Top Comments: the Harvard 29, Yale 29 edition

A look at a celebrated college football game 50 years ago, after the jump ...

But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.

Later this month will mark the 50th anniversary of the most famous Harvard-Yale football match in its history — both for the wild finish and for some of the players in the contest (and their families). It spawned a documentary ten years ago and this year’s edition will be played in a special venue. As regular readers of mine know: when I write of sports, it is usually due to an interesting political, financial or human interest aspect — that’s what I hope tonight’s edition will be.

Although Ivy League football has not been meaningful (in the greater scheme of college football) in some time: the day of Saturday, November 23rd, 1968 was special. Both teams came into The Game (as it has long been called) undefeated, and the teams were actually in the national rankings (though low enough that they would not be considered as national championship material). The Ivy League (along with other schools) would be moved into a lower division in the 1970’s.

The game took place in the height of anti-war fever, with many of the seniors wondering if their student deferments would lapse. It followed the deaths of both Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and was at the time that the civil rights and women’s movements were in its ascendancy. Though the game’s attendance was just over 40,000 — like any memorable event, the number of people insisting they were there has grown over the years.

In this game, Yale jumped out to a 22-0 lead, and Harvard called upon an untested reserve quarterback named Frank Champi in the second half. Yale still led 29-13 when Harvard drove 85 yards for a touchdown to make the score 29-19 … then:

A Yale penalty gave Harvard two tries for the two-point conversion, and the second was good. It was 29-21 with 42 seconds to play.

The onside kick was next. Harvard recovered at the Yale 49. A 14-yard Champi scramble and a face-mask penalty moved the ball to the 20, where it remained two plays later. Twenty seconds were left in the game.

Surprise draw play w/20 seconds left

Harvard surprised Yale with a draw play that gained 14 yards. On the next play, Champi was sacked for a two-yard loss. Three seconds remained. The Yale defense forced Champi out of the pocket, from where he passed to Vic Gatto for the TD with no time on the clock. Pete Varney caught the two-point conversion pass.

   Game-tying two-point conversion

In 1996, college football instituted overtime to settle ties: so this game could not be repeated. Yet many insist that a draw not only enabled both squads to emerge undefeated: it also made the game that more memorable.

November 23, 1968 at Harvard Stadium, Cambridge

What made the game immortal: was the Harvard student newspaper headline:

   That had to sting in New Haven, Conn.

Yet the game was made even more memorable by some of the players who went on to further fame — either on the playing field, or elsewhere. Here is a look at a few of them ………. whom you may well know.

     Brian Dowling at Yale

The quarterback for Yale was a Cleveland native who was playing in his final game as an amateur: and since seventh grade, Dowling had never lost a game in which he had finished. He became the inspiration for the Doonesbury cartoon strip character B.D. (with his omnipresent helmet) and in the original cartoons that Garry Trudeau (Yale Class of 1970, who was in the stands for that game) wrote — which seem quite primitive today, huh? — you can see the letter “Y” as well as the number 10 that Brian Dowling wore.

B.D. and Boopsie: 1st meet-up

The two now: w/o B.D.’s helmet

Brian Dowling went on to a modest NFL (and WFL) career and at age seventy-one is living in suburban Boston, having worked as an insurance industry consultant.

Brian Dowling more recently

Perhaps the best athlete on the field that day was Yale running back Calvin Hill— as accomplished in track-and-field as well as football. The Baltimore native said the fact that the Yale Bowl in New Haven seated 70,000 fans was a draw, along with the academic challenge that went along with being an honors student.

He went on to a twelve-year NFL career, named to four Pro Bowl teams and winning the 1972 Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys.

Yale football and track star

He married a Louisiana native who felt ill-at-ease going to a nearly all-white Wellesley College in Massachusetts — who called home, wanting to return to New Orleans to attend Tulane … and would have, had her father answered the phone. But Janet McDonald said her mother answered the phone ... “and the rest is history”. Someone else who convinced her to stay was classmate Hillary Rodham.

    Janet McDonald Hill

If you are not of-a-certain-age: you may have heard of their son Grant Hill— a basketball star for Duke University … who threw the legendary pass to teammate Christian Laettner who scored a long-range basket in the epic 1992 Duke-Kentucky regional tournament final (on their way to a second consecutive NCAA title). Grant Hill went on to a nineteen-year NBA career, is currently a TV analyst and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame just two months ago.

    Grant Hill (born 1972)

Calvin and Janet McDonald Hill today are both age seventy-one, married forty-eight years and quite active today. Calvin has sat on many boards of directors and for many years ran a sports consulting business (preparing athletes for a life after their careers were over). Janet McDonald Hill has also served on many boards of directors and (until her 2010 retirement) was VP of a Washington consulting firm, where she specialized in diversity training and helping businesses hire qualified women and minority employees. And she is a Hillary Clinton friend to this day.

   Calvin & Janet Hill today

Someone who was also on that 1968 Yale squad— of which I was unaware of until looking into this topic — was defensive back Kurt Schmoke ... who as a Baltimore native was personally recruited by none other than fellow native Calvin Hill.

Kurt Schmoke in The Game

After graduation in 1971, he received a Rhodes scholarship and later graduated form Harvard Law. He went on to serve three terms as the mayor of Baltimore (1987-1999), then as Dean of the Howard University law school and today is the president of the University of Baltimore. He is especially proud in helping to found a New Haven daycare center (to serve Yale employees) that was later named the Calvin Hill Daycare Center.

 Kurt Schmoke: Class of ‘71

There is at least one Harvard player that day whom you are aware of in a different field. An offensive lineman for the team that day was the son of a Texas oilman, Tommy Lee Jones— yes, the future Academy Award winning actor — whose senior thesis was “The Mechanics of Catholicism in the works of Flannery O'Connor” (earning a BA in English literature) and whose first movie role was as a Harvard student in Love Story.

Tommy Lee Jones: BA, 1969

His roommate at Dunster House on campus was a Tennessee native you may have also heard of, too. At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Tommy Lee Jones spoke of Al Gore as a “Good, caring, loving man”.

Tommy Lee & Al Gore today

In 2008, forty years after that match, a documentary was made entitled Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, with contemporary interviews of the players and others associated with the match. Several players interviewed spoke of the political, social and military actions noted early in this diary. The Harvard squad not only included a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) member ... but also a returning Vietnam vet. Pat Conway was a Marine at the siege of Khe Sanh just months before the Harvard-Yale game. Actress Meryl Streep was a Vassar student dating Yale fullback Bob Levin (whose fumble with 3:34 helped start the Harvard comeback). Yale tackle Ted Livingston’s roommate was ... George W. Bush.

ESPN ranked this game as #9 of the greatest college football tie games ever. Finally, here is perhaps the best aspect of this fiftieth anniversary game. Ten days from now (November 17th) this year’s version of The Game will be played not at the Yale Bowl, nor Harvard Stadium ….. but Fenway Park.

Let’s close with an ode to this just-past election …. we gained more than we lost, so this jaunty instrumental version of a Curtis Mayfield classic R&B tune (with the fabulous Boston-area native Terri Lyne Carrington on drums) seems apropos.

x xYouTube Video

Now, on to Top Comments:

(Nothing from the field this evening)

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the diary by durrati about the Mississippi man who wore a Confederate flag to his voting booth (that had a noose in it) — and who has now lost his hospital job as a result — PatsyBailey utilizes the now-famous quote from Andrew Gillum.  

TOP PHOTOS November 7th, 2018 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

1)  Trump called Acosta rude and if there is anythin … by Darmok +272 2)  This could quickly escalate into a constitutiona … by FishOutofWater +248 3)  Too bad the WH press won’t stick up for each oth … by Hugh Jim Bissell +185 4)  I will treasure last night in Topeka for a long, … by Chris Reeves +178 5)  Press should then suspend going there, given tha … by allergywoman +161 6)  Good morning Greg and APR peeps … by Denise Oliver Velez +159 7)  If he accepts a pardon he can be called to testi … by Annar Key +149 8)  I’d say the odds are better than Trump will do t … by PissedGrunty +144 9)  Wow just wow. Congratulations OS! If anybody des … by exlrrp +136 10) CNN stands with Mr Acosta. “Press Secretary Sara … by FishOutofWater +133 11) Sound like the answer to that question is “None”. by Observerinvancouver +132 12) Anyone shocked. All these scumbags do is lie, li … by Longbeach +133 13) It’s not funny AT ALL. This is the opening salvo … by Davey1107 +130 14) Tester is a political warrior and a damn fine Se … by Dillonfence +127 15) Thanks to those with the stomachs to listen to t … by Navy Vet Terp +126 16) Walker just conceded. … by Magnifico +125 17) Trump suspending someone for “putting his hands  … by Fatherflot +123 18) Disgraceful, but not surprised by GOP voter supr … by scamperdo +121 19) dave brat, dana russiafucker, scott walker... by memofromturner +120 20) I can literally look out the window and across t … by angry marmot +119 20) Ah, yes. Kris Kobach lost. And Pete Sessions is  … by loggersbrat +119 22) He's following Sarah's exact playbook. He's blat … by OpposeThis +118 23) It is important to note that in Texas the County … by txdoubledd +117 23) Yes! I was afraid we wouldn’t win the house and  … by YellowDogInGA +117 25) We won against millions of dollars of racist adv … by Denise Oliver Velez +116 26) Good. Abrams and now Nelson—we shouldn’t give up … by Cecelia S +114 27) What about the king of voter suppression Kris Ko … by MatthewFord +112 28) Mr Acosta has a firm grip on reality and the mic … by FishOutofWater +111 28) Exactly. … by 4CasandChlo +111 30) This was surreal. It was like Hitler on acid, as … by Its the Supreme Court Stupid +110