Football: The Game That Was

The days when Harvard and Yale dominated college football went out with raccoon coats and bootleg booze. Ivy League schools do not hold spring practice; they are sparing with their athletic scholarships, and they demand more than passing grades in physical education. But each fall, when Harvard and Yale clash in the climactic contest of the Ivy season, for thousands of loyal alumni—and for tradition-minded fans everywhere—the game is still The Game.

Last week, for the first time since 1909, both schools came into The Game with perfect records, and football fever blazed so high that student scalpers were getting...