and strengthened by way of blood, sweat, tears and a burning desire to win. It is a moment in time where brothers stand arm-in-arm, ready on a field of battle to win glory for the Elis. It is the transformation of a group of strangers into brothers, united by a passion for football and mutual recognition of the hard work and sacrifice required by the game and the University. Over the past four years, we have been repeatedly tested — and each senior who will play his last game on Saturday has repeatedly answered the call. These are the men who will join us at weddings, childbirths and funerals. These are the men who made playing football special. These are the men we’ll remember. And finally, it is the end. It is the end of this football journey that has afforded us so many opportunities and molded us into the men we are today. It is the last time that we’ll strap up our shoulder pads, buckle our chinstraps and fight for the glory of Yale. It is the last time that this group of men will stand together, determined and resolute, fixed on a singular purpose, and lay it all on the line for each other. It is our final opportunity to proclaim to the world that we are men of Yale Football. Calvin Coolidge once said, “No man was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” We are blessed and honored to have been a part of the great tradition that is Yale Football and can only hope that we have earned a piece of its legacy. For God, For Country and For Yale. Roll Dogs. Contact CHRIS DOOLEY at christopher.dooley@yale.edu . Contact COLLIN BIBB at kenneth.bibb@yale.edu .
YDN
Chris Dooley ’13 is second on the team in both sacks with three and tackles for a loss with six. Defensive back and fellow senior Colin Bibb ’13 is third for the Elis with 59 tackles.
2012 IN REVIEW VS. COLGATE
Eric Williams ’16 proved he was a dual threat quarterback in the first home game, passing for 171 yards and rushing for 114 more.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 YALE/HARVARD YALE
PAGE 7
COLUMNS
Maybe, just maybe EVAN FRONDORF
On Sept. 15, a brand-new Yale football team took the field in our nation’s capital to play Georgetown. In the words of Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, everything had changed. New coach, new quarterback, new season. Admittedly, I didn’t have high expectations. I didn’t expect a win. I’m not sure if anyone did — except for the players and first-year head coach Tony Reno. But what I saw that day was an energetic, talented performance. Freshman quarterback Eric Williams ’16 performed admirably, going 19-for-30 for 250 yards and a touchdown. Cameron Sandquist ’14 had a 98-yard catch for a touchdown that will go down in the Bulldog record books as the longest play from scrimmage in Yale history. Canadian transfer Tyler Varga ’15 exploded onto the scene with two rushing TDs and over 100 on the ground. The Elis grabbed the lead at the end of the third quarter and never let go. I left D.C. excited — and happily proven wrong My enthusiasm hasn’t yet faded. Sure, the young Bulldogs have struggled since. Mistakes were inevitable. Williams got injured. But there were still flashes of greatness. Varga continued to dominate. Yes, Yale may have only won one Ivy contest so far this season, but it was against Penn, the top dog in the Ancient Eight. And it wasn’t even close. I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that things look bleak for The Game (or if you’re a Crimson reader, maybe you think there’s blood in the water): 2–7 isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring. The top quarterbacks are still hurt. Varga didn’t play last week. But take heart, Elis, and have a little faith. Pessimism and cynicism do you no good. Cantabs (apparently no one calls you that — I don’t care): it’s in your best interest to back off your expectations of a blowout. Just when it looks like Yale is down and a few seconds away from being KO’d, this team has the power to surprise. No one expected a win against Georgetown. No one expected a win against Penn. Nate Silver probably wouldn’t predict a Yale
win against Harvard, but clearly football is a lot more volatile than a presidential election (note: not an attempt at a veiled value judgment). The world’s most famous statistician attempted to predict all 14 NFL games this weekend and went 9-for-13 (I’m giving him a break and eliminating the wonky 49ersRams tie). Take that, Mr. 50-for-50. The Game is another chance for a defining win, just like those wins at Georgetown and against Penn. And everyone on this Yale team knows that. They know that 2–7 will look and feel like 10–0 if they can break the Yale losing streak. They’re hungry, Harvard’s not. After their loss to Penn last weekend, the Crimson are dejected, knowing that they need help from Penn to claim a share of the Ivy League title. Meanwhile, this bruised and battered Bulldog team will make the most of the pieces they have on Saturday — and they won’t go down easily. This guy — Tyler Varga — bounces off defenders like he’s inside a pinball machine. You have to see him run. He’s already a top10 rusher in the FCS (tops in all-purpose yards), and I can’t wait to see what he’ll do next. Mordecai Cargill — the senior running back — can break off a 10-yard run like it’s nothing. Last year, he ran for 230 yards against Columbia — in the midst of New York Snowpocalypse 2011. And this defensive front seven — Beau Palin ’14, Chris Dooley ’13, Nick Daffin ’13, Dylan Drake ’13, Brian Leffler ’13, Will McHale ’13 and Ryan Falbo ’13 — is a monster in the crucial moments. They stopped Columbia on four straight plays when the Lions had first down at the Yale 1-yard-line. It’s a tough, experienced group. So maybe, just maybe, just when it looks like our chances against the Crimson have hit a nadir, just when a sixth straight loss seems inevitable, just when apathy toward The Game seems to be rising, the Bulldogs have the power to surprise and reverse a forgettable half-decade of football. Don’t count them out — and yes, that’s directed toward Elis and Cantabs alike. Contact EVAN FRONDORF at evan.frondorf@yale.edu .
HARVARD
Why Harvard is better E. BENJAMIN SAMUELS & ROBERT S. SAMUELS
Did you know that The Game used to be a rivalry? A long time ago, it was a back-and-forth battle between two great Ivy League football powers in a nationally recognized showdown of brains and brawn. On Saturday, Harvard vs. Yale will just be an embarrassment. Like Yale football coaches vs. The Truth (or the Rhodes Trust — either one). Like New Haven vs. A Safe Place To Live. Or like Fareed Zakaria vs. Journalism. Honestly, this isn’t fun anymore. Over the past decade, Yale’s been getting more hammered at The Game than most of the freshmen there. And now, the HarvardYale rivalry is like taking candy from a baby. Except babies have some hand-eye coordination and are not last in the Ivy League in time of possession. If you’ll indulge us for a moment, let’s a take a brief trip down Memory Lane. [Please note that we don’t actually encourage any of our New Haven readers to walk down any street at any time after 6 p.m. It is not safe.] It’s a classic tale, really: coach allegedly lies on his resume, resigns and leaves his already struggling football program in an even greater situation of desperation. Then, this past spring, you steal a number of Harvard coaches, who head south to New Haven. A brief aside: The Crimson is not in the business of questioning the decisions that individual members of our community, past or present, make. However, leaving Cambridge to go to New Haven is like a Dane Cook comedy tour: Maybe it seemed cool in 2006, but it’s 2012. Come on, Tony Reno. Sure, you’re the captain of the ship that is Yale football, but that ship is up in flames, sinking pretty quickly, and everyone is already on lifeboats. You might be thinking: Hey, it can’t get any worse for Yale football. In movies, that would be the moment when it starts rain-
ing. In real life, that’s when your captain allegedly assaults a former Yale Daily News sportswriter at Toad’s Place. Another brief aside: Seriously? Sure, bar fights are cool. But purportedly giving a sportswriter 14 stitches is really no accomplishment. We’ve seen strong breezes kick the crap out of sportswriters. Our 13-yearold sister intimidates us to no end, and some say that we’re the muscle of the Sports Board of The Harvard Crimson. Okay, no one says that. But you get our point. And lest you forget, all of this has happened before Yale even had the chance to botch a single snap. But botch they have. Your quarterbacks are going down so fast that we don’t even have time to come up with a prom joke that does it justice. Regardless of who starts, the likely quarterback will be listed as a wide receiver and will have spent at least the past two years on the JV team (did you even know there was a JV team?). Both dudes have spent more time under center playing Madden than in real life. Word on the street is that Hank Furman’s most impressive athletic accomplishment was going 3-for-4 as himself in Backyard Baseball 2001. I hope you don’t think we’re being mean, Yale. But Yale is at the bottom of pretty much every team statistic in Ivy League football. Reading the stats page is like going through the academic records of George W. Bush, who, incidentally, also attended your fine institution. Now, we were going to go week-by-week and offer incisive football analysis. But you lost to Columbia, so instead, we are going to continue mocking you. Columbia? Seriously? Harvard beat them 69–0 with the fourth stringers in. And you lost? We do hope that one day, Harvard and Yale can forge a truly great football rivalry once again. But for now, here’s some advice for you, Coach Reno: As an exciting halftime promotion, pick one lucky student from the stands. Have him start the second half as quarterback. Seriously, give it a shot. Because things literally cannot get any worse. Contact E. BENJAMIN SAMUELS at benjaminsamuels@college.harvard.edu and ROBERT SAMUELS at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu .
2012 IN REVIEW VS. DARTMOUTH
A successful trick play saw Derek Russell ’13 take a snap in the red zone and lob a touchdown pass to linebacker Dylan Drake ’13.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 TONY
RENO
Reno steers Elis through turbulent campaign BY ALEX EPPLER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER This season has been a trying one for the football team. After winning its season opener at Georgetown, the team has won only a single other contest heading into Saturday’s matchup against Harvard (7–2, 4–2 Ivy), albeit against Ivy League front-runner Penn. The Elis’ opponents have won by an average margin of nearly 20 points in a season marred by injuries and misfortune. Yet while the season may be remembered for the adversity faced by the squad, it has also been a year of sweeping transition for the Bulldogs (2–7, 1–5 Ivy). Nobody has been more central to the changes to the Bulldog team than first-year head coach Tony Reno. “There’s been a lot of challenges with any job and with this one it has its challenges,
but it also has a great deal of satisfaction,” Reno said. “I can’t say enough about how great the players have been, how hard they’ve worked.” The tumultuous season will conclude on Saturday against Harvard, in the first Yale-Harvard game in which Reno will serve as a head coach. Yet Reno is by no means a newcomer to the contest. He has been involved in each matchup as a member of either the Yale or Harvard coaching staff since 2003. “It’s unlike any [rivalry] in football,” Reno said. “It’s an honor and privilege to be associated with it and be able to coach this Yale team.” Reno first participated in the Yale-Harvard game 10 years ago as a wide receivers coach for the Bulldogs. While he said that he had an inkling about how important the game was before that contest, he gained a greater understanding of The Game’s significance after his
VIVIENNE ZHANG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Reno came to the Elis after three years as special teams coach at Harvard.
SARA MILLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Tony Reno took over the Yale program after a difficult year that saw the resignation of former head coach Tom Williams and the collapse of Patrick Witt’s ’12 Rhodes Scholarship candidacy. first experience as a coach. After serving as the Elis’ wide receivers coach for a year, Reno became the team’s defensive secondary coach, a position he held from 2004 to 2008. The Bulldogs captured a victory in the Game in 2006 — the last time the Elis won the matchup. Reno said that winning any football game requires winning the turnover margin, converting more third-down opportunities than the opposition and getting the better of matchups in the red zone, and that the Elis came out victorious in 2006 because they were successful in those categories. Reno then left New Haven for Cambridge in 2009 to take over Harvard’s special teams units. There, he coached with Joe Conlin, the Bulldogs’ current associate head coach, after Conlin joined the Crimson’s
staff in 2011. “[Reno was] a heck of a special teams coach and an excellent recruiter,” Conlin said. Conlin added that he thought that Reno brought certain knowledge about how to run a program from Harvard to Yale when he accepted the Elis’ head-coaching job in 2012. Conlin said that Reno learned how to be attentive to details from Tim Murphy, who has been Harvard’s head coach for the past 19 years. Reno, however, does not regularly communicate with the Harvard staff. “Other than a good luck text message from the coaches I worked with back and forth, but other than I thought we’ve been pretty busy,” Reno said. “There’s really not much time for small talk at this time of year.”
While Conlin said that Reno learned certain aspects of the game from Murphy, he added that Reno has also brought his own distinctive coaching style to the Bulldogs. These techniques include running highintensity practices and pointing out specific areas where the Elis need to improve. Conlin also said that Reno has remained positive with his team despite the challenges the Elis have faced this season, a campaign that will conclude when the team leaves the field in Cambridge this weekend. “Obviously we’ll prepare all week like we do every week,” Reno said. “I’m just excited to walk on that field with [the players] on Saturday.” Contact ALEX EPPLER at alexander.eppler@yale.edu .
2012 IN REVIEW VS. DARTMOUTH
After Yale refused to provide a kicking tee to Dartmouth, the Big Green fashioned a makeshift tee out of the top of a water bottle.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
THE GAME 2012 CAPTAINS
McHale continues to lead Elis BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER As the football season approaches its conclusion, it will be Bulldogs’ first without a captain in the team’s 140-year history. But players said that the new “team leader” system has had little effect on the team’s culture and performance. Linebacker Will McHale ’13 was unanimously voted captain of the team last winter, but he lost the title in August after he was charged with punching another student at Toad’s Place in May. Nevertheless, McHale has maintained the role and duties of a captain throughout the season, still leading practices and deciding many of the plays in games. The only responsibility that was transferred to the team leader, elected each week by the players, was the opening coin toss and pregame speech. “To be honest, [the team dynamic] hasn’t changed much, in my opinion,” wide receiver Henry Furman ’14 said. Furman and nose guard Chris Dooley ’13 said the choice of captain is mostly honorary and likely had a negligible effect on the outcome of their games this season. They added they do not expect it to affect their prospects at the upcoming Yale-Harvard Game. Team leaders have all come from the senior class and are usually elected based on strong perfor-
mances over the course of the season or in the previous week. Dooley, the team leader for the Bulldogs’ win over Penn, said that being selected for the position was not as important to him as the outcome of the match. Still, he added that his brother had attended Penn and he knew the Quaker captain well, making the experience special for him. Other elected team leaders this season were running back Mordecai Cargill ’13, offensive lineman Roy Collins ’13, linebackers Brian Leffler ’13 and Wes Moyer ’13, defensive tackle Nick Daffin ’13 and defensive backs Collin Bibb ’13, John Powers ’13 and Kurt Stottlemyer ’13. Despite McHale’s lack of an official title, Furman said the team still respects him as their leader and mentor, and many team members still refer to McHale as their captain. “The young people still look up to Will as a role model,” Furman said. “Will had earned the honor to be captain, and we didn’t want to have two guys going back and forth [on important decision-making].” McHale declined to comment for this article, and head coach Tony Reno was unable to be reached. The team’s captain for next season will be elected Friday night and announced on Monday. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
YALE ATHLETICS
One senior has been selected as “team leader” each game for the coin toss and pregame speech.
2012 IN REVIEW VS. LAFAYETTE
Chris Dooley ’13 contributed two of Yale’s four sacks — tying the season-high sack total for the Bulldogs.
PAGE 10
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 PROFILES
Collins deals with highs and lows BY MARGARET NEIL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Every day, 25 million Americans face the challenges of life with diabetes. Very few of them are pre-med varsity athletes. Welcome to the life of Roy Collins ’13, senior offensive lineman for Yale, prospective doctor and Type 1 diabetic. His diagnosis about nine years ago prompted his desire to pursue medicine. “One of my biggest motivations is [to help] people like me: [athletes who are also] diabetics,” Collins said, adding that the number of diabetics in the United States is rising due to poor health habits. “There’s a gap between the worlds of diabetes and athletes, [and] I feel like I have a unique perspective.” Collins, a Houston native and graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall, has Type 1 diabetes, the kind that is typically diagnosed around puberty and is “purely genetic,” he explained. He tries to keep up with new research about diabetes by visiting his doctor on a weekly basis, scouring the Internet for information and talking to other athlete-diabetics. Meanwhile, he wears an insulin pump at all times, even during games. The insulin pump acts as a surrogate pancreas, helping to regulate blood glucose levels. Even with the pump, Collins has to be vigilant — especially when he is playing football. “Being diabetic and playing sports is difficult because [your blood sugar level] has to be in a certain range in order to play well,” he explained. He said if it is too high, his mind isn’t clear, and in football there are a lot of
decisions that need to be made quickly. Occasionally, he will get an irregular reading and have to sit out. In the game against Cornell earlier in the season, he got a low reading, which sent his sugar sky-high and prevented him from playing. Offensive lineman coach Joseph Conlin said the offensive lineman position, a notoriously inglorious position in football, also has special challenges for diabetics like Collins and his teammate Willy Moore ’14. “[The offensive lineman] job entails being able to push people around … Obviously, they’re the biggest guys on a team,” Conlin said, adding that diabetes makes it difficult to keep on weight. In spite of these obstacles, Collins says his teammates and coaches are supportive of his health and heavy course load.
He’s a natural leader with an infectious personality. KYLE WHITE ’14 Offensive lineman and Collins’ backup “I feel like in this point in my career everyone knows where I’m coming from. It’s not uncommon for me to not be able to participate in some activities,” he said. “I used to be self-conscious about what others thought of me. I didn’t want people to think that I was soft or tired. When I am participating I’m giving it my all, and I think they appreciate that.” Collins and linebacker Ryan Falbo ’13, a fellow pre-med student, take a lot of classes
ZOE GORMAN/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior offensive lineman Roy Collins ’13 was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes about nine years ago. together. Conlin said Collins is a very dedicated student and added that he is always in the lab, sometimes running there after practice. Center John Oppenheimer ’14 called Collins inspiring, adding that he leads by example on the field and off. Offensive lineman Kyle White ’14, Collins’ backup, said that he has looked up to Collins since he was a freshman. He said when Collins arrived at Yale, the coaches thought he would serve the team better as
a tackle with tremendous athleticism. “I think the fact that Roy accepted the position change and worked to become who he is now — a stalwart of the offensive line [who] is having an all-conference-caliber season — really speaks to Roy’s athletic talent and commitment to the team,” White said. Collins said he is looking forward to Saturday’s game against Harvard, his last Harvard-Yale game ever. Citing numerous coaching changes
and many losses in the past few years, he said the team has experienced its fair share of adversity. He added that he has invested a lot in Saturday’s game, and that the team is ready to avenge those losses. Collins plans to take a year or two off, possibly working at a company geared toward diabetic-athletes or doing Teach for America, before attending medical school. Contact MARGARET NEIL at margaret.neil@yale.edu .
2012 IN REVIEW VS. PENN
The scoreboard at the Yale Bowl malfunctioned for most of the game, confusing coaches and forcing referees to keep time on the field.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 PROFILES
PAGE 11
& PREDICTIONS
Bulldogs lend helping hand BY KEVIN KUCHARSKI STAFF REPORTER On Nov. 3, the football team lost to Brown 20–0, dropping the Bulldogs to a 2–6 record on the season and a last-place tie with Columbia in the Ivy League. But despite the shutout, it was not an altogether bad day for the Yale football program. Four players who did not travel with the team spent the day delivering supplies to victims of Hurricane Sandy living in the Jacob Riis Houses, a public housing project in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The group came together at the insistence of wide receiver Jackson Liguori ’14, who sent an email Friday night soliciting volunteers for a Saturday morning trip to New York. Liguori, whose grandmother lives in the Bronx, said he was inspired to volunteer with his teammates after reading
about the Riis Houses in an article in The Independent, a British newspaper. “It was really out of the blue,” said Liguori. “I always hear about natural disasters and say I wish I could do something to help, but this time it was so easy. It was just an hour away, and it was easy to make a big difference because you didn’t have to do much to help.” Tailback Tate Harshbarger ’14, offensive linemen Dustin Ross ’16 and Ben Killion ’16, and Sabine van der Linden ’14, a former women’s lacrosse player, joined Liguori on the trip. On Friday night, the group purchased approximately $250 worth of bottled water, nonperishable food items and flashlights using money pooled together from friends. They left for New York at approximately 7 a.m. Saturday morning in a car borrowed from a friend of Liguori. That day’s game was the first
time the team left Liguori in New Haven since his freshman year, but Harshbarger and Killion have not traveled with the team yet this season. “Usually I’ll watch the game on TV and catch up on work on away weekends,” Harshbarger said. “This was a nice way to make my time useful for somebody other than myself.” When they arrived in Manhattan, they found a line hundreds of people long and a squad of volunteers distributing basic necessities. The group brought their supplies over, helped the volunteers organize them and found that, beyond the delivery of goods, their services were not needed. “There were just so many people there to help, they almost had too many people to be effective,” Killion said. “It was great to be able to see the huge amount of support.”
After dropping off the supplies, the group searched for other opportunities to help in the area surrounding the Riis Houses but did not find anybody in need of assistance. They returned to New Haven around 3 p.m. and noted that, for most of the trip, the roads were practically deserted. Liguori said that although he had a good relationship with each of his teammates prior to the trip, he thinks the experience helped them grow closer. “We’re so used to seeing each other in the weight room, on the field and in the meeting rooms and you get to know people in that context,” Liguori said. “But then you go to this completely foreign landscape and even though it was just one day of hanging out with them, I felt like I got to know them a lot better.” The football program has established a precedent of giving
back to the community in recent years. The team currently works with the Wounded Warriors program to help veterans prepare for college life, the Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive to register Yalies as potential donors and Bulldog Buddies, a mentoring program for local youth. “It’s just another example of guys on the team who are really putting the community first and helping people in need,” head coach Tony Reno said. “It’s a testament to those guys and Yale students in general, who are always looking to try to help people and were proud to help with the hurricane.” The Jacob Riis Houses, which were completed in 1949, comprise 1,191 apartment units spread across 19 buildings. Contact KEVIN KUCHARSKI at kevin.kucharski@yale.edu .
Predictions It’s a new world where wide receivers play quarterback; Yale shows its grit and resilience on both sides of the ball: In a stunner, Yale is victorious 24-21. — PETER SALOVEY, Provost and next University President
Sound a Bow-Wow Close it will be Valiant Bulldogs Raise a din: Will prevail: I agree — They are favored For Coach, for Team, 34 to 33 We will Win. For Eli Yale! — PENELOPE LAURANS, Jonathan Edwards College master Timothy Dwight College wins the tailgate in a walkover.
I think Yale’s going to pull the upset of the year.
— JEFFREY BRENZEL, Timothy Dwight College Master
— RICHARD LEVIN, University president Hahvahd’s team may fight to the end But YALE! WILL! WIN! (To be sung to the tune of “Down the Field”)
This will be the year that Harvard will look back on for millennia with shame and despair, for this shall be our finest hour! Or whatever.
— EDWARD BASS ’67, senior fellow of the Yale Corporation
— CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY ’75, Author and political scientist
2012 IN REVIEW VS. PENN
With Eric Williams ’16 injured early, Logan Scott ’16 and Derek Russell ’13 stepped in at quarterback and lead Yale to a 27–13 win.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 LOOKING
BACK
Memorable games in Yale-Harvard history BY GRANT BRONSDON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER One of football’s most enduring traditions, the YaleHarvard game has been played for nearly as long as the sport has been in existence. Since Yale won its first game in 1876, the Bulldogs have historically dominated the series with a 65–55–8 record against the Crimson. In its 128 previous iterations, the Game has spawned the forward pass, the onside kick and several historic games.
1894
In the face of six Yale AllAmericans, Harvard managed to score points for the first time in three Games. But Yale’s 12–4 victory made history with its brutality, leading to a two-year hiatus for the Game. Known as “The Bloodbath in Hampden Park,” the Game of 1894 left one Yalie, Fred Murphy 1897, in a coma while also delivering a broken collarbone, a broken nose and various other injuries to other players. “The game was remarkable for the number of casualties. Players on both sides were consistently
1968
YDN
The Crimson scored 15 points in the final 42 seconds of the 1968 Game to come away with a 29–29 tie at Harvard Stadium.
disabled,” the Harvard Crimson wrote in its game recap. The public outcry was loud enough to nearly halt the infant game in its tracks, but after a two-year break, The Game was back.
1982
1968
In arguably the most famous matchup in a historic rivalry, both teams entered The Game undefeated and hoping to win the Ivy League championship. Yale, led by star quarterback Brian Dowling ’69 — the inspiration for B.D. in Doonesbury — was on a 16-game winning streak, while Harvard possessed the best scoring defense in the country at 7.6 points per game. The Bulldogs took an early 22–0 lead in the second quarter, and with 10:44 left in the game, they held onto a seemingly insurmountable 29–13 lead. But the Crimson came roaring back. Back-up quarterback Frank Champi threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to one score with 0:42 left on the clock, and the Cantabs recovered the ensuing onside kick. After a miracle touchdown lob as time expired, quickly followed by a two-point conversion slant pass, Harvard tied the game at 29–29, where it ended. “No words can describe the dejection in Yale’s camp — the locker room was like a morgue,” the News wrote at the time. The Harvard Crimson ran a headline the next morning that read “HARVARD BEATS YALE 29–29.” The Elis reminded the Cambridge faithful of what constitutes a victory the next year with a 7–0 shutout.
1999
Yale entered the matchup with a chance to clinch a share
YDN
DKE fraternity at MIT successfully buried a black weather balloon under the field in the 1982 Game that exploded in the second quarter. of the Ivy title, and Harvard, with a 3–3 Ivy record, hoped to play the role of spoiler. But in front of the largest crowd at the Yale Bowl in 10 years, the Elis were able to pull away as quarterback Joe Walland ’00 threw for 437 yards, setting a record for most passing yards allowed by the Crimson. Receiver Eric Johnson ’01 was responsible for 244 yards on 21 catches. His final catch, a 4-yard pluck from
the grass, gave Yale a 24–21 lead with 29 seconds remaining. Johnson parlayed the catch, as well as a solid senior season the next year, into a seven-year career in the NFL. His current engagement to Jessica Simpson only proves what we all know: Elis have better career prospects than Cantabs. Contact GRANT BRONSDON at grant.bronsdon@yale.edu .
2012 IN REVIEW AT COLUMBIA
Taking direct snaps in a Wildcat offense, Tyler Varga ’15 rushed for 220 yards and three touchdowns.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 OTHER
PAGE 13
GAMES
Yale-Harvard outside the Bowl BY MARIA GUARDADO STAFF REPORTER Yale and Harvard are slated to clash on the gridiron this Saturday, but several other Bulldog squads have already competed in their versions of The Game this fall. In one-on-one matchups, the Bulldogs currently hold a 4–2–1 lead over the Crimson, with field hockey, volleyball, women’s cross country and sailing all delivering wins over Yale’s archrival.
FIELD HOCKEY — WIN
The field hockey team’s class of 2013 made history this year by becoming the first class to defeat Harvard four years in a row. The team’s seniors capped their perfect run against the Cantabs with a 2–1 overtime win over the Crimson in their Ivy League opener in September. Senior Mary Beth Barham ’13 delivered a two-goal performance to secure the win for the Bulldogs. Her first goal in the 24th minute of the first half gave Yale a 1–0 edge, which held until Harvard’s Noel Painter scored to tie the game with just four minutes left in the second half. At 12:42 into overtime, Barham notched her second goal of the night off a penalty corner to clinch Yale’s historic win. The Elis ended the season tied with Penn and Cornell for fourth place in the Ivy League, while the Cantabs finished in a last-place tie with Brown.
VOLLEYBALL — WIN
Harvard and Yale battled twice on the volleyball court this fall, with the Bulldogs coming out on top each time. The Bulldogs did not drop a set in either game, sweeping the Crimson 3–0 in both matchups.
The rivals first faced off in Cambridge, when the Elis defeated the Cantabs 25–19, 25–18 and 25–15. Kelly Johnson ’16 led the Elis by hitting .722 with 13 kills, 20 assists, nine digs and no attack errors. Last weekend, the Bulldogs once again shut down the Crimson in New Haven 25–19, 25–10 and 25–10. Mollie Rogers ’15 had a strong night for the Elis, hitting .480 with a team-high 13 kills. The Bulldogs ended the season with a perfect 14–0 record against league opponents and their third consecutive Ivy League crown. Up next for the Elis is the NCAA tournament. The tournament’s 64-team field will be announced on Nov. 25.
MEN’S GOLF — WIN
The Bulldogs enjoyed two strong performances against the Crimson this fall. At the MacDonald Cup, held Sept. 29 and 30 at the Yale Golf Course, the Elis clinched first place, earning the trophy and bragging rights over their archrival, who finished in fifth. William Davenport ’15 and captain Bradley Kushner ’13 led the Bulldogs by placing second and 13th, respectively. Yale also placed ahead of Harvard at the Ivy League Match Play Tournament in October. The Bulldogs finished in fourth while the Crimson trailed in seventh.
WOMEN’S GOLF — LOSS
In their first meeting of the season at the Yale Intercollegiate, Harvard bested Yale by five strokes to secure a third-place finish, while the Bulldogs tied with Seton Hall for fourth place. When both squads teed off again at the Nittany Lion Women’s Invitational, Harvard once again defeated Yale with a second-place finish. The Bulldogs
finished the fall season in fifth place at the Lehigh Invitational and will resume their spring season in March.
MEN’S SOCCER — TIE
The men’s soccer team opened its Ivy League season by facing off against Harvard in Cambridge in late September. But neither team could find the back of the net in a 0–0 tie. The Crimson outshot the Bulldogs 23–11 and finished with a 20–6 edge in corner kicks, but both teams failed to break the stalemate. Yale captain and goalkeeper Bobby Thalman ’13 stopped seven shots, including two in overtime, to keep Harvard off the board for the entire match. Forward Jenner Fox ’14 led the Bulldogs with four shots, two of which were on goal. Last year, Yale defeated Harvard 1–0 for the first time since 2005. This season, the Elis ended the Ivy League season in sixth.
WOMEN’S SOCCER — LOSS
For the fourth consecutive year, the women’s soccer team was unable to snag a win against Harvard. Crimson midfielder Meg Casscells-Hamby scored just four minutes into overtime to lift Harvard to a 1–0 win in Cambridge, marking the second consecutive year the Bulldogs had fallen to Harvard in extra time and the fourth consecutive loss to the Crimson by a single goal. The Cantabs outshot the Bulldogs 22–4 in regulation, but neither side could capitalize on its opportunities, sending the game into overtime. Forward Paula Hagopian ’16 had a chance to put the Bulldogs ahead in the 91st minute, but her shot sailed high over the net. Three minutes later, Casscells-Hamby sealed the win
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR; ZEENAT MANSOOR, HENRY EHRENBERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS
On the course, on the court, and on the water, Yale teams have taken down the Crimson. for the Cantabs. Yale finished its season sixth in the Ivies.
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY — WIN
Though Harvard bested the women’s cross country team at this year’s Ivy League Heptagonal Championships and the NCAA Regionals, the Bulldogs finished ahead of the Crimson in their dual meet in New Haven. In their one-on-one matchup on Sept. 14, the Elis crushed the Crimson, 19–40, with Yale runners securing six of the top seven spots. Liana Epstein ’14 paced the Bulldogs, finishing in first place with a time of 17:24.78. However, Harvard dominated the fall’s later meets. When the two teams raced again at Heps, Harvard edged Yale by 15 points, earning a third-place tie with Brown while the Bulldogs came in fifth. At Regionals, Harvard also outperformed the seventhplace Elis with a fourth-place finish.
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY — LOSS
Yale raced Harvard three times this fall, but each time the Crimson outpaced the Elis. In a Sept. 14 dual meet in New Haven, Harvard defeated Yale, 21–38. The Crimson also bested the Bulldogs at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships on Oct. 27, when Harvard finished in fifth place, edging out sixthplace Yale by 27 points. Last weekend, the two teams competed against each other at the NCAA Regionals in Madison, Conn., where Harvard clinched sixth place, with Yale not far behind in eighth. Matthew Nussbaum ’15 led the Bulldogs at Regionals and finished in 24th place by completing the 10-kilometer course in 31:02.9. However, the team could not qualify for the national championship. Contact MARIA GUARDADO at maria.guardado@yale.edu .
2012 IN REVIEW AT COLUMBIA
On a long Columbia pass downfield in the first half, Kurt Stottlemyer ’13 stopped the Lions from gaining big yardage with an interception.
PAGE 14
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 LAST
VICTORY
2006 team reflects on last Yale victory BY MAREK RAMILO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Six years ago, the Yale football team entered Harvard Stadium hoping to end a five-game losing streak against the Crimson and reinvigorate a program at a crossroads. On Nov. 18, 2006, the Elis knocked off Harvard by a score of 34–13, behind a threetouchdown performance by running back Mike McLeod ’09 and a stout defense that allowed just 218 total yards and forced four turnovers. Members of the winning team cited the weight of the rivalry and the potential for an Ivy League championship as motivations behind Yale’s only victory over Harvard in the last 11 years. After another five-year drought and multiple scandals, the 2012 Yale football team may face an even greater challenge. With a 1–5 Ivy record — the league’s worst — Yale will not have a chance at the league title this time around. But despite the program’s recent setbacks and Harvard’s five-year dominance of The Game, all former Yale football players interviewed emphasized their desire to see the Elis top the Crimson. “This group of seniors has really been through a lot. I know that they’re tough kids. I’m just hopeful that they can come out and end the season on a good note,” said Kirk Porter ’08, a former starter on the defensive line. In the past year, the Yale football team has seen its coach resign due to a fradulent claim on his resume, its quarterback accused of sexual assault and denied the chance for a Rhodes
Scholarship and its captaincy vacated after a nightclub fight. While the 2006 team did not face such public scandals, the program found itself at a potential turning point entering The Game. The Bulldogs had suffered a tough loss the previous week to a talented Princeton team that outscored Yale 20–3 in the second half to win 34–31, ending Yale’s hopes of winning the Ivy League title outright. Still, the chance of winning a share of the championship remained. All the Elis had to do was beat Harvard the next week, a feat that had not been achieved since 2000. In the week leading up to The Game, head coach Jack Siedlecki and his staff made significant strategic changes to address the weaknesses exploited by Princeton the previous week. Porter said the change caught Harvard off guard, giving the Elis a schematic advantage. The Elis played a complete game in Cambridge, dominating all three phases of the game. Yale never trailed in the contest, taking a commanding 20–7 lead into a fourth quarter that saw two more Bulldog touchdowns, including Steven Santoro’s ’09 38-yard fumble return, which secured the victory. “We just kept on rolling and putting up points and kept stopping them. It was one of those games that was in our favor from the beginning, and we rode that wave,” said Matt Polhemus ’08, Yale’s starting quarterback during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Once the clock ran out, students in the crowd rushed onto Harvard’s field to join the team
in celebrating the victory, and in turn, the championship. Brandt Hollander ’08, captain of the 2007 team, called the postgame festivities “really gratifying” and added that he is hopeful this year’s team will get to experience something similar on Saturday. “To beat them at their place was awesome. They literally had to remove me from the field. I had a bottle of champagne and a cigar on the field. I was going to soak up every last second of that,” said Chandler Henley ’07, then a fifth-year senior captain and wide receiver. “It’s the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a bowl game.” Yale currently leads the series against Harvard by 10 games. Contact MAREK RAMILO at marek.ramilo@yale.edu .
YDN
Yale dominated the 2006 edition of The Game, winning 34–18 at Harvard Stadium.
2012 IN REVIEW AT BROWN
In one of the wackiest plays of the year, Brown cornerback AJ Cruz intercepted a Yale pass before fumbling the ball back to the Elis..
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 THE
PAGE 15
PAST FOUR YEARS
What went wrong, 2009–’11 2009 BY YALE DAILY NEWS Yale’s first-year head coach, Tom Williams, had used trick plays to his team’s advantage all season. That changed for the Bulldogs, though, at the 126th Game on Nov. 21, 2009 as the Elis fell 14–10 to Harvard at the Yale Bowl. With Yale on its own 25-yard line and leading 10–7 with 2:25 remaining in the game, Williams opted for a trick punt play on fourth-and-22. Safety John
Powers ’13 took a handoff and gained 15 yards on the play, but he was tackled well short of the first-down marker. The Crimson took over on downs and proceeded to drive down the field for a touchdown. That score propelled Harvard (7–3, 6–1 Ivy), which trailed by 10 early in the fourth quarter, toward its eventual victory. For most of the game, the Bulldogs had the momentum — and the crowd — on their side. The Elis surprised their rivals by running the ball early and often and owned a 10–0 lead at halftime. While Harvard came out
strong in the second half, the Elis held strong on a series of fourthdown conversion attempts, indlucing one goal-line stand after the Crimson drove the ball to the Yale one-yard line. But the Elis could not muster any points after their defensive heroics, and the Crimson scored a touchdown to cut the lead to three with 6:46 to go. With a minute and a half remaining in the game, Harvard quarterback Collie Winters completed a 32-yard touchdown pass to put the Crimson up 14–10 and complete the comeback. The loss sent Yale to its first losing season since 2005.
2010
BRIANNE BOWEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Bulldogs outgained the Crimson 337–178 and held a 20–9 edge in first downs but were unable to translate those advantages into a win.
2011 The Yale faithful marched into the Yale Bowl on Nov. 27, 2011 full of hope that Tom Williams and his players could turn around a disappointing season and avoid the Elis’ (5–5, 4–3 Ivy) second-ever five-game losing streak to the Crimson. Star quarterback Patrick
Witt ’12 announced he would play in The Game, which was scheduled for the same day as his Rhodes Scholarship final interview, and when Witt connected with wide receiver Jackson Liguori ’13 for a 24-yard touchdown to open the scoring, the sea of blue erupted. But from that point forward, the scoring was all Harvard (9–1, 7–0 Ivy). The Crimson
BRIANNE BOWEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A failed fake punt attempt by Yale on fourth-and-22 helped Harvard overcome a 10–0 fourth quarter deficit to win 14–10 at the Yale Bowl.
Yale’s seniors took the field at Harvard Stadium on Nov. 20, 2010 seeking the first win against Harvard of their college careers. The Elis (7–3, 5–2 Ivy) took an early lead and dominated every statistical category against the Cantabs (7–3, 5–2 Ivy), but they failed to hold off a scoring surge by Harvard for the second consecutive year. The Bulldogs fell 28–21 — the team’s ninth loss to Harvard in 10 years. In a game marked by a sober-
ing collision between lineback Jesse Reising ’11 and Harvard’s Gino Gordon, after which Reising had to be wheeled off the field in a stretcher, Harvard took advantage of every Yale mistake. The Cantabs scored touchdowns on a kickoff return, after a shanked Yale punt and off another punt that was blocked. Those scores helped give the home team a 28–14 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Although captain Tom McCarthy ’11 gave the Elis hope when he forced a fumble in Crimson territory and Alex Thomas ’12 narrowed the lead to a sin-
gle touchdown minutes later, the Bulldogs could not close the gap. Soon after Harvard stopped Gio Christodoulou ’11 well short of the first down marker on a desperate fourth-and-17 attempt, the Bulldogs walked somberly into their locker room as Harvard students and players raced onto the field. “We let it all out there,” McCarthy said. “We gave it everything we had. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. There are definitely no regrets from the players and coaching staff.”
offense steamrolled the Bulldog defense, piling up 506 total yards — 355 through the air and another 151 on the ground. Harvard quarterback Collier Winters thoroughly outplayed Witt, completing 64 percent of his passes for 355 yards and two touchdowns. Three different Crimson players found the end zone on the ground as well. The Yale offense, by con-
trast, managed only five first downs and committed four turnovers, including an interception late in the fourth quarter that was returned for a touchdown. The Elis’ running game managed only 76 yards on 30 attempts for a 2.5-yard average. The 45–7 final score was Yale’s worst loss to its archrival in 29 years and the second-
most lopsided Bulldog defeat in the history of The Game. “It came down to us not executing against a good football team,” team captain Jordan Haynes ’12 said. “Ending my career this way — it is definitely a low point for me in my 12 years of playing football. All I can hope for is … that the guys in the coming years can make things happen.”
2012 IN REVIEW AT BROWN
Kyle Cazzetta ’15 launched a career-long 72-yard punt at the end of the first half that pushed the Bears back to their own 6-yard-line.
PAGE 16
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 CALIFORNIA
Elis to travel to the Golden State in 2013 BY ASHTON WACKYM CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Oct. 5, 2013, the football team will pack onto a plane and take only its third trip in 137 years to California. In 2011, after considering five West Coast programs to compete against in 2013, Yale decided to schedule California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, for its one game out of the Eastern time zone. The game will be one of the earlier
games of the season for the Bulldogs and will provide tough competition, a supportive atmosphere, a chance for recruiting and, to top it off, just plain fun. “It was one of the things Coach Reno made me aware of when I was being recruited,” quarterback Logan Scott ’16 said. “It’s really good competition out in California.” As a Woodland Hills, Calif. native, Scott played high school playoff games in Cal Poly’s stadium both his junior
and senior year. The Mustangs have gone 8–2 this season and have started the season with a seven-game winning streak that earned them a No. 19 national ranking in the NCAA FCS Division. “Seeing strong out-of-league games always makes us better,” said defensive end Beau Palin ’14, who is also from California. But playing a game in California is more than just one season’s worth of preparation for the Bulldogs — it is preparation for the future. Twenty-two of Yale’s 94 rostered football players are Californians. With that much talent coming from the Golden State, Yale is hoping to create more of a presence among Californian athletes, many of whom generally look to play for local schools as opposed to in the Ivy League. More importantly, if Yale wants the edge over Harvard, it
cannot let the Crimson have a larger presence in the state. This year, Harvard beat San Diego in its first game of the season. San Diego is the same team Yale matched up against in its only other trips to California, splitting the two games — winning in 1999 and losing in 2005. With so many players from southern California, Palin and Scott said the Bulldogs will not have trouble drawing a crowd. “Hopefully, I’ll have tons of friends and family make it to the game,” Scott said. Palin, whose father played quarterback for Stanford, also said he has family in the area. While competition and support of fans on the road will help build Yale’s football program, the trip will also give the team one of the less obvious keys to a successful season: fun. As the fall chill rolls into New
Haven, the football team will be playing and preparing in summer weather. “I’m really excited,” Palin said. “You spend time with your best friends, hang out and play a great football game. Plus, you get fed really well.” Palin and Scott said they have enjoyed traveling with teammates on buses to games and think flying together across the country will be even more fun. While the sunshine of San Luis Obispo may be an alluring thought, the Bulldogs have bigger things on their plate. “I haven’t looked too far ahead,” Palin said. “I’m focused on The Game.” The high in Cambridge is expected to be 48 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. Contact ASHTON WACKYM at ashton.wackym@yale.edu .
TOP 5 PLAYERS BY RUSHING YARDS/GAME 119.9
Tyler Varga Dominick Pierre
100.6
Marcorus Garrett
100.1
Treavor Scales
91.7
Mordecai Cargill
68.6 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2012 IN REVIEW VS. PRINCETON
Henry “Hank” Furman ’14 went 18-for-28 passing for 184 yards and a touchdown as Yale’s fourth-string quarterback.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
THE GAME 2012 PLAYER
PAGE 17
STATS
BULLDOGS
CRIMSON
2012 STAT LEADERS
2012 STAT LEADERS
PASSING
CMP ATT
YDS
TD
INT
PASSING
CMP
ATT
YDS
TD
INT
Eric Williams
112
184
1056
6
14
Colton Chapple
172
262
2358
22
6
Henry Furman
21
39
218
1
0
Team
187
287
2523
22
7
Derek Russell
14
22
112
2
0
RUSHING
ATT
YDS
AVG
LG
TD
Team
156
264
1471
10
25
Treavor Scales
149
825
91.7
66
12
RUSHING
ATT
YDS Y/G
TD
LG
Colton Chapple
103
474
52.7
59
8
Tyler Varga
149
839
119.9
6
40
Paul Stanton
28
171
24.2
29
1
Mordecai Cargill
119
549
68.6
0
39
Team
354
1834
5.2
66
26
Eric Williams
59
179
25.6
0
32
RECEIVING
REC
YDS
Y/G
TD
LG
Team
379
1726
191.8
7
40
Kyle Juszczyk
49
686
76.2
8
59
RECEIVING
REC
YDS Y/G
TD
LG
Cameron Brate
36
550
61.1
5
40
Cameron Sandquist
48
507
56.3
2
98
Ricky Zorn
32
517
57.4
4
52
Grant Wallace
24
253
28.1
2
51
Andrew Berg
30
416
46.2
4
35
Austin Reuland
14
180
22.5
0
29
Team
187
2523
280.3
22
59
Team
156
1471
163.4
10
98
DEFENSE
TKL
TFL
SACKS INT
DEFENSE
TKL
TFL
SACKS INT
Joshua Boyd
57
5-14
2-8
--
Will McHale
67
5-13
1-5
--
Bobby Schneider
43
5.5-17
1.5-6
--
Cole Champion
65
1.5-9
--
--
Norman Hayes
37
--
--
--
Collin Bibb
59
2-2
--
3-0
Dj Monroe
37
0.5-1
--
--
Ryan Falbo
52
3.5-17
0.5-7
--
Alexander Norman
35
2.5-8
--
2-18
Kurt Stottlemyer
51
--
--
1-2
Jacob Lindsey
32
2-12
1-9
--
Dylan Drake
41
4.5-21
2-18
--
Nnamdi Obukwelu
32
6-28
3-21
--
Beau Palin
41
5.5-33
4-32
--
Team
640
69-372
41-293
10-138
Team
662
46-174
15-109
5-49
PUNTING
PUNTS AVG
LONG
IN20
PUNTING
PUNTS AVG
LONG
IN20
Jacob Dombrowski
38
43.9
60
10
Kyle Cazzetta
32
40.1
72
11
Team
41
42.1
60
10
Team
37
39.1
72
11
KICKING
FG-ATT
LONG
XP-ATT
KICKING
FG-ATT
LONG
XP-ATT
David Mothander
4-6
39
48-50
Philippe Panico
5-12
43
15-15
Team
4-6
39
48-50
Team
5-12
43
15-15
2012 IN REVIEW VS. PRINCETON
Cornerback Collin Bibb ’13 had two interceptions against the Tigers. Bibb caught three of Yale’s five picks this season.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
o
x
Harvard Defense (End) Zach Hodges ’15 6’3”, 230 lb
x
Whoever steps in as quarterback for the Bulldogs on Saturday will have to keep an eye on Hodges. He leads the Crimson and is second in the Ivy League with nine sacks. He and fellow defensive end John Lyon, who has eight sacks of his own, have been harassing opposing quarterbacks all season and are sure to be a thorn in the side of the Yale offensive line all day.
Yale Defense (Cornerback) Collin Bibb ’13 5’11”, 187 lb
Bibb will face the daunting task on Saturday of limiting Harvard quarterback Colton Chapple’s receiving options. Chapple is first in the Ivy League with a 65.6 completion percentage and second in the conference in average passing yards. But Bibb leads the Elis in interceptions, and picked off two passes last week against Princeton, including one in the Yale end zone. Chapple was also intercepted twice last week in Harvard’s loss to Penn. If Bibb can snag one of Chapple’s passes on Saturday, he will go a long way towards earning Yale the victory.
x
THE GAME PREDICTIONS
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
Yale Quarterback Henry Furman ’14 6’5”, 210 lb
Furman was hardly head coach Tony Reno’s first-choice quarterback. But after injuries sidelined Eric Williams ’16, Logan Scott ’16 and Derek Russell ’13, the job fell to Furman. After stepping in for Williams against Brown, Furman started against Princeton last week and completed 18 of 28 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown. The Bulldogs will need Furman to put in an equally impressive performance to have any chance in Cambridge on Saturday.
o x o x x o o o o x o x o x o PLAYERS x TO x o Harvard Quarterback Colton Chapple ’13 6’2”, 195 lb
Chapple has helmed the juggernaut that has been the Harvard offense this season. The senior paces the Ancient Eight with 22 passing touchdowns and is averaging 262 yards per game through the air. Against Princeton, Chapple exploded for five touchdowns and 530 all-purpose yards. The Crimson lost that game. Yale cannot afford to let Chapple run his offense up and down the field on Saturday.
WATCH
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PAGE 19
Yale Running Back Tyler Varga ’15 5’11”, 220 lb
Varga has been one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise forgettable season. The sophomore, who transferred this year from the University of Western Ontario, is leading the Ivy League in rushing with 119.9 yards per game. Varga sat out last week’s contest against Princeton with a knee contusion, but he is expected to play against Harvard. He will be fiercely challenged by a Crimson defense that has allowed a mere 63.8 rushing yards per game, over 50 yards fewer than the second-best team.
Harvard Running Back Treavor Scales ’13 5’10”, 195 lb
Scales has been a rock for the Crimson this season, only three times failing to hit the 80-yard mark in a single game. Though he is fourth in the Ivy League – three spots behind Yale’s Tyler Varga ‘15 – Scales leads the Ivies in rushing touchdowns with 12 to Varga’s six. If Scales can be effective on Saturday, the Eli defense will be able to devote less attention to Harvard’s dangerous passing attack and may be in for a long day in Cambridge.
!"#$
!"#$"#%
PAGE 18
THE GAME PREDICTIONS
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
o
x
Harvard Defense (End) Zach Hodges ’15 6’3”, 230 lb
x
Whoever steps in as quarterback for the Bulldogs on Saturday will have to keep an eye on Hodges. He leads the Crimson and is second in the Ivy League with nine sacks. He and fellow defensive end John Lyon, who has eight sacks of his own, have been harassing opposing quarterbacks all season and are sure to be a thorn in the side of the Yale offensive line all day.
Yale Defense (Cornerback) Collin Bibb ’13 5’11”, 187 lb
Bibb will face the daunting task on Saturday of limiting Harvard quarterback Colton Chapple’s receiving options. Chapple is first in the Ivy League with a 65.6 completion percentage and second in the conference in average passing yards. But Bibb leads the Elis in interceptions, and picked off two passes last week against Princeton, including one in the Yale end zone. Chapple was also intercepted twice last week in Harvard’s loss to Penn. If Bibb can snag one of Chapple’s passes on Saturday, he will go a long way towards earning Yale the victory.
x
THE GAME PREDICTIONS
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
Yale Quarterback Henry Furman ’14 6’5”, 210 lb
Furman was hardly head coach Tony Reno’s first-choice quarterback. But after injuries sidelined Eric Williams ’16, Logan Scott ’16 and Derek Russell ’13, the job fell to Furman. After stepping in for Williams against Brown, Furman started against Princeton last week and completed 18 of 28 passes for 184 yards and a touchdown. The Bulldogs will need Furman to put in an equally impressive performance to have any chance in Cambridge on Saturday.
o x o x x o o o o x o x o x o PLAYERS x TO x o Harvard Quarterback Colton Chapple ’13 6’2”, 195 lb
Chapple has helmed the juggernaut that has been the Harvard offense this season. The senior paces the Ancient Eight with 22 passing touchdowns and is averaging 262 yards per game through the air. Against Princeton, Chapple exploded for five touchdowns and 530 all-purpose yards. The Crimson lost that game. Yale cannot afford to let Chapple run his offense up and down the field on Saturday.
WATCH
“Quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote. Quote quote quote quote.” FIRSTNAME LASTNAME TITLE TITLE TITLE
PAGE 19
Yale Running Back Tyler Varga ’15 5’11”, 220 lb
Varga has been one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise forgettable season. The sophomore, who transferred this year from the University of Western Ontario, is leading the Ivy League in rushing with 119.9 yards per game. Varga sat out last week’s contest against Princeton with a knee contusion, but he is expected to play against Harvard. He will be fiercely challenged by a Crimson defense that has allowed a mere 63.8 rushing yards per game, over 50 yards fewer than the second-best team.
Harvard Running Back Treavor Scales ’13 5’10”, 195 lb
Scales has been a rock for the Crimson this season, only three times failing to hit the 80-yard mark in a single game. Though he is fourth in the Ivy League – three spots behind Yale’s Tyler Varga ‘15 – Scales leads the Ivies in rushing touchdowns with 12 to Varga’s six. If Scales can be effective on Saturday, the Eli defense will be able to devote less attention to Harvard’s dangerous passing attack and may be in for a long day in Cambridge.
!"#$
!"#$"#%
PAGE 18
THE GAME PREDICTIONS
“Quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote. Quote quote quote quote.” FIRSTNAME LASTNAME TITLE TITLE TITLE
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE W17
PREGAME MEMORIES
The Ghosts of Tailgates Past // BY CHLOE DRIMAL
I’ve lived through a lot of tailgates. I saw the U-haul era with no rules, the U-haul era with some rules and the tennis courts with lots of rules. I’ve seen the Harvard tailgate, which was so boring I had to leave. I’ve seen our Bulldogs come a fake-punt away from beating Harvard. I’ve seen us beat Harvard statistically, but let in a touchdown on a kick return. And then, last year, I saw a massacre. I don’t know what this weekend will bring, but I do know this is it. This is my last tailgate, my last football game, the last time I can watch some of my best friends play. A reflection is now in order. Not only with my memories, but with the remembrances of my beautiful peers. There is no need for names, because on the tailgate field you lose your name in a way. I mean, who really cares as long as we are all rooting for the same team? Sept. 26th 2009: It’s the first tailgate of his life. The first time he’s been on the tailgate field instead of in the locker room listening to a pre-game speech. He’s a junior, but today, it’s as if he is a freshman. He went to Salvo a week ago to find the most colorful 80s jumpsuit on the rack. He rode in on the back of a U-Haul to the tailgate — ’cause he hears that’s what people do. He wants the full experience. He somehow finds a golf cart and piles his friends in to drive around the tailgate field. He’s happy. He’s in his element. There is a freshman girl who thinks she knows how to party, who thinks that keeping up with college life will be a breeze. She sees a guy driving a golf cart. He looks like the life of the party. She wants to meet
him. They meet, they shake hands and they flirt. He’s slurring his words, but she’s seen worse. Then she sees a small dark spot starting to grow on his shorts. “Um, are you peeing yourself?” “Yea, don’t worry about it. COLLEGE.” She realizes she isn’t ready for college. Nov. 20th 2010: A brunette girl sees a betch she knows fighting with a cab driver on the streets of Cambridge. The girl walks up to the betch to see if she can help. “ … he won’t take me to Pierson. I just want to go to Pierson.” The betch yells when she sees the girl. “Uh … we’re in Boston.” The girl pulls the betch away from the cab. The betch starts calling someone and then hangs up. The girl looks at the betch’s phone and sees she has 11 outgoing calls to the Yale Mini Bus. She is the betch. She came on a party bus and got off somewhere around Boston University, because the bus wasn’t party enough for her. She confused BU with Harvard until she started yapping about The Game and no one knew what she was talking about. She smiled and excused herself and hailed a cab. But her vision became slightly more blurred, and when her friends were nowhere to be found she thought the Yale minibus would save her — all that freshman orientation had gone to her head. Her phone eventually died. A police officer eventually bought her coffee and she found her way on to another party bus the next morning, and partied her way back to Pierson. No minibus needed. Nov. 5th 2011: He had a good night. He woke up still drunk. He put on a robe and climbed into the back of a U-Haul, not really caring where
it was going. H e walked out into the sunlight of the tailgate fields ready to embrace the day. He can’t remember who, but someone kept refilling his solo cup. “No, no I have to catch a train for my mom’s birthday in a little.” But it kept refilling until it was too late. Until his friend ordered a cab and paid the driver extra to make sure he got to the train station. He walked into his mother’s birthday party wearing an alcohol-drenched robe, but at least he had sobered up. These stories could be anyone, one of your roommates for all you know, because inevitably, what happens on the tailgate fields stays on the tailgate fields — that’s how it should be at least. Contact CHLOE DRIMAL at chloe.drimal@yale.edu .
// KAREN TIAN
WE RECOMMEND NATALIE PORTMAN
When she was at Harvard, she smoked weed every day, cheated on every test and snorted all the yay.
PAGE W16
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME POPKULTUR
H-eezy vs. Y-eezy // BY VANESSA YUAN In her song, “Gucci Gucci,” Kreayshawn raps, “Bitch, you ain’t no Barbie/ I see you work at Arby’s/ Number 2, supersized, hurry up, I’m starving” — because it is just not nearly as entertaining, nearly as hip, to go about it directly. What if she had used instead, “Hey, you/ You’re pretending to be something you’re not and I can see exactly what you’re trying to do/ I’m better than you/ Make me a sandwich”? Kreayshawn’s lyrics just get the job done efficiently with added rhyme. But Kreayshawn is no pioneer. Similes and metaphors have long existed in the history of speech, after all, and that history includes rap. However, one can’t help but notice how aggressively these artists throw in their comparisons nowadays. In his “Break (All Of the Lights),” Childish Gambino refers to himself as “Cheezy, ho” and continues with “I’m so cheesy, ho, my swag’s got
high cholesterol.” If you didn’t get the point, Cheezy is really cheesy (morbidly cheesy, in fact) and so is his swag. Despite the cheese, this kind of rap has become acceptable and widely popular in the works of Breezy, Jeezy, Weezy and other –eezys alike. So what does pop culture have to say about Harvard and Yale, two timeless and trendy institutions? In rapper Nas’s “Book of Rhymes,” he says “my people be projects or jail never Harvard or Yale.” Chiddy Bang is “well endowed like Harvard and Yale”; Drake says, “Sounds so smart like you graduated college/ Like you went to Yale, but you probably went to Howard.” Harvard and Yale are convenient and effective references in lyrics. According to these artists, according to pop culture, Harvard or Yale is the opposite of the projects or jail. We are fortunate. Harvard and Yale are
well endowed. And they think we’re smart! But then so are Harvard students. “Harvard” just had one too many syllables to fit in that line. In that specific situation, the rivalry between Harvard and Yale came down to that one syllable. Even so, whether Drake meant to shout out to Yale or Harvard, his message was clear with no further explanation necessary. Over time, pop culture has enabled these ridiculous and often extreme comparisons that thrive on the assumption of an up-to-date public with these pop-cultural comparisons — we are expected to understand exactly what they mean and to enjoy it while nodding yes at the same time (maybe even to the beat). Because of this honest yet implied dialogue between the public and the artist, a general consensus surrounding each specific reference in pop culture is created. Needless to say, Barbie is perfect and Arby’s is lack-
// COLUMBIA RECORDS, YOUNG MONEY ENTERTAINMENT
luster. Rap does not explain what it means by Harvard and Yale because pop culture is already familiar with the two. As demonstrated in these few lyrics, both Harvard and Yale can fill in the “insert-here” that will go on to epitomize the same privilege, the same education and all of the other Ivy stereotypes
whether we agree with them or not. Harvard and Yale become one Harvard-and-Yale in pop culture. But we’re still better, obviously. Contact VANESSA YUAN at vanessa.yuan@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND GUTENBERG BIBLES
We have one, they have one. Oh, the ties that bind us.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE W15
PREGAME WRINKLES
Playing it old school // BY AMY WANG
From white handkerchiefs to rowdy tailgates, the annual Yale-Harvard game is steeped with more than a century of long-standing tradition and excitement. And this weekend, Yale students making the trek to Cambridge will be following the footsteps of past students in a long line of history. The Harvard-Yale game has drawn large crowds to both schools for more than a hundred years, as students and alumni of the two schools battle out their school pride at the Harvard Stadium or Yale Bowl. Alumni from various classes throughout the years say that the traditions surrounding the game will always have a fond place in their memories of college. Eric Kemmler ’69 fondly recalled the tradition of waving white handkerchiefs during the game. When it was clear that a school’s team was about to win, its students would raise a “sea of white handkerchiefs” in the air — and hopefully they would be “on your side.” Kemmler added that the games used to draw crowd of fifty to seventy thousand people. “It was an enormous deal,” he said. “From what I can tell, I don’t think the level of interest is nearly as great as it used to be.” Kemmler also remembered the game of 1968, when the final score ended with a tie of 29–29 and Harvard printed the infamous headline of “Harvard Beats Yale 29–29” in The Crimson. That year’s game in particular sticks to his mind because he soon felt ill afterwards and discovered that he had the Hong Kong flu. “I blamed it on the game,” Kemmler said. For some students, friendships played a large role in the memories of the game. Melanie Glinter ’78 remembered taking trains out of Union Station early in the morning, when “everybody would pile up and head out.” During her time, the residential colleges of Yale would also meet with the houses of Harvard for intramural sports during
the day, she said, which fostered friendships with people she is still in touch with to this day. Glinter said it was also exciting to see what pranks MIT would pull, each year — whether it would be something buried in the ground to go off in the third quarter, or planes flying overhead, it would always be well-planned, fun and disruptive to both teams. In the 80s, despite a changing social landscape, the tradition of the HarvardYale game continued to play a major role in the undergraduate experience of Yale students. Sarah Aikenhead ’83 recalled taking the train up to Massachusetts with friends to show the Yale spirit on Harvard’s campus. Even if you didn’t attend any football games throughout the season, she said, “you still attended The Game.” “A lot of people would tailgate,” Aikenhead said. “When I went to Yale, the drinking age was lower than it is now — students bought beer and had parties outside of the game. It was as much about being there as about the football game itself.” To Aikenhead, the traditions of the game “shaped the background” of the Yale undergraduate experience at the time — even though, looking back, she sees the game as just one of many elements of the four years. Years later, the excitement towards the game was still high, said Alfred Cramer ’87, despite a 1983 game at the Yale Bowl when Harvard student Margaret Cimino was seriously injured by a falling goalpost. Other than the tragedy, however, Cramer recalled positive memories such as pranking Harvard by plastering the campus with posters, in blatant violation of the school’s rules. It was “all very cloak and dagger,” he remembered, chuckling. Fast forward almost a decade: The traditions still continue. Students in the twenty-first century celebrate the game just as enthusiastically as they used to,
if in smaller numbers. For Drew Baldwin ’03, the best part of the games was the spirit of camaraderie. “I love the idea of piling into a car with my friends and driving to Boston,” he said, recalling late-night parties and weekends spent at friends’ dorms. “You’ll notice that in the end, that’s really the lasting impression you have — and it’s something you can never do again.” Baldwin said he attended the game once after he had graduated and felt a deep sense of nostalgia at the sight of young students preparing to leave for the game. It “reminds you of how valuable those experiences are,” he said. The one true tradition he remembers from his experiences at the games, Baldwin mused, is that Yale students going to Harvard’s campus implicitly understood that they had to wear their colors, represent and generally “have a presence.” “You need to remind Harvard that not only does their team suck, but they suck,” Baldwin said. He was half-joking. And half not. Contact AMY WANG at xiaotian.wang@yale.edu .
// DANIEL CARVALHO
One day, readers, you will be these people. (We know you’ve already got the boat shoes.)
WE RECOMMEND MAJORS
No one calls them “concentrations” anymore, assholes.
PAGE W14
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME GAME
// BY JOY SHAN
// BY AARON GERTLER
Hometown Rules
Chilling at the Game It’s a brisk day. I step into the November sunshine, knowing quarterback Patrick Witt will tear the Crimson defense to shreds. Fall is upon us, but the light is cheerful and two layers should be plenty. I’ll find my suite soon enough, and our hatred for Harvard will outweigh our apathy for football. It’s a windy day. I shiver in my seat when a gust hits, but soon forget the temperature as I thrill to our first touchdown. My suite is missing for now; in the meantime, I sit with Virgil Blanc of France for a paraphrased conversation. “How are you, Virgil?” “I am well. Trying to understand this game. I’ve never seen American football.” “Oh! I totally know how this works. See the blue guys? That’s Yale.” “… So I gathered.” “Anyway, we’re kicking off, which means they have to catch it on that end and try to run with it. We can run almost as fast as the kick, so they won’t get far.” “Really? That guy made it halfway up the field.” “That’s not supposed to happen.” (One hour later) “Most football games have scoring on both sides, actually.” “You don’t say.” “Halftime! Good! Let’s get our momentum back!” “We had momentum?” At the half: At least our marching band is better. Well, more fun. Like our school. Bastards. (45 minutes later) “See that? They’re not even in our end zone. Yet.” “I think I’ve had enough football.” “For today?” “Forever.” It’s a chilly day. Atmospheric pressure differentials force the air through me like a dagger. Or a rapier, or maybe a halberd. Something sharp. I check my phone. Suitemate: “We found this great restaurant for lunch, Aaron! Oh, and we’re not coming back to the stadium.” I see a friend in the Silliman Salamander Suit, which has a name so fun to say it almost makes up for OH GOD THE COLD.
His tail is drooping, like the rest of him. From fifty yards out, Harvard’s guys don’t look any bigger, or stronger, or faster. Football is a misleading game. It’s a frosty day. I walk back to campus alongside my froco as the blood from my extremities flees for the nourishing warmth of my internal organs. He asks how my year is progressing. I answer in short bursts, lest my saliva freeze in my mouth. For minutes at a time, I can’t remember why I chose Yale over Washington University in St. Louis. I wonder if it was all a dream; if at any moment I’m going to wake up and find myself marching in circles around a Siberian gulag. Maybe I’ll remember enough about my hallucinatory 21st century life to write some kickass lateSoviet science fiction, and they’ll study it at that lovely American university … what was it called? Yale. We’re suddenly on Cross Campus, and I realize food should be somewhere nearby. I may or may not have eaten at the tailgate, but if I did, my body long since burned the calories for heat. The little non-Gourmet-Heaven convenience store behind TD is blissfully open. I wrap a frozen claw around the door handle, stumble inside and stack nourishment on their countertop. The kindly woman at the register examines me with concern. “You look cold.” “Gloves … my mother sent some. Get them soon. Mother loves me.” And I realize I’ll be traveling soon, between my new home and the old. And I feel just a little warmer inside. Contact AARON GERTLER at aaron.gertler@yale.edu .
You purchased a ticket. Your tailgate attire waits at the ready. You’ve called up your sort-of-friend-butmore-of-an-acquaintance from high school who goes to Harvard and arranged for a bed to sleep in for when you’ve finished wandering around Cambridge looking for a party. You’re ready for The Game. But if you’re me and a lot of people, there’s one large aspect you’re forgetting: the game itself. American football. People obsess. Where I’m from in the South, geometry teachers award bonus points if the university they support (that, let’s face it, everyone in the state supports) clinches the National Championship. New mothers christen babies after quarterbacks, and high school girls vie for the honor of being named “Football Sweetheart” each fall during Homecoming. But for many of us, the appeal remains a mystery. It’s easy to look up from our laptops and books and smirk, “Football … is that a thing?” It’s not even witty or punny and yet people always laugh anyway. But ignorance about this esteemed tradition does represent a rather large problem in some cases. The most pressing situation is coming up: You will face it in the stands of Harvard Stadium (I had to look that name up) when the playing itself begins. Suddenly, you’re in a roaring mass of people screaming and cursing in excitement, wonder, anger. And you have zero idea what about. The boy who must literally be forced to speak up in section is suddenly articulate. Detailed analysis spills out of his mouth to all who will listen. Luckily, you’ve been in this situation before. You haven’t done the reading, and it’s time to fake it. By all means make sure you sit near people who understand what’s happening on the field. It’s an obvious suggestion, but feel free to take it a step
further by always keeping one eye on their left knee. This is so when they begin to stand and flap their arms as people at these things are wont to do, you can follow along. No one wants to be that person who’s always a second behind everyone else as the benches of people around them rise in one solid, anticipatory wave. You can also ask questions to the people sitting around you, who might be ecstatic to share their knowledge. But since there are only so many variations of “Wait, what just happened? I looked away for a second!” it might benefit you to keep some go-to question formats in your pocket. Here’s one: “Didn’t Player 10 get injured? How’s that faring for the team?” or “Ow, that must’ve hurt. Do you think they’re okay?” When I was growing up, I always knew if there was a game on, because I could hear the neighbors on either side of us (and sometimes my dad from the living room, he caught the bug, too) hooting and shouting over the fence. I told myself that I’d sit down and finally learn the rules. But the scroll bar on the Wikipedia page is intimidatingly small, and many times, these plans to decrease my ignorance don’t work out. The game of football, I know deep down, is complex, strategic and dynamic. The men and women around me who rise out of their seats of their own accord are brilliant, seeing configurations that, to me, resemble mad scrambling. But I concede: For now, understanding football must go on that dusty and ever-growing list of photographs to take, foods to cook, and ideas to learn — leaving only a faint twinge of regret with each reminder of what I’m missing out on. Contact JOY SHAN at joy.shan@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND HARVARD FML
“Some days I wish I were a squirrel at Harvard rather than a student. FML.”
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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What Not to Wear — the Tailgate Edition // BY CAROLINE MCCULLOUGH Hey, Macklemore, can we go thrift shopping? Because, you see, I just had to spend the last $20 in my pocket on a ticket to The Game. But the tailgate this weekend is THE Tailgate and we all need to look incredible. Sooooo, what’s a girl to do? The thing is, this Saturday, we’re taking Harvard’s grandpa’s style — and more. Yalies take Tailgate Attire seriously, because Halloween simply isn’t enough. Safety Dance — rest in peace — simply isn’t enough. Jammy Jams, Jingle Jams, Rad and DKE’s of Hazard, they aren’t enough! As Yoda once said ever-so-eloquently: “Dress up, we will.” So on most home game Saturdays, we’re used to a certain scene. Yale takes the field — or as of this year, the “Student Tailgate Village” — as a movement donned in Salvation Army’s lost treasures. There are those girls dressed
in head-to-toe neon. A cute the bottom, business on top, choice, but a safe one. We’ve is something of a mantra). all seen you wear those “fun!” Also never missing are a whole leggings before. For some rea- bunch of variations on the son, as smart as we are, we theme of leisure-wear: There Yalies all too often confuse the are boys in pajamas, boys in tiny jerseys neon theme — and boys with dressing in fur hats, “80s.” LuckTAILGATE STYLE for some reaily, a lot of ESSENTIALS: son. Girls in people actufur hats, too. ally wear gar— Awesome hat Fur hats for ments made — Bangin’ sunglasses in the 80s — — Cool vest everyone! or, even bet— Fly jorts What up te r, so m e — Hip flask with that? kids choose — ‘tude. Like conan inspirafused midtion from the dle schoolhighest point in fashion his- ers, in our very effort to be to tory: the 90s. Others, mean- be outlandish, silly!, ¿ironic?, while, tend to salute LDR, our we self-select into various favorite Americana queen. traps of conformity. Of course, They wear the red, white and there are always the standouts. blue, baby. Stars and stripes We’ve seen “Avatar” people, forever! Americana is often Nikki Minaj, that boy in ADPhi paired with a fresh pair of jean dressed as a pile of leaves (but overalls. So we get girls in daisy really, what is that? Anyone? dukes, boys in jorts (party on Bueller?)
And yet, without a doubt, every single tailgate, all of these ensembles are swamped by the Silent Majority. They show up wearing a TD zipup fleece, maybe a navy blue dress. Go Yale! And lezzbehonest, that’s what most people are going to wear to the Harvard-Yale Game on Saturday. The Silent Majority will not wear a fur hat, but, instead, a baseball cap. The Silent Majority will buy “The Game Shirt” with the punny little gotcha statement. The Silent Majority will decide whether to wear their off-white or navy blue Yale sweater. More power to them. We all love our Bulldogs in our own ways. We all have common hopes and dreams. Bow wow wow! Don’t let the Silent Majority kill the spirit. On the battleground of fashion, at least, Yale stands a fair chance of winning this Saturday if we so choose. We don’t need to
// JULIET LIU
Make your life look like this.
back down. The best is yet to come. So, readers, get together an outfit that makes spending the $15 on a disposable camera worth every penny. No matter what the scoreboard says, let’s just make sure we can look at our outfits in the mirrors at Harvard Stadium and say, per Macklemore, this is HARVARDSUCKING awesome. Contact CAROLINE MCCULLOUGH at caroline.mccullough@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND STREAKING ACROSS THE FIELD
Become a legend or, at least, a footnote in a Wikipedia entry.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME DISTRACTIONS
What to do when Harvard sucks // BY LEAH MOTZKIN
You all know that Harvard sucks, and chances are that you will need to get the hell off that crimson campus sometime over The Game weekend. But despite its connection with Yale’s safety school, Cambridge itelf isn’t that bad — if you know where to go. Here’s a WEEKEND guide to where you should eat, what you should do and where you should shop in while you’re up in frozen Massachusetts. Eat! at Veggie Planet. Vegan or not, you will find something you love at Veggie Planet. It’s in Harvard Square, so you don’t have to stray too far to find civilization, and it’s known for its vegan and vegetarian pizza (it’s no BAR, but one makes do). Veggie Planet also has a liquor license (!) and turns into Club Passim, a folk music club, at night. As if that wasn’t enough, they are also known for a Sunday brunch with live music. We recommend their mimosas — we can’t wait. Address: 47 Palmer St., Cambridge, MA. Eat! at Felipe’s Taqueria. Though thousands of miles from Mexico, Felipe’s uses fresh ingredients and authentic recipes that keep customers coming back. We recommend the key lime lemonade and guacamole. Everything is made to order, and one Cambridge native who fled for New Haven, WEEKEND alum Cokey Cohen ’12, texted me (yeah, I got sources) that anyone who goes to the Cambridge Chipotle is not a townie but a heathen. Don’t be a Harvard student; if you want Mexican, go
to Felipe’s. Address: 83 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA. Shop! at The Garment District. A self-proclaimed “alternative department store,” The Garment District houses over 4,000 vintage and contemporary garments. Pick up a jean jacket for Crushes and Chaperones or buy an ugly Christmas sweater. You can also sell your warm clothes instead of bringing them home. Then you can
afford more mimosas. (Logic is my QR.) Address: 200 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. Shop! at Anthropologie. So it may not be Cambridge-specific, but, like, it’s my favorite. If you want me to like literally anything you could possibly be wearing, check it the fuck out. Address: 48 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA. Do! check out the public art
around Cambridge (before it gets too dark to see at like 3pm). The ever-changing graffiti alley at Modica way in Central Square is definitely a highlight. It’s not quite the Berlin Wall or Prague’s Lennon Wall, but it’s worth checking out, especially if you liked “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Address: 567 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA. Do! go to The Middle East for a night out. The nightclub is
known for featuring up-andcoming bands. This Saturday, the Po Boyz are headlining. Yeah, it seems a bit like Toad’s, but maybe a little more legit and a little less sketchy. (But re: Toad’s, let’s be real — we’d never ditch our tried and true townies.) Address: 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA. Contact LEAH MOTZKIN at leah.motzkin@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND ACADEMIC HONESTY
[Insert joke about cheating scandals.]
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PREGAME INSERTION
What to put in your body // BY CAROLYN LIPKA
I wouldn’t exactly call myself a seasoned tailgater. I’ve attended approximately two tailgates at Yale (and by approximately I mean exactly. But it makes me mysterious that I said approx, right, guys?). This isn’t because of some antisocial tendency, or an aversion to football. It isn’t because I have a “lot of work to do” or because I don’t like the cold weather. (In fact, I never have work on the weekend until Sunday night, I drink a considerable amount, am a die-hard Jets fan and don’t believe in winter jackets until January.)
The reason I’ve only been to two tailgates is because I loathe the morning. It’s a struggle for me to get up at 11 on weekdays, so I resent that in order to tailgate properly, I would need to wake up even earlier. Nonetheless, the two tailgates I’ve been to are the two Yale-Harvard games that have happened since I began at Yale. So while I may not be an expert in all-around tailgating, I know just as much as the next guy about Harvard-Yale tailgating. Ask anyone that saw me during either tailgate, and they will confirm that despite my lack of experience, I did it right. And now you can too!
THE DRANK
Let’s be honest here. It’s Saturday morning. We’re in the pits of hell (Harvard stadium). We’re technically on Thanksgiving break. It is freezing. We’re all looking to get plastered. Pre-tailgate, you’re going to want to keep it classy and quick. Have your cold drinks early to ensure a strong buzz at the tailgate. Mimosas, Bloody Marys, anything with Malibu and shots should be consumed pre-tailgate. Harvard has a ton of tailgating rules that include a ban on hard liquors, so if you’re looking to do that you’re going to need to conceal it in a flask of your choice. I urge
you not to use a moustache flask because as quirky and unique you think you are, I promise you they have Urban Outfitters at Harvard too, and you look like an idiot. By far the best way to drink during the tailgate and assuage your tiredness (and therefore your disgust with everything around you) is hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. It tastes exactly like a peppermint latte from Starbucks, but in addition to making you fat, it gets you drunk. This was my drink of choice at The Game of 2011, and my spotty memory of the event confirms its effectiveness. A great alternative (that I will most likely be indulging in this year) is the traditional Kahlua and coffee. Despite what Meredith from “The Office” will have you believe, you can get drunk off Kahlua. It will be wonderful, and it will also wake you up!
THE FOOD
Calories don’t count if you don’t remember them. If you wake up 10 pounds heavier, it’s probably water (i.e., alcohol) weight. Also, avoid empty calories. Go straight for the things that are really good — mac and cheese, burgers, hot dogs, egg sandwiches, pulled pork, or even alcohol (yes, that is a food). I even vaguely remember some kind of soup last year. I think it was pretty good. Eat it if you can find it. If you’re a freshman, don’t expect some rich
alum to feed you oysters a la “Gilmore Girls.” So suck it up and eat some fried food. Please eat. Don’t go to the hospital, don’t throw up, don’t die. Thanks.
THE CONDUCT
The most important thing to remember about The Game is that we are better than Harvard. We will inevitably suffer an embarrassing loss of epic proportions on the football field, but it is up to you to ensure that we win the tailgate. I have high expectations that every single one of you sings, dances and proudly wears blue and white. My freshman year, I had no idea how to navigate the tailgate area and ended up passing through the entire Harvard tailgate before arriving at Yale’s. We were relegated to some tennis courts while Harvard got the plush grass, but they were somber and sober (my least favorite combination) and wearing their ugly crimson sweaters. There was no frivolity. But the Yale tailgate was a hilarious and welcome contrast with debauchery and liveliness to spare. I expect another resounding win for our social prowess this year. Contact CAROLYN LIPKA at carolyn.lipka@yale.edu .
// KAREN TIAN
WE RECOMMEND SAN JOSÉ LAS FLORES, EL SALVADOR
Cambridge’s sister city!
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME AUTHORITY
The Rule-Abiding Guide to Better Tailgating // BY JACKSON MCHENRY
Last year, a tragic accident led to the death of one woman and injuries of several others at the tailgate to the Harvard-Yale game. Given the ramifications of that horrific event, and the many other dangers that a bunch of drunk undergrads who are only half in it for the football game itself pose to both themselves and the general public, it’s understandable that the rules governing tailgating have become increasingly complicated. But at what point along the line did they become so indecipherable? Harvard’s tailgating rules are especially arcane and, for those who don’t have the well-tutored legal mind of Barack Obama or Elle Woods, legitimately misleading. One misstep and you could get caught in a Crimson prison. Luckily, you have an ace in the hole — me. I once built an IKEA chair for my common room and ended up with, at most, three leftover screws, so you could say I’m pretty good at following directions. Let’s go through this step by step: Rule 0: This one is important enough to be separate from the rest. “Vehicles and/or fans carrying amounts of alcohol over the State Law will NOT be allowed on the complex. Unruly or visibly intoxicated behaviour will be grounds for removal.” Well, there you have it. Just, um, don’t look like you’re tailgating? Tea parties are surprisingly easy to imitate.
Rule 1: parking. “Guests who park within the athletic complex (gates 8, 14, 16 and 20) are welcome to tailgate at their vehicles. Tailgating, however, is not permitted for fans parking in the Harvard Business School parking lot.” Well, beside the fact that you can only tailgate lots that correspond to next Tuesday’s lottery numbers, this one’s pretty self-explanatory.
ALL CRUSHED CRIMSON REFUSE MUST, BY HARVARD’S OFFICIAL POLICIES, BE THROWN INTO A BLUE SACK AND SUMMARILY TRASHED. Rule 2: “All parking gates open two hours prior to kickoff for tailgating.” Get there early, people. Stake out that prime spot that’s far enough away from the alumni to get away with rowdiness, but close enough to set-up to steal from their spreads. Rule 3: “Each vehicle is permitted one parking space and the area directly behind the vehicle for tailgating. You may not block aisles or other vehicles from parking.” And there goes my plan to build a blanket fort.
Rule 4: “Commercial vehicles (U-Hauls), RV’s, Winnebagos and trucks are not permitted in any parking facility.” This rule earned Harvard a reputation for being strict when it was implemented a couple years ago. To be clear, even if you paint over the fun fact about Wisconsin that’s on the side of like every U-Haul truck, it will still look like a U-Haul truck. Also, this rule goes on to mention that corporate vehicles that give away free samples should register with the proper authorities in advance. But even if you do want to register, know giving out free whiskey from your daddy’s limo does not count as promoting his hedge fund. Rule 5: “Tailgating is limited to two hours before and one hours [sic] after each game. There will be no tailgating after night games.” If Yale loses, it’ll be more fun to mope in New Haven. If Yale wins, why on earth would you want to celebrate in Cambridge? Rule 6: “Beer kegs and items that promote the rapid consumption of alcohol are not permitted at any University function or event. No individual or group may transport a keg to a University athletic event.” I spent a long time trying to figure out what items promote the rapid consumption of alcohol. My favorite options were: intravenous injections, those horns they drink out of in Viking legends and the existential dread that weighs upon the soul of Don Draper in “Mad Men”. Please do not bring any of these.
Rule 7: “Grills using charcoal are prohibited within the athletic complex. The maximum propane gas cylinder size will be 20 pounds.” It seems that Ryan Lochte’s grill will technically be allowed on the premises, but if I may editorialize, nobody really wants to see that after the month of August anyway. Appended to this core set of rules is an honor code if you will, regarding sportsmanship: “Fans engaging in inappropriate behavior including using foul language or engaging in negative verbal attacks on players, officials, coaches, or other fans may be asked to leave by security personnel.” Well, this definitely gives police a wide jurisdiction, but let common sense guide you here. Remember that, while the phrase “Harvard student” is negative, it does not technically constitute a verbal attack. You are allowed to say it. Finally, the people over at Harvard issue a reminder that yes, they do do single stream recycling, so “all cans, bottles, paper and cardboard may go in the same bag (this includes solo cups and plastics #1-7)”. This receptacle will, according to the bylaws, be blue. So, to be clear, all crushed crimson refuse must, by Harvard’s official policies, be thrown into a blue sack and summarily trashed. Even the rules make it clear that Yale has it in the bag. Contact JACKSON MCHENRY at jackson.mchenry@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND USA FLAGS
Tailgates: the zenith of Americana.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PREGAME COVER
ATHLETES FROM PAGE W5 return Yale to its previous role as “a pioneer in sports.” But even when it comes to the Game, most students question the value of attending an event from which the Bulldogs have so little chance of emerging victorious. “I don’t think $20 is worth the experience of losing,” BechirAuguste Pierre ’15 said. At Harvard, students were quick to point out that their own interest in sports is nothing compared to that at state schools. Out of over 20 Harvard students interviewed for this article, none associated their mild enthusiasm for athletics to a sports team’s performance, or any kind of stigma surrounding athletes. “I think people are just busy,” said a Cantab studying in Lamont Library. “They find there are more exciting things to do with their time.” Asked for an example, he replied, “like listening to famous people talk.”
CULTURE GAMES
At a gathering hosted by the Harvard chapter of Sigma Chi last Friday, a few brothers laughed over talk of the school’s athletics. “Honestly, we don’t have an athletic culture — it sucks,” one brother quipped. The Cantabs held red solo cups and leaned casually against the walls. The atmosphere is pretty laid-back — the real party that night probably involved Final Clubs, guest lists and bouncers. A moose head hangs over the mantel, and at one corner of the living room a brother and two girls in sundresses are seated around a poker table, talking loudly. Many of the brothers wear baseball caps and tanks with the Sigma Chi insignia. When told about some of
Yale’s Greek organizations, one senior brother who introduces himself as Sean is taken aback by the idea of fraternities that cater primarily to sports players. “Sigma Chi is pretty diverse,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be a frat that is all athletes on campus. Back in New Haven, there are not only houses for specific athletic teams, but also fraternities in which a large proportion of members play the same varsity sport. Alpha Delta Phi is known for having many brothers who play on the lacrosse team, whereas Delta Kappa Epsilon and Zeta Psi are considered the “football frats.” Jesse Pritchard ’14, a guard on the men’s basketball team, said that while he is involved in many activities outside of sports, he has noticed a social gap between athletes and nonathletes. “It’s oftentimes frustrating,” he noted. “A lot of athletes have this idea in their head … that they won’t get along with other students, so they don’t branch out.” For Yalies, the University administration has also furthered the divide between the worlds of athletics and academia by imposing restrictions on its sports programs. Its policies have directly influenced the way athletes are perceived by the rest of the student body, several athletes interviewed told the News. Stereotypes about athletes may be everywhere — but if “policies reflect those undertones … [they do] go to validate these misguided beliefs that people might hold,” said Jamey Silveira ’13, president of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and a former varsity lacrosse player. Will Davenport ’15, a member of the varsity golf team, agreed that the administration’s stance on recruiting sets the tone for how athletes are regarded by all members of the campus com-
munity. Davenport said he and his peers sometimes avoid identifying themselves as athletes to their professors because it could make them question a student’s intelligence. And this, he said, is an attitude that “comes from the top.”
RECLAIMING THE GAME
President Levin’s announcement that he would be stepping down at the end of this school year sparked a flood of declarations celebrating his legacy. Administrators and alumni interviewed in the immediate aftermath of the announcement expressed hope that the new president would maintain many of Levin’s policies in arts and academics. But for many members of the sports community, Levin’s departure signified an opportunity to amend some of the much-decried athletic policies. In October, while Yale’s presidential search process was still underway, members of the Yale Sports Federation, which described itself as an “association of all the Yale Associations that support their individual sports at Yale,” addressed a letter to Committee Chair Charles Goodyear ’80 and the rest of the search committee. They were calling for Levin’s successor to return athletics to their “proper role” in the undergraduate experience. “Yale has fallen behind Harvard and Princeton, not only in wins and losses, but more importantly in valuing the lessons taught by participation and success in varsity athletics,” the letter read. Following the announcement of Provost Peter Salovey as the president-elect, some students were heartened. Pritchard, who had the opportunity to have dinner with Salovey several times when he was still provost, said he is “extremely” hopeful that
the recruitment policies will be reviewed. Nick Daffin ’13, the president of DKE and a defensive lineman for the men’s football team, said that he felt encouraged by Salovey’s appearance at football practice the Tuesday before this year’s Game, a gesture that Daffin noted was never extended by Levin during Daffin’s time at Yale. “I’m sure he’s incredibly busy, so it was really nice just to know that he was supporting us,” Daffin remarked. “It really meant a lot to the guys.” Salovey joked to the players about how he also spent a
// YALE DAILY NEWS
lot of time around the football team when he was younger — as a musician in his high school marching band. In an email to the News, Salovey said that he and his wife Marta Moret had attended three sports games last Saturday, including football, volleyball and men’s ice hockey. He added, “I’m confident, by the way, that Yale will pull a major upset at The Game on Saturday. Marta and I will be there to cheer them on.” Contact ANYA GRENIER and YANAN WANG at anna.grenier@yale.edu and yanan.wang@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND THE GLASS FLOWERS
Skip the Game, go check out these babies at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME SPORTS-ISH
A Playbook for The Game // BY DAVID WHIPPLE
A
s some of you may be aware, each year Yale and Harvard engage in a storied sporting competition. In this competition, colloquially known as a “game,” each school’s American football team attempts to achieve victory by inflicting the maximum number of concussions on their opponent’s players. Naturally, our nation’s two foremost academic institutions have been engaging in this neuron genocide for millennia, and the notoriety of the contest has led to its being known as more than just a “game” but “THE Game.” Should you attend this event, you may see the two teams engage in certain premeditated maneuvers, also known as “plays,” aiming to maximize the head trauma suffered by their rivals. Here’s WEEKEND’s inside look at the two teams’ playbooks.
HARVARD “The Cheat” — The team lines up in the Wildcat, but it turns out nobody read the playbook — they had all just been copying notes from some nerd in their section. Offensive lineman Adam Redmond says he thinks he remembers how this one goes, and everyone agrees to just follow his lead. At the snap, three wide receivers sprint down the field, but just as quarterback Colton Chappel is getting ready to unleash a bomb, he’s suspended for a breach of academic integrity. Everyone acts surprised; Nobody actually is. “The Endowment” — A play designed by former president Lawrence “Misogynist” Summers. Lining up to take a kick, Harvard inexplicably places all its fastest players at midfield. As a result, offensive lineman Adam Redmond ends up receiving the kick and makes it a grand total of two yards before being tackled. The Endowment continues to produce disappointing returns.
“The Elizabeth Warren” — Fed up with his team’s poor play and with Wall Street’s shameless manipulation of the market, offensive lineman Adam Redmond lines up over center and then suddenly quits the team to run for Senate. However, his campaign hits a snag when he is suspended for a breach of academic integrity. “Sucking” — Harvard’s signature play, one that vaunted football mind John Madden called “effortless” for how naturally the Harvard players run it. “Nobody sucks like Harvard sucks,” Madden explains. The offense lines up with two in the backfield and quarterback Colton Chappel in the shotgun. At the snap, the whole team sucks. And not just the team: the students, the faculty, the administration and the alumni, even the dead ones — at the snap, they all suck. To be honest, they sucked before the snap. And they will still suck when the play is over. If you won’t take it from me, take it from John Madden: Nobody sucks like Harvard sucks.
YALE “The Q-Pac” — Yale quarterback Eric Wil— wait, I mean Yale quarterback Henry Furm— no, no, Yale running/quarterback Tyler Va— you know what, fuck it. The Yale quarterback lines up in the shotgun with a three-wide set and two tight ends. The Harvard defense expects a short screen. The joke is thus on them when, at the snap, a horde of drunken Q-Pac students, who evidently mistook the Yale football bus for the Q-Pac shuttle, storm the field and mob Harvard offensive lineman Adam Redmond. Taking advantage of the confusion, the Yale quarterback heaves a mighty spiral downfield to the waiting arms of ‘star’ wide receiever Cameron Sandquist, who trots into the end zone only to hear that holding has been called on the Q-Packers, who were, according to a referee, “very clingy.” “The Fake Punt” — Yale lines up as if for a punt. But, as you’ve probably guessed, it’s a fake punt! The ball is hiked back to punter Kyle Cazzetta, who looks like he’s going to kick it. But, in a breathtaking about-face, he heaves it downfield! The pass, however, is invariably (a) incomplete or (b) intercepted for a touchdown. Everyone acts surprised; nobody actually is. Except coach Tony Reno, who really thought it was going to work this time. And offensive lineman Adam Redmond, who legitimately did not see it coming. “The Fake Fake Punt” — Yale lines up as if for a punt. But, as you’ve probably guessed, it’s a fake punt! But, as you might have again guessed, the fake punt is also fake, and it’s just a
normal punt! The ball soars downfield past the Harvard bench and bounces to the 15, where it probably would have ended up anyways. Nobody acts surprised, but everybody actually is, including Harvard coach Tim Murphy, who was expecting yet another real fake punt, and is also surprised to learn that he shares a name with Representative Tim Murphy (R), Congressman for Pennsylvania’s 18th District.
“The Skull and Bones” – Nobody knows what happens in this play, but everyone wants to run it anyways. It probably involves heavy drinking. Only the President can call it. “Having Fun” – Yale’s team lines up in the Wildcat. At the snap, the whole team looks like they are having a good time. So do Yale’s fans, many of whom are blitzed out of their fucking skulls despite the fact that it is barely noon. This spontaneous display of human emotion unnerves the Harvard team and fans, many of whom have not seen sunlight since they were admitted and can only express their feelings in binary. The Harvard team also suddenly realizes that, given Harvard’s comparatively lower elevation, their school will flood first when the ice caps melt. They realize as well that “Harvard University” can be rearranged to spell “H Varsity R Rude, Vain.” This so depresses them that they forfeit the game and become winos. All, that is, except offensive lineman Adam Redmond (D), Junior Senator from Massachusetts. Contact DAVID WHIPPLE at david.whipple@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND FINALS CLUBS
Maybe they won’t let you into their parties, and you’ll go on to invent the next Facebook.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PREGAME NOOB
You’re Welcome, Football. // BY JAKE ORBISON
This weekend thousands of Elis, Bulldogs, Yalies and people that were at one point affiliated with Harvard University will flood the streets of Cambridge. As a freshman, I know little more than one thing about this experience: It’s important to people. Since The Game is one of those many ingredients that shape the popular conception of both Yale and Harvard, I had lots of strange notions of what it might be all about. First of all, since Bulldog football’s inception in 1776, our relative athletic prowess has taken a slight turn for the worse. The Yale-Harvard game was the second American football game ever played. So, I think understandably, in my mind’s eye, The Game was still stuck in the early 1900s, where the players wore stylish leather hats and the fans spectated through monocles. Many share this misconception. Even Google seems to view the great tradition this way — an image search for, “Yale-Harvard Game” will return black-andwhite photos, programs and pictures dating up to about the ’60s. Today, on the other hand, our offense stands with a proud ranking of 167 on sportsillustrated.com. The fatal, tactless error that accounts for our fall from pigskin glory: teaching everyone else in America how to play football. It was so much easier when the other teams only vaguely knew what was going on. Too many Yale athletic programs have been struck down in this unceremonious fashion. Why, then, does this game continue to throw campus into
such frenzy? To understand why this game is so important, I first looked at what the universities claim to find important: I read their mission statements. Hahvahd, unfortunately, doesn’t have a mission statement. If I were to guess why, it would be because their mission is too vast and important to express or fit onto a letterhead. That having been said, Harry R. Lewis, as dean of the college in 1997, offered a statement enumerating some of the goals of the university. Among them were, “to advance knowledge, to promote understanding and to serve society.” Correspondingly, the mission statement of Yale College says of the Yale experience, “the aim of this education is the cultivation of citizens with a rich awareness of our heritage to lead and serve in every sphere.” Of course! Yale and Harvard aim to lead the global community. That’s why on Saturday morning 30,323 fans will rush towards the Harvard Stadium seats — for everyone else. Every year, when we fill the Bailyn-esque bubbles of the Yale Bowl and Harvard Stadium solely to uphold the foundation of football. You’re welcome, football. Put it this way, if the NCAA were England, the YaleHarvard Game is the Queen. It’s been slowly losing power since America was founded. It doesn’t do or mean much anymore, but it used to be important, and our annual Jubilee makes the Queen and our elders happy, so we do it. Contact JAKE ORBISON at james.orbison@yale.edu .
// ALLIE KRAUSE
WE RECOMMEND MIT
Wait, wrong school.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME EPHEMERA
The Six Weirdest Things at Harvard // BY JESSICA HALLAM
MUSEUM DISPLAY OF CENTURY-OLD FOOD Hungry? If you can sate your hunger with antique Mexican food and vintage mushrooms, Harvard is the perfect place for you. Rough. The Cantabs seem to have nothing better to do with their time and massive endowment than to collect and display century-old foodstuffs (Harvard alums, think twice about those donations). In spring of 2011, Harvard displayed approximately 200 interesting tools, documents, specimens, works of art, etc., in its “Tangible Things” exhibit. Mark Twain’s microscope and Henry David Thoreau’s pencil are accompanied in this exhibit by an equally respectable 115-year-old tortilla and historically relevant mushrooms dug up from a manure pile circa 1905. Wait. The Mexican food junkie in me must admit that I enjoy the thought of historical tortillas. I guess if you want to sound smarter than all your friends, you could call the preserved tortilla “economic botany” and justify its existence in a botanical collection. But why waste perfectly respectable exhibition space displaying such a common modern day product? Subliminal messaging: Harvard wants you to go to Taco Bell — remember your Pepto Bismol, folks.
On Oct. 27 in Sturbridge, Mass., five Cantabs set out with $1,000 and a dream — a dream to send the first burger into the stratosphere. They proceeded to send a hamburger from a local b.good franchise 30 kilometers off the ground and into the outer limits of the atmosphere. A helium balloon and parachute lifted the hamburger, a GoPro Hero camera and a smart phone for tracking purposes. The camera recorded three hours of the hamburger’s journey until the helium balloon popped and the contraption fell back to Earth. When the burger’s housing was retrieved from a tree, the greasy patty of pink slime and its dressings were nowhere to be found. Aliens! Harvard is going to catalyze an obesity epidemic on another planet. At least the five ambitious Cantabs introduced a group of squirrels to their worst gastrointestinal enemy. Suffer, Alvin and company, suffer. The video of the burger’s enthralling journey to the heavens can be found on YouTube under the name “Operation Skyfall: First Hamburger in Space.” Hold up. One: Operation Skyfall? Code for, “I don’t get any. Ever.” Two: the hamburger did not enter interplanetary space, my friends. It
didn’t even touch the mesosphere; it merely penetrated the Earth’s protective buffer. Oh well. It’s cute when you pretend you’re smart. The fab five’s next goal? Sending a taco into space. Aliens, prepare to loosen your belts.
Fest-goers is to hook up with as many people who live in their small, close-knit community of housemates. Just like that, Kirkland wins the award for worst idea in the history of ever — have fun living with your countless one-night stands for the rest of your time at Harvard!
STATUE OF JOHN HARVARD
INCESTFEST Can we just ruminate on the train wreck that is Harvard’s IncestFest. Let loose, do your thang, Sister. Have a grand ole time. It’s college, live your life. But please, I beg of you, Kirkland House, come up with a more chic/more socially acceptable/less sucky/ wittier name for your hook-up party. Class, it’s time for a close reading of the name of Kirkland House’s (give it up Harvard, you’re not Hogwarts) exclusive sexy-time gathering. First, you will notice that the word “incest” has negative connotations — shocker. Let’s examine pop-culture parallels: Oedipus blinded himself after defiling his mother in Ancient Greece, and the family of Satan, Sin and Death commits some raunchy incestuous acts in Paradise Lost. Awesome, Kirkland, you’re on the right track already. Let’s also address that the goal of Incest-
Harvard tour guides proudly show off the college’s statue of John Harvard to every tour group of deluded, wideeyed prefrosh that steps foot on campus. The statue — sculpted by Daniel Chester French in 1884 — features the inscription, “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.” The average tour guide has fact-thirsty prospective students drinking from her hands by the time she says that the statue isn’t actually in the image of John Harvard (gasp) but is a likeness of a random Harvard student, that John Harvard didn’t actually found the college, and that the school was actually founded in 1636 — Holy rusted metal, Batman! Error, does not compute. Why does Harvard boast about its lies? Clever. A statue that has absolutely no relevance to the school is a focal point of tours — I see what you’re doing there, Harvard, but it doesn’t add oldtime charm to the school. It’s just stupid.
THANKSGIVING BREAK
FLYING HAMBURGERS
H a r va rd ’s Thanksgiving break: Nov. 21-23.
Speaking of food, well, Harvard wants to make the aliens fat.
THE PRESIDENT’S EMBARRASSMENT Even President Barack Obama is aware of how much he sounds like a pompous prick when he discloses his alma mater; saying “I graduated from Harvard” is like a death sentence. Want friends? Don’t tell them you went to Harvard. Want even more friends? Make fun of people who went/go to Harvard. Lots of fun. (I want friends.) Obama has this friend-making formula on lock — at the White House Correspondents dinner, he poked fun at Mitt Romney, “We also both have degrees from Harvard. I have one. He has two. What a snob.” (Read: I’m less of a jerk than Romney because I spent less time at Harvard than he did.) You go, Obama. Contact JESSICA HALLAM at jessica.hallam@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND PARTY BUSES
The only way to get to Massachusetts is by dancing on a moving vehicle.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PREGAME COVER shared identity. Nevertheless, prior to Levin’s tenure, Yale maintained the same set of policies and attitudes toward athletics as the rest of the schools in the Ivy League. As president, Levin has reduced the percentage of athletic recruits from 18 percent in the class of 1998 to 13 percent in the class of 2015. For the latter class, Yale recruited 53 fewer athletes than the 230 that are allowed under Ivy League regulations. Yale still recruits 30 football players per year, like every other Ivy League school, Levin said. He added that Yale tries to create “a good balance” between the interests of the athletic program and “having the most excellent student body” all around. Nevertheless, athletes, coaches and alumni have bemoaned the cuts as having contributed to a decline in Yale’s overall athletic performance. These recruitment caps have prevented groups like Yale’s track and cross country teams from qualifying for every event, said team member Kevin Lunn ’13. “We take just as much pride in running for Yale as if we had a full large team,” Lunn said. “But we do go into it knowing we can’t win.” Regardless of how well individual runners perform, he explained, the restriction have made it impossible to compete against the likes of Cornell and Princeton — teams with easily twice the numbers. “The expectation [has been] that, on an Ivy League level at least, the goal was to win,” the 1969 alumnus reflected. “Yale is voluntarily disarming.”
THE RISING CRIMSON TIDE
There are six minutes and 36 seconds remaining on the clock. The Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass. is packed with fans decked out in shades of red, both sides boasting full and lively student sections. The Harvard men’s basketball team, last year’s Ivy League champions, is facing its rivals from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard is leading 57 to 46 and not a single Crimson-attired body remains seated in the student stands. When one of the fans, donning a black “Harvard Hoops” t-shirt, is asked if he has a
moment to talk, he recoils. “During the game?” he snapped back. For many Cantabs, the enthusiasm for basketball stems from Harvard’s growing success in the sport. The sports hall in the Murr Center, which hosts Harvard’s squash and tennis teams, features a crimson-colored wall board with blown-up photographs and descriptions of Harvard’s athletic history. One heading reads, “The Ancient Eight,” another, “The Integration of Academics and Athletics.” It is a reminder that the Ivy League was originally founded as an athletic organization, with schools placing emphasis on their ability to combine scholarship with sportsmanship. While Yale has been cutting recruitment, Harvard has aggressively pursued prospective athletes to the point of committing secondary National Collegiate Athletic Association violations in 2010, when its men’s basketball team enjoyed a record-breaking season. Following 60 years without playing in a single NCAA basketball tournament, Harvard had hired Coach Tommy Amaker to re-work the school’s methods of recruitment. While the exact nature of Harvard’s new measures are unclear, one thing is unquestionable: since Amaker was hired, Harvard has won big in basketball, with the team making it to March Madness last year. This “blow-up of basketball brought sports to relevancy to a lot of people who had never cared before,” said Claire Dailey, a sports editor for the Harvard Crimson. The Crhimson’s athletic success has gone beyond basketball. During the 2011-2012 academic year, Harvard and Princeton won ten Ivy League Championships apiece. For Yale, the total was two. “Now there’s a sense that not only are we smart and talented, but that we are also athletic,” said Harvard junior Amy Alemu.
FROM ‘MYTHICAL CREATURES’ TO ‘REALLY TALL POLI-SCI MAJORS’
In a typical week during the fall season, Yale Women’s Ice Hockey defenseman Emily DesMeules ’13 will spend over 20 hours on her sport — either training at the rink, attending meet-
ings with the team or traveling to away games. Her schedule is organized to the minute, so that in between classes, lifts and practice, she finds time to complete her schoolwork. “It’s not easy,” DesMeules admitted. Saturdays are game days. These are packed with team meals, pre-game warm-ups and video meetings in which the coaches review the strategies used by rival teams. If the team is traveling, Thursday, Friday and Sunday may be devoted to the sport, too. And win or lose, the cycle begins again at the beginning of each week. To be sure, most Yale students are invested in rigorous, time-consuming extracurriculars. But unlike groups for which it is possible to miss a meeting during a busy week, in varsity athletics, missing a practice or a game is not an option. And when it’s time to train between seasons, DesMeules quipped, “you can spot teammates from a distance because they’re so sore they’re not walking straight — they’re waddling.” The time commitment and discipline required to play on a varsity team are unimaginable to most nonathletes. Historically, the Yale athlete was considered, “a sober, mythical character,” said Nathaniel Zelinsky ’13. “They were considered the most rigorous and upstanding members of the community.” Zelinsky is a columnist for the News. But Bulldogs no longer enjoy the reputation they once did. “I don’t know what athletes do,” Kiara Hearn ’13 said. “When I think of athletes, I just think of really tall polisci majors.” On October 21, the Yale College Council released their Presidential Search Report “to reflect student opinion for the presidential search process.” Of the 820 students who responded to the YCC’s campus-wide survey, 45 percent said that the next president should “keep the status quo” in terms of recruitment, which was capped during Levin’s tenure. “Athletics detract from Yale and dilute the intelligence of the student body,” one anonymous respondent wrote. “Yale should be working to produce a graduating class of thinkers and doers, not a group of individuals who
have survived four years of schooling.” A comment on page 39 read, “It is probable that athletes, on average, are of worse moral character than the rest of Yale students, given events of the past couple years.” Other non-athletes share a sentiment similar to that expressed in the YCC report. “From my observations I think football players and people like that exhibit this kind of anti-intellectualism that detracts from campus intellectual life,” a male sophomore told the News.“I think it’s an anti-intellectual, contrarian vein.” Stereotypes about the athletics-academics dichotomy may simply be embedded in American culture. According to several students interviewed, these misconceptions might arise due to excessive media depictions of students who fit into neat categories, in which jocks are portrayed as “socially successful, intellectually not,” Sarah Norvell ’15 said. But at least some of the stigma surrounding athletes on campus comes from the idea that athletes are both detracting from the school’s intellectual environment — and not even winning in the meantime. “If those players gave us something to root for, people would go [to sport games],” said one Yalie. “We lose anyway, so what’s the point?” For others, such as the founding members of the Whaling Crew, attending college sports games has an intrinsic value. Inspired by the men’s hockey team’s No. 1 national standing in 2010, the Whaling Crew was founded last year to encourage school spirit and to bolster turnout at hockey games, Andrew Sobotka ’15, one of the club’s four founders, said that rather than viewing sports events as something foreign, Yalies should consider the hard work that their fellow students have put into the games. “These athletes are representing us,” Sobotka added. “These aren’t superstars on the field — they’re our classmates, our suitemates, our partners in Spanish class.” The “point,” the members of the Whaling Crew would contend, is to SEE ATHLETES PAGE W9
WE RECOMMEND WATER BOTTLES
Empty Dasani bottles are the new flasks.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME COVER
A SCHOLAR AND A LEATHERHEAD // BY ANYA GRENIER AND YANAN WANG
ovember 13, 1875: 2500 spectators gather in New Haven’s Hamilton Park to watch two of the oldest schools in America face off in a match that was, at the time, little more than a variation on rugby. The crowd didn’t know it at the time,
N
but the game would mark the beginning of a rich tradition — and a fervent rivalry. Although Harvard won that day, it is Yale’s Walter Camp ’82 (as in 1882) who is considered the founding father of American football. Meanwhile, the University’s coaches acted as “football missionaries” of sorts, bringing the
// KAREN TIAN
sport to colleges across the country, explained Yale historian Jay Gitlin ’71. And across decades of curricular changes and upheaval on campus, Yale’s football players rallied onwards before roaring crowds. After Yale invented football, football invented Yale.
“It’s football that really pushed Yale as kind of a national ideal,” Gitlin said. Yale brought football into the national consciousness. Other universities copied Yale’s mascot, its colors, its fight songs. Even the comic book character “Archie” had a blue and white pennant on his wall, Gitlin said. American children consumed the “fantastically popular” dime magazine stories of fictional Yale student Frank Merriwell, who not only played every sport imaginable but found the time to solve mysteries and generally save the day. “He’s everybody’s boyhood hero. He’s upstanding, he’s a good athlete, he’s well rounded — he’s what you want to be,” Gitlin said, adding that these images of Yale athletes in the popular consciousness made people across the country feel like “Yale was the place to be all-American.” November 19, 2011: A lukewarm crowd gathers at the Yale Bowl. Students decked out in blue watch their football team stumble towards its fifth consecutive defeat. Many of them choose to simply stumble out of the stands during half-time. Elaina Plott ’15, a cheerleader at the Game, was surprised to see the numbers in the stadium dwindle. In her home state of Alabama, she explained, “You stay with your team till the very end,” she said. “no matter how the game is going.” At Yale, relatively few students remained in the stands to witness the team’s 45-7 loss. November 14, 2012: No one would know the biggest athletic event of the year is on Saturday. The past two times the Game was held in Cambridge, student tickets sold out within days. This year, 250 student tickets were left unsold by the time sales ended Wednesday. And out of roughly 70 students interviewed, only one or two expressed hope that Yale would emerge victorious from
the Game this year. “Everybody wants to see us beat Harvard,” football player Keith Coty ’14 said. Coty said he has noticed an interesting dynamic surrounding the Game on campus, citing studentmade t-shirts with messages like, “My hatred for Harvard outweighs my apathy for football.” Nevertheless, Coty looks forward to the Game with purpose. “We do it for Yale, for the tradition and pride. We want you guys to be proud of us,” he said. “We haven’t deserved it yet.”
VOLUNTARY DISARMAMENT
For much of the 20th century, Yale was known as an athletics powerhouse — and not only in football. Chemistry professor Martin Saunders, who began teaching at Yale in 1955, said he remembers his research assistant John Nelson ’70 winning Olympic medals for swimming at the 1968 Olympic Games. And this wasn’t unusual. “Yale was a big deal in athletics,” Saunders said. And while “it wasn’t Ohio State,” as one 1969 alumnus put it, “there was a pride in it.” This same alumnus recalled one Thursday night before the annual Princeton game when students threw a “spontaneous pep rally” on campus. Yalies marched up Hillhouse Avenue, he remembered, where then-president Kingman Brewster Jr. came out onto the balcony of his house with an orange (Princeton’s school color) and squeezed the juice out of it, to the approval of roaring students. Football is not as central to the average Ivy League experience nowadays, Gitlin explained, citing changes in the demographic makeup of campuses across the board — student bodies are no longer all white, male and American-born. This rise in diversity, he said, has made it more difficult for the campus to adopt a
WE RECOMMEND HUGGING A FOOTBALL PLAYER
Because they’re very much worth it..
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PREGAME VIEWS OK
The Lame // BY CINDY OK
It was the much sought-after perfect weekend: Harvard/Yale 2010. I took the train on Friday afternoon to Cambridge, where I could stay the two nights with any of three high school friends, and I hadn’t a page of reading to do all break or a single care in the world. It was freshman year, my first The Game, and my first visit back since my two-minute college tour drop-in. (Seriously, two minutes. Ask my dad; I got out of the car, walked twenty feet toward the Harvard Information Center, turned right back around, citing “bad vibes.”) It started the first night. One friend, knowing his XY chromosomal makeup and lowly freshman status meant he wouldn’t get into some final clubs party, sheepishly encouraged me and a female friend to leave him at home and go out, since we’d most certainly get into the party. Yes, this is the first thing to know about Harvard — that it, like Ann Romney, LOVES WOMEN! What culture of misogyny? Not here! Then, all this talk of “comping.” What is comping, those who haven’t been to the Game in an even year may ask. Well, it’s only the best idea ever! Comping is NOT short for “competing,” it’s short for “competency,” as anyone who uses the word will vehemently clarify. It basically amounts to being somebody’s bitch for a semester, which everyone knows is the best and classiest way to create group loyalty and self-importance. One friend lamented not having time in the semester to comp prison tutoring at Harvard. (How presumptuous of him to think he could just give help just because he wanted to.) And no, a lowly freshman in her first semester at Harvard can’t just get on some panlists and start writing for the Crimson immediately — there’s a rigid process of comping the paper there that isn’t comparable to the YDN culture (or the Herald’s, or the New Journal’s, etc). So in other words, comping is a crucial and helpful way to create explicit social and extracurricular hierarchy, which, let’s be
honest, clearly serves the greatest good for the greatest number, and is not at all a way for kids to create extraneous hoops to jump through for existential validation now that they’re at college, which had always seemed the ultimate such hoop. Also, a lot of Harvard parties have entrance lists, decorum Yale seems to have mostly ditched at this point. But why? The fact that I could walk into any party on or off campus here — and at most face only a little awkwardness — is preposterous! Good fences make good neighbors, and even those fences should be on the OK’d list, or at least be the hottest girl in the room. Like everyone who goes to Harvard, the Charles River is extraordinary, definitely not just a normal whatever river not worth traveling to stand near. Guys, it’s not like they’re all convinced of their specialness without reason! It really is just so exciting to be around people who genuinely do believe that they’re the best. It’s especially appealing and fun-making that they’re so attractive in every way. It would just be so wild to hook up with any of those Harvard guys who all seem to have giant poles up their butts that go through their heads. You’ll also quickly realize how unnecessarily PC we are at Yale. It’s just refreshing when you’re at a suite pregame and people are making fun of people who are gay by calling them gay and laughing. Yeah! Chill, brah! Three cheers for heteronormativity and the male gaze. I know I was only there for one weekend and that I can’t generalize and say that the whole school is as pretty as the picture I got. Still, I can’t believe I’m missing it Saturday!!! I’ve been looking forward to it for two full years, but my flight home is booked for Friday morning. I guess I’ll just have to spend three extra days in California. Peace out, Hahv. Contact CINDY OK at cindy.ok@yale.edu .
VANDERHOOF
Neither Coming nor Going Out at Harvard // BY ERIN VANDERHOOF
I made a lot of mistakes when I was 16. I wrote some very bad short stories, made plenty of poor sartorial decisions and was a terrible girlfriend. But in honor of this Harvard-Yale weekend, I’m revisiting one of the worst mistakes I made at 16: I spent a summer at Harvard. I don’t know that I realized it at the time, but it was a pretty terrible summer. Besides the Boston humidity and the fact that I was taking intro micro- and macroeconomics during the summer (seriously, what the hell was I thinking?), I discovered that Harvard just plain sucks. I was living in the freshman dorm, Canaday, that was built in the 1970s to be riot-proof. It was literally the ugliest building that I have ever seen, let alone lived in. The walls were cinder-blocks, the stairwells grey concrete and every suite was finished with nubby carpeting. Since I never got around to really decorating my suite with anything more than some glitter-glued posters I made on a whim my third or fourth day, it felt like a very sunny prison. Not to be too didactic, but could you imagine Yale constructing a building like that, let alone housing freshmen in it? My days went a little like this: I would wake up for class at 9 a.m., sit through three hours of econ lecture, go to lunch and then … I don’t really know what I would do. Nap? Read? This was the summer when I developed a strange enthusiasm for Au Bon Pain. I would spend hours reading mass-market nonfiction and eating caprese sandwiches at shoddy grey tables — there didn’t seem to be anything better to do, or any better place to spend time. There were never any parties. There were maybe a few times where I played rap music and forced some people to grind with me. But that was about as poppin’ as it ever got in Canaday. Every Saturday, I would go with all of the kids in my entryway to the local
movie theater to see a live action reenactment of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Yes, that happens EVERY weekend at Harvard. For the second four weeks, there were beautiful Venezuelan girls living in the suite below me. They went out in Boston all the time, because they had these fake IDs they made in Microsoft Paint. They would come back late, and we would lie on the spare bed in my common room, my back against the wall, their heads on my lap. I would listen to them tell stories about the strange men that hit on them, smelling the alcohol on their breath, feeling sort of alive but mostly very bored. I don’t think I ever told anyone that I’m gay even once that summer, which is strange because at that point in time I had already been out for about two years. There just didn’t seem to be a point. Not only were there not any lesbians around, but I’m not entirely sure that any of the people I hung out with ever did so much as kiss another person the entire summer. This could be hard to generalize to all of Harvard, but every time I’ve been back since, I’ve felt this distinctly puritanical vibe, like someone out there must be having sex, but I certainly couldn’t prove it. I met a lot of really nice people while I was there, though the vast majority wound up not going to Harvard. I’m sure plenty of people that actually go there are great. And that’s the thing about Harvard: It’s probably just a place full of normal people. They’re probably not appreciably worse than the population at large. But in the same way that something about Yale makes us all overcommitted and social climb-y, there’s something about Harvard that makes everything seem a little bleak. Contact ERIN VANDERHOOF at erin.vanderhoof@yale.edu .
WE RECOMMEND WARM LAYERS
So cold in Cambridge this weekend. More like Lamebridge. Har har.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PREGAME CONTENTS W3 W4 W6 W7 W8 W10 W11 W12 W13 W14 W15 W16 W17
THE LAME
// Cindy Ok Game, Shame. Ok looks back at Schmarvard/Yale 2010.
THE CAMBRIDGE HERMIT
// Erin Vanderhoof A summer at Harvard: sunshine, sobriety and scarily few lesbians.
THE ATHLETE’S STIGMA
// Anya Grenier and Yanan Wang
THE SIX WEIRDEST THINGS AT HARVARD // Jessica Hallam Old food, flying cheeseburgers and misleading statues all make appearances.
YOU’RE WELCOME, FOOT BALL // Jake Orbison Keep your friends close and your Cantabs closer.
A PLAYBOOK FOR THE GAME
// David Whipple The plays that really characterize these two rivals, torn apart in all their glory.
THE GUIDE TO BETTER TAILGATING // Jackson McHenry A deconstruction of what Harvard’s tailgating rules really mean.
// TAOTAO HOLMES
WHAT TO DO WHEN HARVARD SUCKS // Leah Motzkin Use our map to find what little entertainment Cambridge has to offer.
WHAT TO PUT IN YOUR BODY // Carolyn Lipka How to eat and drink your way to a Yale tailgate victory.
WHAT NOT TO WEAR – THE TAILGATE EDITION
// Caroline McCullough Time to think outside the sartorial box, which, in tailgate terms, means Y sweaters and those “fun!” leggings.
FOOTBALL PRIMERS
// Aaron Gertler and Joy Shan Aaron literally chills; Joy reminisces about games back home.
PLAYING OLD SCHOOL
// Amy Wang Missing this year’s Game? Doesn’t mean you have to miss The Games of decades past.
H-EEZY VS. Y-EEZY
// Vanessa Yuan The battling Ivies in rap battles and beyond.
SO LONG, BEER JACKETS // Chloe Drimal This is our youth.
// COVER ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID YU
PREGAME // WITH WEEKEND
ON THE DEFENSIVE With dispatches from Cambridge, New Haven and 1875, ANYA GRENIER and YANAN WANG examine the ever-changing status of the student-athlete
VIEWS PAGE W2 EPHEMERA PAGE W6 SPORTS-ISH PAGE W8 INSERTION PAGE W12 MEMORIES PAGE W17