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The Quiz 

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Just the things you ought to know. 

With this year’s Game approaching, The Indy wants readers as informed as possible about the oldest game in college football. And with The Game being played almost every year since 1875, it is difficult to keep track of all the history, tomfoolery, and revelry that surround the rivalry. So, without further ado, here is a quiz to both test your knowledge and fill in what you may have missed. The Harvard Independent presents nine questions for nine straight wins.

Questions:

1) Who won last year’s Game?

  1. Harvard
  2. Yale
  3. MIT Pranksters
  4. The Harvard Band

 

2) How about The Game before that?

  1. Harvard
  2. Yale
  3. The Tailgaters
  4. Toads

 

3) Okay, let’s get more difficult. Who won The Game in 1968?

  1. Harvard
  2. Yale
  3. Both
  4. Neither

 

4) Who won the very first Game?

  1. Harvard
  2. Yale
  3. Collegiate School
  4. None of the Above

 

5) What was the score of the first Game?

  1. 12-7
  2. 4-0
  3. 37-12
  4. 29-29

 

6) Who scored Harvard’s only touchdown in their 21-7 loss in 1955?

  1. a) John F. Kennedy
  2. b) Edward Kennedy
  3. c) Someone who isn’t a Kennedy
  4. d) Why would we ask if it weren’t a Kennedy?

 

7) What is the name of the Yale mascot?

  1. Ugly Dan
  2. Handsome Dan
  3. Handsome Dan XVII
  4. Handsome Dan XXX

 

8) Who did Lee Corso pick in 2014?

  1. Harvard
  2. Yale
  3. Kirk Herbstreit
  4. Handsome Dan XVII

 

9) Who is going to win in 2015?

  1. Harvard
  2. Harvard
  3. Harvard
  4. Harvard

 

 

Answers:

1) Harvard won last year 31-24, which was their eight straight victory. Notably, it was also the very first time The Game was featured as the Game of the Week for College Gameday, Theoretically, if College Gameday had existed in the late 1890s and early 1900s, Harvard-Yale would have been the Game of the Week more often. Alas

 

2) Harvard won 34-7 in the Yale Bowl. This was just to rub it in Yale’s face.

 

3) Trick question, the answer in (d) Neither. This game is one of the most famous, with Harvard rallying from a 29-13 deficit with two minutes remaining to tie the game. Famously, another newspaper with either somewhat witty or very dumb copy editors published the headliner: “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”

 

4) Harvard won the very first Game, naturally. The answer (c) is actually Yale’s original name, when it was simply a small school taught out of some guy’s house.

 

5) The first game ended with Harvard winning 4 goals and 2 touchdowns to 0. Back then, apparently, field goals and touchdowns were kept separately, with the latter not even counting for points. What an odd game.

 

6) Edward “Ted” Kennedy scored our lone touchdown. The Kennedys always did find a way to score it seems.

 

7) The correct answer is in fact (c) Handsome Dan XVII. He has been the mascot since 2007, and Yale will replace him with Handsome Dan XVIII just like they did to Handsome Dan XVI. Cruel, cruel school.

 

8) He picked Yale and was wrong. It is commonly assumed that he picked the inferior school because they have a mascot and we have a color, thus not allowing him to put on our “mascot” head. He could have painted his face.

 

9) Go Harvard. Roll Crimson.

 

Sean Frazzette ’16 (sfrazzette@college.harvard.edu) has no doubts about this year.