(See front cover)
Harvard v. Yale is not the oldest football rivalry in the U. S.* nor the most important. But few footballers would deny that its tradition outweighs that of any other game. This year the importance of Harvard v. Yale will be more genuine than usual. Both Yale and Harvard have teams which are almost as good as those which, last week, seemed to be the best in the country—Northwestern, Notre Dame, Southern California, Tulane. Yale has been beaten once, by Georgia; tied twice, by Dartmouth, Army. Harvard, unbeaten, last fortnight defeated Dartmouth 7 to 6 in a game which was almost as exciting as Dartmouth's 33-to-33 tie with Yale, a gane of which the reverberations continued last week.
This year Michigan's famed forward-passing quarterback, Benny Friedman, has been a Yale coach, showed Yale backs how to throw short, quick, flat passes. Yale has a heavy, inexperienced line and almost a plethora of seasoned, versatile backs. Best back and captain is 144-lb. Albert J. ("Albie") Booth Jr. whose father works in a New Haven gun factory.
Harvard, coached this year by one-time (1916, 1919) Halfback Eddie Casey, has a different sort of team, a team that has won most of its games by a conservative, powerful ground attack, supplemented by passes which were more popular a few years ago than they are now— long, risky forwards which need an expert passer at one end, an expert receiver at the other. Harvard's best running backs are Crickard and Schereschewsky; Nazro and Hageman are brilliant ends. But the essence of Harvard football this year, as Booth has been the essence of Yale football since his sophomore year, is William Barry Wood Jr., called "Barry" by sportswriters and "Bill" by friends.
Booth made his football reputation in the Yale-Army game of 1929. Wood made his in the Harvard-Army game a week earlier. The passes he threw at the end of that game made the score Harvard 19, Army 20. His drop kick tied the score. Michigan's Fielding Yost, onetime coach of Benny Friedman, called Wood that year the greatest passer he had ever seen. Since then Wood has often 'justified the compliment. A mediocre runner, at times an uninspired field-general, Harvard's captain has taken longer than it took Booth to achieve the status of a No. i college football hero. But now his fame and popularity are such that even the South Boston "townies," whose custom it has long been to cheer for Harvard's opponents, fill the bowl end of Soldiers Field to whoop for Harvard. Even Boston and Cambridge police are on Harvard's side.