Ivy League Team's Victory a Thriller

Occasionally I'm asked what was the most exciting football game I ever covered for The New York Times. I surprise questioners by revealing it wasn't a professional game, nor one played by Big Ten collegiate teams. My answer has always been a little-noticed, non-league contest played in 1981 by Yale and Holy Cross on the latter's gridiron in Worcester, Mass.

The Elis won 29-28. It was a game in which the lead changed hands three times in the final minutes. It was decided by a 32-yard field goal by Yale's Tony Jones with 35 seconds left to play. At the end of the first half, the Elis had seemed to be outclassed, trailing 17-7.

My answer is usually received with surprise. After all, Yale no longer has the powerhouse squads it fielded in the early 20^th century. In that era, most Ivy League teams ruled the intercollegiate roost for spectator interest.

In the 1930s, more than 60,000 would overflow the Yale Bowl in New Haven for the game pairing the Elis with Dartmouth. The annual Harvard-Yale match-up always drew capacity crowds. But that was before athletic scholarship programs at the Ivies were reduced drastically.

I was reminded about the details of that exciting Yale-Holy Cross game recently, while thumbing through my old clippings.

Mindful of my paper's early deadline at that time, I already had written four paragraphs about a Holy Cross victory when Jones produced his winning kick.

Just about everyone, I believe, except for Carmen Cozza, the Yale coach, had given up on the Elis' chances for victory. Jones previously had missed two of four attempts at field goals. With no timeouts left, the Yale kicker was being asked to score this one on third down.

He was equal to the occasion. His kick went soaring over the middle of the crossbar with distance to spare. His effort, coming as late in the game as it did, seemed to leave Holy Cross' players and fans in a state of shock. Small wonder!

The game had been a cliffhanger. Holy Cross' Crusaders began the second half with a lead. But Yale rallied and gained a 26-25 advantage with 3:21 left to play. An 18-yard field goal by Holy Cross' Tony Melink, however, returned the home team to the lead at 28-26. It seemed to cinch the victory - until Yale's winning kick from Jones.

That day had provided highly entertaining Ivy League games by six other schools. Brown had defeated Pennsylvania 26-24; Princeton had topped Columbia 21-14; and Harvard had turned back Cornell 27-10. A 14-point scoring spree within a 125-second span in the third quarter had made Harvard's victory one-sided.

In contrast, I had noted that on that same afternoon, there were quite a few lopsided contests played by major conference teams. Penn State defeated Boston College 39-7; Purdue turned back Illinois 44-20; and North Carolina crushed Wake Forest 48-10.

I usually have enjoyed watching Ivy League games more than games between so-called "biggies." In my book, bigger was not always better.