April 2008 is Harvard Month at AGS - Read the fact a day!

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Thanks Harvard fans for April 2008 at AGS!

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4/1

May 14, 1874 -- Football is born in Cambridge as Harvard accepts a proposal from McGill University for a two-game series at Jarvis Field. Harvard wins the opener, three goals to none. The schools battle to a 0-0 draw, the following afternoon.

June 4, 1875 -- Harvard plays its first intercollegiate game, facing Tufts. Just as historic is that the Crimson is outfitted in a football uniform, believed to be the first time a team has been so identified. The squad is adorned in the school colors, with a uniform of white shirts and pants, with crimson trimming and crimson hose.

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4/2

November 13, 1875 -- Harvard and Yale play for the first time. The Crimson wins this initial meeting, held at Hamilton Field in New Haven, with four goals and four touchdowns to no goals and no touchdowns for the Elis. A group of 150 Harvard faithful makes the journey on the evening train from Boston.

October 31, 1881 -- Harvard plays the first East-West intersectional football game as it hosts Michigan at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Crimson takes a bite out of the Wolverines, 4-0, as part of a 6-1-1 season.

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4/3

January 6, 1885 -- Believing that the sport had degenerated into "modified mayhem," the Athletic Committee presents a report to the Harvard Faculty; which bans football from campus for the coming fall.

November 3, 1886 -- Rules changes allow football to return to Harvard in 1886. The Crimson rolls to a 156-0 win over Exeter, its highest single-game total. Harvard goes on to establish a national collegiate record for points, amassing 765 during its 12-2 campaign. The record stood until the 2004 season, when Division II Pittsburg State (Kan.) scored 837 points in 15 games.

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4/4

March 14, 1889 -- Harvard holds what is believed to be the nation's first-ever spring football practice when team captain Arthur J. Cumnock leads the team in drills on Jarvis Field.

November 22, 1890 -- Harvard captures its first of seven national championships. The Crimson finishes 11-0 and defeats Yale, 12-6, on the season's final day.

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4/5

November 30, 1893 -- William H. Lewis becomes Harvard's first black captain when he is elected for the honor prior to the Pennsylvania game. He replaces B. G. Waters, who was injured a week earlier against Yale. Lewis, enrolled in the Harvard Law School, held a similar post while attending Amherst in 1891. Lewis goes on to be elected to the Cambridge City Council as a Republican in 1899, is elected to the Legislature in 1901, and named Assistant United States Attorney for Boston in 1903. In 1910, Lewis is appointed, by President Taft, as Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

November 30, 1893 -- The first football scoreboard is used. The Harvard Athletic Association unveils this invention of Arthur Irwin, a Bostonian and a professional baseball player and manager, in the Crimson's 26-4 win over Penn on Thanksgiving.

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4/6

October 1, 1898 -- An 11-0 win over Williams starts the Crimson on a 32-game unbeaten streak (31-0-1) that continues until the final game of the 1900 campaign. Along the way, Harvard captures national titles in 1898 and 1899.

October 31, 1903 -- Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, coach of the famed Carlisle Indians, introduces the hidden ball trick in a game against Harvard. The ploy is unleashed during the second half kickoff, and the resulting touchdown moves Carlisle ahead, 11-0. The Crimson delivers the Halloween day treat, however, winning 12-11.

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4/6

October 1, 1898 -- An 11-0 win over Williams starts the Crimson on a 32-game unbeaten streak (31-0-1) that continues until the final game of the 1900 campaign. Along the way, Harvard captures national titles in 1898 and 1899.

October 31, 1903 -- Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, coach of the famed Carlisle Indians, introduces the hidden ball trick in a game against Harvard. The ploy is unleashed during the second half kickoff, and the resulting touchdown moves Carlisle ahead, 11-0. The Crimson delivers the Halloween day treat, however, winning 12-11.

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4/7

November 14, 1903 -- Harvard Stadium, the nation's first permanent concrete stadium for athletics, opens when Harvard faces Dartmouth.

September 29, 1906 -- Harvard plays its first game since the introduction of the forward pass. The rule change was necessitated by the increasingly brutal nature of football as a way to open up the game. The configuration of Harvard Stadium forced the rules committee to opt for this innovation rather than widen the field by 40 feet.

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4/8

November 7, 1908 -- The legendary Jim Thorpe and his Carlisle squad visit the Stadium. Thorpe is shut down and his squad blanked, 17-0, as part of Harvard's 9-0-1 season.

November 20, 1909 -- Hamilton Fish, a two-time All-America in an era when only 11 players earned the distinction, completes his career at Harvard. The rugged 6-4, 200-pound tackle graduated cum laude in 1910 and rose to the rank of Major in the Fourth Division Infantry during World War I. He was elected to the United States Congress in 1920 as a representative from New York and served until 1946.

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4/9

November 18, 1911 -- Harvard embarks on its school-record 33-game unbeaten streak with a 5-3 win over Dartmouth at the Stadium. The streak covers the entire 1912, 1913 and 1914 seasons as well as the first four games of 1915. The Crimson went 30-0-3 before Cornell finally put a halt to the streak with a 10-0 win Oct. 23, 1915.

November 21, 1914 -- The great career of Charlie Brickley '15 comes to a conclusion with a 36-0 rout of Yale in New Haven. Hampered by an injury for part of the year, Brickley still adds one extra point to the cause. He finished his career with 215 points.

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4/10

November 25, 1916 -- Percy Haughton coaches his final game for the Crimson, as he and his entire staff enter the service for World War I. As head coach of the Crimson for nine years, Haughton posted an incredible 71-7-5 record. Harvard won three national titles in his tenure (1910, 1912, 1913).

January 1, 1920 -- Harvard wins the Rose Bowl and its last of seven national championships. The Crimson finishes 9-0-1 by edging Oregon, 7-6, in the Tournament of Roses contest.

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4/11

October 31, 1925 -- Number one defeats number two as Harvard, the oldest college in America, tops William & Mary, the second oldest, by a 14-7 count at the Stadium.

November 22, 1930 -- Barry Wood '32 throws a pair of touchdown passes and plays the entire 60 minutes as Harvard finishes the season by blanking Yale, 13-0. In addition to being an All-America quarterback, Wood was a three-year letter winner in hockey and baseball.

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4/12

October 30, 1937 -- Vernon Struck '38 sets a school single-game record by rushing for 233 yards in a 34-6 win at Princeton. The mark stands until 1991. He also scores a pair of touchdowns in the win.

November 20, 1943 -- College football is again depleted because of war, but 45,000 fans turn out at the Stadium to see squads from Harvard and Boston College battle to a 6-6 draw. It is the first meeting between the schools in any athletic competition in 24 years.

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4/13

October 11, 1947 -- Chester Pierce '48, a standout tackle for the Crimson, becomes the first black to play against a white college in the South when Harvard meets the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

November 22, 1947 -- Ken O'Donnell makes his final of eight interceptions on the season to set a school record. The mark has only been equaled once, by Cecil Cox in 1985.

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4/14

October 30, 1948 -- Hal Moffie's school-record 89-yard punt return for a TD helps key a 20-13 Harvard win over Holy Cross at the Stadium.

November 17, 1951 -- Tom Ossman rushes for five touchdowns, setting a school record in the Crimson's 34-21 win over Brown.

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4/15

October 11, 1952 -- Dick Clasby dashes for a 96-yard touchdown in the Crimson's 42-0 victory over Washington University of St. Louis, the longest run from scrimmage in school history.

October 31, 1953 -- Quarterback Carroll Lowenstein throws for a school-record five touchdowns as Harvard routs visiting Davidson, 42-6.

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4/16

November 20, 1954 -- Harvard wins its 500th game by tackling Yale, 13-9, at the Stadium.

October 13, 1956 -- The Ivy League begins formal play in football as Harvard crushes Cornell, 32-7, in Ithaca.

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4/17

November 7, 1959 -- A 14-0 win at Princeton clinches the first winning season for head coach John Yovicsin. This begins a string of 10 straight winning years for the Harvard coach.

November 25, 1961 -- Harvard earns its first share of the Ivy football title, finishing 6-1 in the League after topping Yale, 27-0. Columbia also claims a portion of the coveted crown.

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4/18

October 14, 1967 -- PK Tom Wynne opens the scoring against Columbia with a school-record 51-yard field goal. The kick helps inspire the Crimson to a 49-14 victory over the Lions.

November 23, 1968 -- The now legendary 29-29 "win" over Yale enables Harvard to finish the year at 8-0-1 -- the school's first undefeated campaign since 1920. Harvard scores 16 points in the game's final 42 seconds to knot the score.

November 17, 1973 -- By making 13 receptions, Pat McInally '75 sets a Harvard record that stands for nearly three decades, and makes a pair of touchdown grabs, in a 35-32 win against Brown. It is Harvard's 600th victory.

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4/19

November 23, 1974 -- Milt "Pineapple" Holt '75 leads the Crimson on a 95-yard touchdown drive over the game's final five minutes as Harvard surprises Yale, 21-16, to earn a share of the Ivy League title. Some observers still refer to this game as the most exciting in Harvard's history.

November 22, 1975 -- Harvard wins its first outright Ivy championship. Mike Lynch '76-77 boots a 26-yard field goal in the final seconds to deliver a 10-7 victory over Yale at the Yale Bowl.

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4/20

Tim Murphy has led Harvard’s storied football program to its most prosperous and successful era since the early 20th century — a trend he hopes to continue into 2008 as he enters his 15th year as the Head Coach for Harvard Football.

After accumulating an 8-2 overall record last season, Harvard became the first team in the history of the league to record seven consecutive seasons with at least seven victories. Harvard’s current stretch is the Crimson’s best seven-year run since a 28-year stretch of seven-plus win seasons came to an end in 1911. The team’s seven-year win total of 54 equals its output from 1910-1916

On coaching Harvard:
"I am very proud to be the coach of Harvard's football team. The history of football here speaks for itself. Having started in 1874, Harvard was one of the fi rst colleges in America to play football. With 750 victories and seven national championships, Harvard has an illustrious football tradition, and the Harvard-Yale rivalry is among the best in the nation.

"I look at former Harvard coaches like Percy Haughton, John Yovicsin and Joe Restic and feel very fortunate to hold the same position. There were many great championship teams, but it is important to recognize all the players and managers all the way back to 1874. They are the tradition of football at Harvard."

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4/21

November 17, 1979 -- Harvard is the final obstacle to a perfect season for Yale and spoils the Elis' bid with a 22-7 upset at the Bowl. Yale was allowing just 65 yards on the ground per game, but the Crimson sets the tone early by gaining 64 rushing yards on its first TD drive.

September 25, 1982 -- Don Allard '83 throws for a then-school-record 358 yards against Massachusetts in a 31-14 season opening win.

November 19, 1983 -- It's the 100th edition of "The Game" and the Crimson comes out on top, taking a 16-7 win in New Haven to earn a share of the Ivy League title.

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4/22

November 9, 1985 -- Harvard erupts for 21 points in a 41-second span late in the fourth quarter to surprise host Holy Cross, 28-20.

November 21, 1987 -- With temperatures hovering below zero at the Yale Bowl, Harvard freezes out the Elis, 14-10, to win the undisputed Ivy League championship. The Crimson finishes 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the Ivies, its best record under coach Joe Restic.

November 4, 1989 -- Head coach Joe Restic wins his 100th game at Harvard, as the Crimson tops Brown, 27-14, in Providence.

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4/23

October 13, 1990 -- A nine-sack effort against Fordham is typical of the Crimson's defensive efforts, and leads the way to a 19-13 victory over the Rams. The Harvard defense finishes the fall with a school-record 49 sacks.

xconfusedx June 22, 1991 -- Harvard Stadium hosts the first Japanese collegiate football game played in the America. Keio University, coached by the Harvard staff, defeats Yale-led Waseda University, 21-19.xconfusedx

November 9, 1991 -- Fullback Matt Johnson '92 rushes for a school-record 323 yards as Harvard defeats Brown, 35-29.

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4/24

October 2, 1993 -- Harvard wins its 700th game, defeating Lafayette, 21-17, at the Stadium.

October 14, 1994 -- Thomas F. Stephenson '64, MBA '66 endows Harvard football's head coaching position with a $2.5 million gift. Tim Murphy becomes the first Thomas Stephenson Family Coach for Harvard Football.

March 29, 1997 -- Harvard plays an exhibition game against Japan's Kyoto University, after accepting an invitation to help celebrate the school's 50th anniversary of its football club.

Team members take part in cultural exchanges throughout the weeklong visit, then engage in an exciting match-up in front of 16,000 fans, where the Crimson pulls out a 42-35 victory.

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4/25

November 22, 1997 -- The Ivy League title returns to Cambridge as Harvard's 17-7 win at Yale secures the program's first 7-0 Ivy season. Tailback Chris Menick '00 sets the single-season rushing record (1,267 yards).

April 8, 1998 -- Defensive end Tim Fleiszer '98 is the first overall selection in the Canadian Football League draft. The Montreal native is selected by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Later in the month, offensive lineman Matt Birk '98 becomes a sixth-round choice by the NFL's Minnesota Vikings.

October 23, 1999 -- Eight school records are broken or tied in a 63-21 win over Dartmouth. Most notable are tailback Chris Menick, who becomes the all-time leading rusher, and flanker Terence Patterson '00, who sets the career receptions mark. Menick will finish his career with 3,330 yards; Patterson ends with 146 catches.

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4/26

April 22, 2000 -- Linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski '00, Harvard's all-time leading tackler, becomes the program's highest NFL draft pick when he's taken in the fourth round by the Seattle Seahawks.

September 23, 2000 -- Quarterback Neil Rose '02-03, in his first collegiate start, throws for a Harvard record 412 yards as the Crimson defeats Brown, 42-37.

November 10, 2001 -- A battle of undefeated takes center stage as Harvard hosts Penn with the Ivy title on the line. After spotting the Quakers a 14-0 lead, the Crimson rallies to claim a 28-21 victory. Neil Rose throws three touchdown passes on the day, two of them to Carl Morris.

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4/27

November 17, 2001 -- With a crowd of 52,000 looking on at the Yale Bowl, Harvard clinches its first perfect season in 88 years by topping the Bulldogs, 35-23. The Crimson wins its 10th Ivy League title, and second under head coach Tim Murphy.

November 2, 2002 -- Numerous school records fall in the Crimson's 31-26 win at Dartmouth. Neil Rose throws for 449 yards and 36 completions, with Carl Morris catching 21 of those passes for 257 yards.

November 16, 2002 -- Harvard's "Ivy Title" game at Penn is the backdrop for ESPN's College Gameday program. The telecast marks the first time a Division I-AA game is featured and attracts the most viewers in the history of the program.

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4/28

October 25, 2003 -- Harvard celebrates the 100th anniversary of Harvard Stadium with one of the facility's most exciting games as the Crimson takes a 43-40 overtime win against Princeton.

September 25, 2004 -- Harvard overcomes a 21-0 first-quarter deficit and a 31-10 halftime margin to rally past Brown, 35-34, in Providence in both teams' Ivy League openers.

November 13, 2004 -- Harvard clinches a share of its 11th Ivy League championship with a 31-10 win against Penn at Franklin Field -- the Crimson's first win in Philadelphia in 24 years.

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4/29

November 20, 2004 -- Harvard completes its best season in more than 100 years with a 35-3 win against Yale at a sold-out Harvard Stadium to finish 10-0. Two explosive plays spark the Crimson as All-America Brian Edwards '05 scores on a 53-yard punt return and Ricky Williamson '05 returns an interception 100 yards for a TD. Harvard finishes as the only unbeaten school in Division I-AA and ends the season unbeaten and untied for the seventh time in school history.

December 10, 2004 -- Tailback Clifton Dawson is named to the Walter Camp Foundation All-America first team, becoming the first Harvard offensive back to achieve first team status since Barry Wood in 1931.

April 24, 2005 -- Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick '05 is chosen by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the NFL draft. He becomes the first Ivy League signal-caller to be drafted since Columbia's John Witkowski in 1984.

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4/30

October 15, 2005 -- Harvard's 24-17 win at Lafayette gives the Crimson wins over the eventual Ivy (Brown) and Patriot League champions in the same season for the first time.

November 19, 2005 -- Harvard defeats Yale for the fifth straight year by rallying from a 21-3 second-half deficit to prevail, 30-24, in three overtimes. It marks the first triple-overtime game in Ivy League history and the first Harvard-Yale game to go to extra periods. Harvard forces three Yale turnovers in overtime before Clifton Dawson '07 ends the game with a two-yard touchdown run.

November 11, 2006 -- The Ivy League's most hallowed record falls by the wayside as Clifton Dawson breaks loose for a 55-yard run against Penn to surpass former Cornell great Ed Marinaro as the Ancient Eight's all-time rushing leader. Dawson runs for 119 yards against the Quakers to finish the game with 4,781 yards, bettering Marinaro's longstanding mark of 4,715. Dawson would finish his spectacular career with 4,841 rushing yards and 60 rushing touchdowns, both Ivy League records.