At
most American colleges, football (not soccer) is a very important sport. The
oldest rivalry between college teams is that between Harvard and Yale
Universities. This year Yale won the 143rd annual game, however, two
years ago I was in the stadium to see Harvard beat Yale 35 to 3 and become the
2004 Ivy League Football Champions with an undefeated record. Things that happen
because of the rivalry, though, are often more interesting than the game.
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For
example, at the game I watched during the half-time ceremony when the
cheerleaders met according to tradition at mid-field to greet each other, one of
the Yale cheerleaders stole the large Harvard school flag, ran to the sidelines
and threw it like a javelin into the grandstand of Yale supporters who stripped
it from the pole and then taunted the Harvard side by shouting, “Where’s
your flag?
Where’s your flag?”
The
Harvard side was undaunted, merely shouting “Go, Harvard!” They were
winning, after all. The word passed around was that Harvard didn’t want the
flag back as it had been contaminated by being handled by Yale supporters. Will
there be no revenge then? We’ll see when the rivalry continues next year.
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English Academy