Confession time.  I did not attend Harvard.  I have no connection to Harvard, other than traipsing through the campus and visiting the school’s thoroughly excellent museums.  I have never set foot in a Harvard lecture hall.  I have met Harvard graduates and if I play my cards right, I might one day work there.  Somehow though, I feel a great affection for the school.

The Harvard-Yale game comes around every two years and since I first attended, I really did fall in love with the whole tradition. The whole thing is unabashed fun.  The fans are maddening and hilarious at the same time.  A couple of guys dressed up like old style Ivy League football fans with giant fur coats and knitted sweaters.  Did I mention that drank out of flasks the entire time?  Sitting behind me was whose great grandfather, grandfather and father had attended Harvard.  Whenever people say things like that around me, I always think “while my grandfather was leaving the Russian steppe.”  But anyway, those guys were pretty nice.

Next to me there were two people speaking Swedish, a guy and a girl.  I kind of understand Swedish.  Kind of.  I got the feeling the guy was trying to impress the girl but the girl wasn’t having it so he left her.  But then she got angry at him.

The funniest fan was a woman who was trying to rouse the crowd in a “let’s go Harvard” cheer that went nowhere.  She kept doing it and I started to feel sorry for her.  Harvard was winning the game at point.

Be cool and stay smooth, Tommy Lee Jones said in one of my favorite movies “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29.”  And the boys on the field at THE GAME always do that.  (Click on the photos to make them bigger):