Yale was called for pass interference. On the replay, Harvard fullback Gus Crim rumbled in for a score.
Everyone in the stadium knew that an onside kick was coming, but that did not stop Harvard from recovering it. No one was leaving now. The white hankies had disappeared.
Champi marched the team down to the Yale eight yard line.
Three seconds left.
Hike. Scramble.
As he was hit, Champi threw off the wrong foot. Vic Gatto, the first 2000 yard rusher in Harvard history, gathered it in.
No time left. Yale led 29-27. Champi, the backup, recalled, “I thought, ‘We’ve come this far.’ I was very confident. It was inevitable.”
And so it proved. After the field was cleared of fans, Champi hit burly tight end Pete Varney, later a major league catcher. Game over.
Harvard had scored 16 points in 42 seconds. Brian Dowling failed to come off the field with a victory for the first time since sixth grade.
I don’t remember a whole lot after that. And I don’t remember my date’s name. But I think I learned more in that game than I did in my freshman year classes.
What was the lesson? Keep trying no matter what the odds. Never give up. Never.
Yale Coach Carmen Cozza later said, “That tie was the worst loss of my career.” But it was the banner headline across the front page of the Crimson—the Harvard student newspaper—that best captured what we had witnessed: “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”
Keith Raffel is the author of Dot Dead: A Silicon Valley Mystery
Website: www.keithraffel.com
Blog: www.keithraffel.typepad.com
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