Background
A little competition is actually a good driving force for
positive development. However the competition that goes on between Harvard and
Yale is quite traditionally significant.
Harvard and Yale are both historic colleges that have been
around for a long time, which is another reason to this somewhat friendly and
fierce battle of the Ivy’s.
Both are very prestigious schools, and both think they're
better than each other. They both have secret societies such as Skull and Bones
and have a history of Presidents and other leaders of America. Both are highly
respectable colleges that are almost always named in the yearly list of best
colleges in college rankings year after year. What makes them prestigious is
how elite they are, as they are a couple of the hardest schools to get into
period.
And every year, the hard-working students of Harvard and
Yale shut their books for a weekend and loosen up by tailgating, watching
football, enjoying the tradition of the 129-year rivalry—and oh yes, pulling
pranks.
We Suck
The 2004 Harvard–Yale prank was a practical joke performed
on November 20, 2004, at the annual Harvard–Yale football game in which Yale
students, costumed as a Harvard "pep squad," perpetrated a card
stunt. They gave out placards to a section of Harvard fans which, when raised
together, read "WE SUCK."
The stunt was conceived and coordinated by Michael Kai and
David Aulicino, two Yale students in the Class of 2005, and was executed with
the help of 20 classmates. Disguised as the "Harvard Pep Squad," the
perpetrators handed white and crimson placards to fans—mostly Harvard alumni,
with a few faculty, students, and others—in the central area of the Harvard
side of the stadium. The group told the crowd that by lifting the placards they
would spell "GO HARVARD."
Most Harvard students, sitting in a section off to the side
of the alumni area where the prank was executed, left the stands unaware of the
prank; however, players on the field did see the placards. Harvard won the
game, 35–3.
Other pranks
The outstanding prank, mentioned above was not the only, and
even not the first practical joke which was carefully perpetrated by elite
students, and the Game has long provided an opportunity for pranksters to make
their mark on the rivalry. For example, the Harvard Lampoon kidnapped Handsome
Dan II, Yale’s mascot, prior to the 1933 Game. Photographs later showed the
bulldog licking the feet of the John Harvard Statue (after slabs of meat had
been smeared on them).
In 1961, The Crimson handed out a parody of The Yale Daily
News indicating that President John F. Kennedy ‘40 would be at the game in New
Haven. At The Game, Robert Ellis Smith ‘62, the President of The Crimson, wore
a mask of the President and walked across the field, flanked by “Secret
Service” agents, as the Harvard Band played “Hail to the Chief.” Reportedly,
thousands of spectators were fooled.
In 1992, when the Harvard Band tried to “X-out” the Yale
Precision Marching Band as it stood in its “Y formation,” the Yale Band quickly
moved into a large “H formation” as the Harvard band approached so that Harvard
X-ed itself out.
Harvard and Yale are not the only schools to join in on the
fun, though, as MIT has famously pulled several pranks at The Game and stolen
the show.
In 1982, during a timeout, a group of MIT students launched
an enormous weather balloon from beneath the turf at the 46-yard line, using a
remote triggering system. After hanging in the air for a few moments so the
crowd got a good look at the letters "MIT," the balloon eventually
exploded.
Eight years later, a new generation of hackers tried to
repeat their predecessors' success: during the 1990 Harvard-Yale game, as a
kicker prepared for a field goal, a rocket at the goal line exploded out of the
ground, shooting a blanket-sized banner emblazoned with the words
"MIT." The rocket was launched using 480 feet of wire that ran underneath
the field. A headline the next day in the Boston Herald read, "MIT 1 —
Harvard-Yale 0; Tech Pranksters Steal the Show." In 2006, MIT students
replaced the “VE-RI-TAS” logo on the Harvard Stadium scoreboard with
“HU-GE-EGO.”
These pranks—even when perpetrated by students from other
schools—have undeniably become an integral part of The Game and the
Harvard-Yale rivalry.
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