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View Full Version : Watched "8 Ivy League Football In America" last night...


Pard94
October 15th, 2009, 09:50 AM
They showed this program on my local PBS station last week. It was fascinating! A couple of conlusions one can draw after watching this show...

1. The Ivy League has a tradition and history that is unrivaled in this country.

2. For better or worse, The Ivy League will NEVER go full scholarship and they will NEVER participate in post season play. It is really engrained in the heads of all of the Ivy League leaders that they have football in it's proper perspective. They seem convinced that no changes are required or desired.
Ivytalk
October 15th, 2009, 10:08 AM
They showed this program on my local PBS station last week. It was fascinating! A couple of conlusions one can draw after watching this show...

1. The Ivy League has a tradition and history that is unrivaled in this country.

2. For better or worse, The Ivy League will NEVER go full scholarship and they will NEVER participate in post season play. It is really engrained in the heads of all of the Ivy League leaders that they have football in it's proper perspective. They seem convinced that no changes are required or desired.


xbangxxbangxxbangxxbangxxsplatx
UNH SUPERFAN
October 15th, 2009, 10:35 AM
I saw a part of this show last night on NESN, it was fantastic. I never really knew how the 1968 Harvard-Yale game came to end in a tie, it was great how they chronicled the end of that classic game. I was too involved in my senior year of High School ball to ever pay attention to that game so it was great to see.
RichH2
October 15th, 2009, 11:13 AM
Was a fascinating time machine into how the IL became what it is today, much like watching a dig for dinosaur bones. Prior to IL being formed , they were a national conference with schlarships and all. I guess an appropriate reaction to all the scandals of the early 50s to close ranks and ban schollies. BUT what began as a reform of abuse has become a dogmatic religion. A shame really
Pard94
October 15th, 2009, 11:34 AM
Interesting tidbit...I knew Tommy Lee jones went to Harvard and played football. I never knew he was actually pretty good.
bunny
October 15th, 2009, 11:55 AM
For those that get NESN, it will be on a few more times this month:
http://www.8ivyfootball.com/watch.asp
October 25, 2009 at 6:30 PM
October 30, 2009 at 7:30 PM

I couldn't find anywhere to watch it on the interwebs, but UNH SUPERFAN mentioned the 1968 game. There is a great documentary about that game available to stream on Netflix: Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Harvard_Beats_Yale_29-29/70109082).
Green26
October 15th, 2009, 12:11 PM
Jones roomed with Al Gore for a year or so at Harvard.

From Wikipedia:

"In what is usually considered the best Game, in 1968, the Harvard team made a miraculous last-moment comeback, scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds to tie a highly touted Yale squad. Yale was coming off a 16-game winning streak and its quarterback, Brian Dowling, had not lost a game he had started since the sixth grade. (Dowling was the inspiration for the character BD in Yale graduate Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury.) The tie left both teams 8-0-1 for the season, inspiring the Harvard Crimson to print the headline "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29". [1] This headline was later used as the title for a 2008 documentary about this Game directed by Kevin Rafferty. [2] One of Harvard's offensive tackles was Tommy Lee Jones, later to find fame in Hollywood. As it turned out, this would be the final tie in the series."

Calvin Hill also played for Yale that year.
rcny46
October 15th, 2009, 12:25 PM
I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind "keeping football in its proper perspective," while at the same time post-season play in all other major sports is permitted.
rcny46
October 15th, 2009, 12:35 PM
Interesting tidbit...I knew Tommy Lee jones went to Harvard and played football. I never knew he was actually pretty good.

I think he was a first team all-conference player.
Franks Tanks
October 15th, 2009, 12:55 PM
Interesting tidbit...I knew Tommy Lee jones went to Harvard and played football. I never knew he was actually pretty good.

You may want to check out the "Harvard beats Yale" doc regarding the game-- it is available on netflix for those who have it. I watched it on my computer a few weeks ago and it was quite good. Tommy Lee Jones and other prominent players from the game add commentary.
Pard4Life
October 15th, 2009, 02:31 PM
Is it on You Tube? The Laf-Lehigh documentary is on You Tube.
Pard94
October 15th, 2009, 02:39 PM
Is it on You Tube? The Laf-Lehigh documentary is on You Tube.

I'm "in" that one. xnodx
bulldog10jw
October 15th, 2009, 03:15 PM
You may want to check out the "Harvard beats Yale" doc regarding the game-- it is available on netflix for those who have it. I watched it on my computer a few weeks ago and it was quite good. Tommy Lee Jones and other prominent players from the game add commentary.

I remember watching the game on closed circuit TV in the old New Haven Arena, because Ohio State-Michigan was the TV game. Tickets were $6. No ESPN in those days.

Harvard Stadium held 40,000 then and you could have sold 100,000 tickets. The year before they had 68,000 in the Bowl.

Rumor had tickets being scalped for $500-1000. I was 16 years old.