American College Football has never seen a rivalry like Harvard-Yale. If it has, feel free to voice your dissent with an angry telegraph.
The rivalry was so intense that a neutral site wouldn’t quell hostilities. Hampden Park in Springfield, MA was used in the earliest days of the contest. The game featured today was stunning in its ferocity: nicknamed the “Hampden Park Bloodbath,” rival fans brawled with each other afterward on their way to the train.
Yale dominated the series. After winning the inaugural contest in 1875, Harvard struggled to keep pace with Yale, relying on trick plays like the Flying Wedge and odd inventions like shiny leather uniforms. Yale didn’t need any of that because in the early 1890’s, they were led by a mean sumbitch named Frank Hinkey.
Hinkey was told by his doctors to live an easy life because of his lung condition. This being the 1890’s, “Hinkey ignored his doctors’ advice. He played football and he played it with reckless abandon, hurling his body into oncoming opponents with utter disregard for the physical consequences. Off the field he stayed up late and drank the worst brands of whiskey. Just to spite his weak lungs, he smoked cigars by the box, the cheaper the better.”1
- “When Men Were Men And Football Was Brutal” Yale Alumni Magazine, Nov/Dec 2004 ↩︎
The violence at the November 1894 game was astonishing, even by the nonexistent standards of the 1800’s. Hinkey gave instructions to “tackle them anyway and take the penalty” if Harvard called for a fair catch. The carnage included broken legs (that they tried to play through), severe concussions that they, of course, tried to play through (one such player, Fred Murphy had to be pointed in the right direction before each play), and a snapped collarbone courtesy of Hinkey himself. Mr. Woozy, Fred Humphrey, unfortunately contributed to the best anecdote from the game: “During an official’s conference, Fred Murphy backhanded Harvard’s Bob Hallowell, crushing his nose into a crooked, bloody mess. He also poked Hallowell’s eye, drawing blood, before the Crimson caught up with him. They left him crumpled in a heap on the field. Murphy was carried out on a stretcher and unceremoniously dumped onto a pile of blankets so that the medical personnel could get back to watching the game.”
The contest was savage enough that the next two match days were suspended. Football came under fire from many corners of society for the brutality of its injuries, and Teddy Roosevelt was among those who reformed the sport so that it could survive beyond its initial incarnation. Even the institution of the NCAA was born out of this period of reform.
Oh, and this week we had some Tuesday games nobody cares about, and some Wednesday/Thursday games nobody cares about. If you in fact cared about one of those games, please submit your dissent via angry telegraph. Friday Night Lights provided an adequate amount of action. #2 Miami surprised no one by pulling the paper tiger act against Louisville. #25 Nebraska made a convincing case for being yeeted out of the top 25 with a dud against Minnesota. Utah Saints State beat San Jose State in the Mountain West After Dark matchup, and the enshittification of Tar Heels football continued unabated with a loss to Cal.
Saturday? Saturday is where the action’s at, baby. We’ve got Tigers vs Tigers with Mizzou-Auburn, we’ve got Indiana looking like a contender, we’ve got Bama-Tennessee, we’ve got a Utah backyard brawl door-to-door missionary trip with BYU-Utah, and we’ve got ranked LSU vs ranked Vandy.
Featured Games:
7:30 pm
#20 USC vs #13 Notre Dame (truly, we are all Trojans today)
Pitt vs Syracuse (set loose the ‘Cuse!)
7:45 pm
#16 Mizzou vs Auburn (silverwheel vs Joey)