The Game 138: Yale's Winning Ways

After six years performing elsewhere, including a year when the teams experimented with an appearance at Boston's Fenway Park and another year when the Ivy League responded to the pandemic by not playing in 2020, The Game in 2022 returned to old Harvard Stadium.

The stadium is old, ancient, although it is marked by a few modern amenities. That includes a loud sound system that oddly cranks out pop and rap music and thumping beats in a historic setting that evokes 1922, instead of 2022.

In the 2022 Game (Nov. 19), much was on the line. Over 30,000 filled the stadium's seats. If online ticket agencies were a clue, demand for tickets were high (topping $200 for the best seats).  Tickets for Yale students sold out within hours. 

If Harvard beat Yale, there would be the possibility of a four-way tie for the Ivy League championship. While there's joy in winning a title, nobody wants to share an Ivy trophy with four hands touching it. So while 30,000 pairs of eyes watched The Game in person and another million or so in a national televised audience, many took peeks at what was going on in Princeton, while the Tigers battled Penn. 

Captained by Westchester's own Nick Gargiulo '23, a Somers native, this Yale team got down to the business of pummeling Harvard. (Somers High won a New York state championship in Gargiulo's junior year there.) 

Led by the elusive running and dart-throw passing of quarterback Nolan Grooms '25, the Elis punched the Cantabs round by round to take a 19-14 lead with a minute to go. 

Too many Yale fans know from history that a minute left in The Game can take what appears to be several weeks. Harvard comebacks take up too many chapters in the history of The Game. Recall last year's Game (with Harvard winning in the closing seconds). Recall 1968. Recall 1974.  

Fortunately with 24 seconds to go in This Game and with Harvard hoping to stage a memorable march down the field, the desperate Harvard quarterback panicked and flung a wobbly pass. Yale's Hamilton Moore '24 grabbed it, and The 138th Game was done. Moments later, Yale students swarmed the field as the sun dipped below the rugged stadium's rims. Yale players jumped up and down on the "H" inscription at midfield.

Meanwhile, some eyes peered southward toward New Jersey to check in on Princeton. Harvard had not staged the Comeback of the Day. Penn did, as the Quakers upset Princeton with seconds to go. 

That meant Yale won't allow any other Ivy squad to touch its new championship trophy.