Nathaniel Curtis
| Sport | Football |
|---|---|
| First meeting | November 13, 1875 Harvard 4, Yale 0 |
| Latest meeting | November 19, 2016 Yale 21, Harvard 14 |
| Next meeting | November 18, 2017 |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 133 |
| All-time series | Yale leads 66–59–8 |
| Largest victory | Yale 54-0 (1957) |
| Current win streak | Yale, 1 (2016–present) |
The Harvard–Yale football rivalry is renewed annually with The Game, an American college football contest between the Harvard Crimson football team of Harvard University and the Yale Bulldogs football team of Yale University. The contest concludes the season for both programs, the winner does not take possession of a physical prize, and the respective Yale residential college football teams compete against "sister" Harvard house teams the day before. The Game (with the Princeton-Yale contest second) is third among most-played NCAA Division 1 football rivalries. Yale leads the series 66–59–8.
"Harvard and Yale generally duke it out in the academic arena", but geographic proximity, the history of Yale's founding and social competition between the respective student and alumni bodies animate the athletic rivalry. Competition for undergraduate matriculants helps sustain the rivalry
Harvard football head coach Joe Restic, who held position for 23 seasons, quipped regarding his relationship with retired Yale football head coach and National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame member Carm Cozza, who held position for 32 seasons: "Each year, we're friends for 364 days and rivals for one". The athletic rivalry is historically the first in American intercollegiate athletics.
The signature Harvard fight song, "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard", names Yale in the famous final stanza. The song is sung in the Harvard football locker room after a victory regardless the opponent. The song is among six Harvard fight songs that mention Yale. "Down the Field" is Yale's signature fight song and Harvard is the named foe. The song is among five that mention Harvard. Two of the songs, "Bingo, That's the Lingo" and "Goodnight, Harvard", have been sung substituting Princeton for Harvard when appropriate. Cole Porter composed the former and Douglas Moore the latter.
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