“The Game,” Vol. CXLII

The 2018 Harvard-Yale game at Fenway Park, courtesy of The Harvard Crimson

A primer for this year’s new-and-improved version of the Harvard-Yale football game.

In college football’s infancy, there was perhaps no more important game than “The Game,” held annually between Harvard and Yale. Since the matchup began in 1875, its winner has gone on to claim an NCAA-recognized National Championship no fewer than 20 times. And though the last of these occurrences came nearly 100 years ago when Yale shared the title with Illinois in 1927, “The Game” still holds a special place in the greater pantheon of American sports. While it may not feature future NFL stars or earn either team a trip to the College Football Playoff, it’s in many ways representative of what college sports used to be. In an age of 20-year-old quarterbacks transferring annually in pursuit of seven-figure bounties and coaches who fall short of expectations being paid multiples of that to no longer coach their teams, it harkens back to an era when players were truly students first and athletes second. In today’s game, it’s perhaps the most popular and recognizable manifestation of the mythos that underpins all of amateur athletics. And despite its reduced relevance on the national scale, it still receives plenty of attention: it hosted ESPN’s preeminent college football show, College Gameday, in 2014; routinely determines at least a share of the Ivy League championship; and is often the home team’s only sellout of the year.

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the initial game — a 4-0 Harvard victory on November 13, 1875 — though faculty disputes, World Wars, and pandemics have interrupted the series over the years, which technically makes this season’s contest the 141st meeting between the two teams. And though the sport looked dramatically different at the series’ outset (several of the initial games ended 1-0, which is impossible today), it’s always been competitive. With the “Father of American Football,” Walter Camp, starring at halfback, Yale dominated the rivalry’s early years, winning 22 of the first 30 matchups. The all-time series, which Yale leads 71-61-8, has been far more balanced since then, and a review of its earlier history reveals competing periods of relative dominance by both schools. Harvard dominated the 1910s and early 1920s, losing just once between 1910 and 1922, but Yale experienced a resurgence during the Great Depression and World War II eras that they carried through the 1940s, winning 12 of the 18 contests between 1931 and 1950. 

The 1905 Harvard-Yale game at Harvard Stadium, courtesy of Baker Library

In contrast, the second half of the 20th century featured remarkable parity between the two schools. Between 1951 and 2000, the series was almost a completely even split — Yale won 25 of the games, Harvard won 23, and two were settled in ties. Perhaps more remarkably, neither team won more than three games in a row during the entire 50-year period. The college sports landscape changed dramatically during this time period as well. As the nexus of power in college football shifted away from the Northeast towards the South and Midwest, the presidents of Harvard, Yale, and peer institutions sought to reinforce their commitment to athletics as a component of academic excellence, rather than a distraction from it.

To that end, a relationship that had existed informally for many years was established during this time, with the Ivy League being formally chartered as an athletic conference in 1954 and awarded its first football championship for Yale in 1956. Both schools earned their fair share of conference titles prior to 2000 (Yale collected 13 Ivy League crowns while Harvard recorded another 9), but it wasn’t until the 21st century that the Crimson truly began to assert themselves, not only in “The Game,” but also in the broader conference.

On the back of a nine-game winning streak between 2007 and 2015, Harvard won all but one of the matchups between 2001 and 2015. During this period, they accumulated eight Ivy League championships, nearly accomplishing in 15 years what it had taken them almost 45 years to do following the league’s inception. However, the Bulldogs exacted revenge in 2016. Despite a 3-6 record that season, they traveled to Boston and upset the 7-2 Crimson, breaking their losing streak and costing the Crimson a share of that year’s Ivy League title. Since then, Yale has controlled the series, recording wins in five of the last seven matchups and, in 2024, once again stealing an Ivy League title from the Crimson with a 34-29 upset victory at Harvard Stadium. 

While this year’s matchup is slated to take place later this month in New Haven, many HBS students have already made plans to make the trip down I-95 to watch the Crimson avenge their loss from last season. It figures to once again be a compelling matchup. At the time of this publication, the nationally-ranked Crimson appear to have one of their strongest teams in recent memory: they’re 6-0, with dominant wins over Holy Cross, Brown, and rival Princeton, and they have an average victory margin of almost 34 points. The 4-2 Bulldogs have lost just once in conference play during a one-point heartbreaker at Dartmouth settled by a last-second field goal, which means that they’re very much still in the race for this year’s Ivy League title.

Making this year’s game even more compelling is the fact that, for the first time in league history, the Ivy League champion is eligible for the FCS (the second-highest level of college football in the U.S.) playoffs. While this doesn’t mean that the winner of “The Game” will earn themselves a date with Ohio State or Alabama in the Orange Bowl, it does mark the first time since World War II that an Ivy League school is able to participate in college football’s postseason. The AFCA FCS Coaches’ Poll currently ranks the Crimson 15th nationally — a figure that only stands to improve with continued success — so it’s very possible that this year’s edition of “The Game” could have even greater implications.

Regardless, it’s a tradition unlike any other, and even those in the HBS community who don’t consider themselves football fans would be well-served to make the trek to New Haven on November 22 to enjoy the pageantry of this year’s matchup.

John Mahoney (MBA ’26) is a native of West Des Moines, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2021 with a degree in Finance. While in college, he was a walk-on defensive back for the Fighting Irish and wrote a book about his experience, titled History Through The Headsets. Prior to coming to HBS, John worked in consulting and strategy in Minneapolis and Chicago.