Princeton–Yale football rivalry: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American college football rivalry}}

{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=August 2022}}

{{Infobox sports rivalry

| wide = yes

| sport = [[American football|Football]]

| firstmeeting = November 15, 1873<br />Princeton 3, Yale 0

| largestvictory = Yale, 51–14 (1931, 2019)

| longeststreak = Yale, 14 (1967–1980)

| longestunbeatenstreak =

| currentunbeatenstreak =

| trophy =

| label-color2 = black

}}

 

==Significance==

The rivalry is one of the oldest continuous rivalries in American sports, the oldest continuing rivalry in the history of [[American football]], and is constituent to the [[Big Three (colleges)|Big Three]] academic, athletic and social rivalry among alumni and students associated with [[Harvard University|Harvard]], Yale and Princeton universities.

 

Princeton and Yale first met on the gridiron in 1873 and soon dominated the sport.<ref>Travers, Steven. ''Pigskin Warriors: 140 Years of College Football's Greatest Traditions, Games, and Stars''. The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Lanham, Maryland, 2009. pg. 4</ref> Princeton has been considered the best football program of the nineteenth century. Princeton played the [[Virginia Cavaliers football|University of Virginia]] in 1890, a contest considered the first major [[Northeastern United States|North]]–[[Southeastern United States|South]] intersectional football matchup. Princeton won, 116–0.<ref>Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, December 21, 2016, pg. A14, by line Andrew Beaton</ref> Yale's record was 100–4–5 in the 1900s.<ref>''Pigskin Warriors: 140 Years of CollegeFootball's Greatest Traditions, Games, and Stars'', by Steven Travers, The Rowman + Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., Taylor Trade Publishing, Lanham, Maryland, 2009, pg. 4</ref><ref>Travers, pg. 273</ref><ref>Travers, pg 274</ref>

 

 

 

Some past teams and participants have been noteworthy:

 

 

Three of four [[Heisman Trophy]] winners affiliated with [[Ivy League]] football programs participated in the rivalry: [[Clint Frank]] and [[Larry Kelley]] for Yale, and [[Dick Kazmaier]] for Princeton. Frank won the first [[Maxwell Award]] in 1937 and Kazmaier won the Award in 1951;

Princeton won the 1950 and 1951 [[Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy|Lambert Trophy]]. [[1950 Princeton Tigers football team|Princeton last claimed a collegiate national championship in 1950]]. Yale shared the Lambert in 1960 with the [[1960 Navy Midshipmen football team|Navy]] team;

 

 

Twenty-five teams, eleven representing Princeton and fourteen representing Yale, have won outright or shared the [[List of Ivy League football champions|Ivy League football title]];

The Princeton–Yale football rivalry, many contests scheduled on [[Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving]] at the [[Polo Grounds]] or in the [[New York metropolitan area]] during the late nineteenth century,<ref>''Yale Alumni Magazine'', October 1998, "Artist in the Backfield", by line Judith Ann Schiff</ref><ref>''New York Times'', "COLLEGE FOOTBALL: A Woeful Yale Loses to Princeton", November 16, 1997, by line William N. Wallace</ref> is older and has been played more often than the [[Harvard–Yale football rivalry|Harvard–Yale]], [[Army–Navy Game|Army–Navy]], [[Cornell-Penn football rivalry|Cornell–Penn]], [[Columbia–Cornell football rivalry|Columbia–Cornell]], [[Penn State–Pittsburgh football rivalry|Penn State–Pitt]], [[The Biggest Little Game in America|Amherst–Williams]], [[Minnesota–Wisconsin football rivalry|Minnesota–Wisconsin]], [[Old Oaken Bucket|Indiana–Purdue]], [[The South's Oldest Rivalry|UNC–UVA]], [[Deep South's Oldest Rivalry|Auburn–Georgia]], [[Big Game (American football)|Cal–Stanford]], or [[Andover–Exeter rivalry|Andover–Exeter]] football rivalries.

 

 

==Notable contests==

"And those girls in Blue! Mothers, sisters, sweethearts, their radiance is over you now. The loving worship of fair women for brave men, which preserves the courage of the human race is yours now.One and all of them would tear out their heart strings to bring you victory. Yale calls you. Where Yale calls there is no such thing as fail. Now go. Do or die like heroes and gentlemen and may the God of Battles crown the Blue with victory!" Yale won the game, 6–0.<ref>The Yale Banner 1956, pg. 129, "End of an era" by Leo Maurice Bearcat</ref>

 

 

Ives proposed successfully to Harmony Twichell after the 1905 contest in [[New Haven]].<ref>''From the Steeples and Mountains: A Study of Charles Ives'', by David Wooldridge, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, a Borzoi Book, New York, 1974, pgs. 131-2</ref> Rev. [[Joseph Twichell]], Ives's [[father-in-law]], was a member of an investigative committee, convened at the behest of the [[Harvard Board of Overseers]], to determine the extent of brutality, as well as character-building, on college and prep school gridirons post the notorious 1894 Harvard–Yale game. [[Endicott Peabody (educator)|Groton founder Endicott Peabody]] was a committee member.<ref>''Walter Camp: Football and the Modern Man'', Oxford University Press, Julie Des Jardins, pgs. 114–115</ref>

The 1949–1951 contests, each won by Princeton, featured Dick Kazmaier, the eventual winner of the 1951 Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, [[Walter Camp Award]], and [[Associated Press Athlete of the Year]]. Kazmaier received 506 first place votes (first, second and third place votes are tallied) and 1,777 total points with the second-place finisher receiving, by contrast, 42 first place votes in the balloting. Kazmaier was a double threat—to run or to pass—in the [[single wing offense]].

 

 

Kazmaier dominated the contests; he, for example, tossed three touchdown passes and ran for another touchdown in the 27–0 victory his senior season. (Earlier in the season Kazmaier and teammates crushed Harvard, 54–13.) Kazmaier won the coveted Heisman Trophy for the season.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heisman.com/mobile/index.aspx|title=The Heisman Trophy|website=Heisman}}</ref><ref>http://www.goprincetontigers.com/newd/2013/8/1/208907651.aspx {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>

 

;1979

 

At halftime [[Handsome Dan]] XII, named Bingo (and, in fact, a female pedigreed bulldog in the care of Yale professor Rollie Osterweiss), was returned to caregivers. Princeton undergrads Mark Hallam, Jamie Herbert, Rod Sheperd, and Scott Thompson posed as members of the Yale cheerleading squad and requested Bingo's appearance for publicity photographs. Osterweiss obliged the perpetrators. Bingo, adorned with an orange and black scarf, was handed off to actual Yale cheerleaders at halftime.<ref>https://blogs.princeton.edu.mudd/2016/04/kidnapping-handsome-dan-xii/ {{Dead link|date=March 2022}}</ref>

| November 13, 2021 | Princeton, NJ | Princeton | 35 | Yale | 20

| November 12, 2022 | New Haven, CT | Princeton | 20 | Yale | 24

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