The Tie, Revisited

I wasn't tough enough to sit outside at Harvard Stadium last Saturday to see the Crimson cap a 9-1 season by beating Yale, 10-0, but I paid my homage to The Game by doing the next best thing. I went to the Film Forum on West Houston Street in Manhattan to see Kevin Rafferty's documentary, "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29."

Rafferty is a filmmaker of note ("Atomic Cafe"), and he was a Harvard undergraduate on Nov. 23, 1968 when Harvard and Yale met in the most famous of all Harvard-Yale games, the 29-29 tie. (I had a handy excuse for missing the original. I was at Fort Knox, Ky., three weeks into basic training as an Army reservist).

Rafferty interviewed just about all the principals, and a few of the incidentals in that famed 29-29 Harvard vic, er, tie game, the most conspicuous absentee being the great Calvin Hill, who told him that he had "talked enough" about the game over the years. Too bad. I've met Calvin Hill on a few occasions -- he is Grant Hill's dad, in case you forgot -- and he has been very nice. So we can assume it remains a painful subject for him.

It's all done in a very straightforward manner. A few players on each side are introduced, and off we go to the Channel 5 telecast announced, and charmingly so, by the late, great Don Gillis. Reminisces are interspersed throughout the game, and that is pretty much that.

Except, of course, it isn't. It is Harvard and it is Yale, and these are people who can articulate their remembrances and feelings about this memorable affair. In case you don't know, though each team entered that game undefeated Yale was a clear favorite. The Eli were actually ranked in the top 20! Yes, kiddies, times have changed.

Yale was led by the iconic QB, Brian Dowling, who, believe it or not, had not lost a game in which he had been the starting quarterback since seventh grade. And again, in case you don't know, he is the brother of Channel 5 sportscaster Mike Dowling. Harvard's most acclaimed player was probably halfback Vic Gatto, although end Pete Varney was a pretty special Ivy League player, too. But everyone seems to agree that Yale was a better team and it really came as no surprise to anyone on either side that they entered the final minute of play with a 29-13 lead.

I'm not going into the play-by-play. You may or may not know that a key player for Harvard was backup quarterback Frank Champi, who had been inserted into the game, much to his surprise (and even to his dismay) by coach John Yoviscin when starter George Lalich faltered. Champi was and is a very introspective guy who lends a very interesting slant to the business at hand.

Two Yalies stand out. One is defensive back J.P. Goldsmith. I really, really, really would like to have a beer with this man. He radiates good cheer every time he opens his mouth. The other is Yale linebacker Dick Boscauren, who draws laughs the first time he appears on screen. We have just heard from a couple of Harvard players explaining their working class roots and how they were intimidated by the Cambridge experience at first, and then here comes Boscauren, wearing a blue blazer and something approaching a rep tie, to announce in his best Chatsxworth W. Osborne, Junior lockjaw diction that his entire family had gone to Yale. He is the most un-football-like player I have ever heard. And he played defense!

He is a hoot, especially when he describes how he deliberately speared Harvard running back Ray Hornblower in the ankle in advance of a replay that shows he never touched him.

Oh, Tommy Lee Jones. Yup, Rafferty corralled the notoriously difficult actor, who was a starting Harvard guard (and roommate of Al Gore, and how could anyone make this stuff up?). Tommy guards every syllable, making us all wonder whether there will ever be another word. Now we know what all those entertainment scribes have been talking about all those years.

By the way, the word is Tommy Lee did attend Saturday's game, proving that he is, as I suspected, a far tougher man than I.

It's all great fun, and Meryl Streep even figures into the story. Get yourself over to the Brattle Theater pronto to see how.