Today's Tidbit... A Bad Loss and a Bonus

The 1915 Brown Bruins were 4-2-1 coming off a victory over Yale, helping Yale earn its first losing season in the forty or so years football had been played, so the boys from Providence had reason to be optimistic heading into their game at Harvard the following week. Led by all-everything Fritz Pollard and future Hall of Fame coach Wallace Wade, the Bruins hoped to put a scare into the Bostonians, if not return home victorious.

An usher’s ribbon from the 1915 Harvard-Brown game. (Personal collection)

However, Harvard was unconcerned with the matchup. Harvard's head coach, Percy Haughton, scouted the Yale-Princeton game rather than oversee his team’s contest with Brown. In addition, Harvard started only two regulars against Brown to rest the starters for the season-ender with Yale the following week.

Unfortunately for Brown, Harvard scored after Pollard fumbled on his own eight, and the Johnnies also scored via a scoop and score to win the game 16 to 7.

Despite the loss to Harvard, Brown picked up a fifth win over Carlisle two weeks later. At 5-3-1, Brown was considered the best Eastern team whose faculty was open to its players traveling to Pasadena over the holidays to reinvigorate the playing of football as part of the Tournament of Roses Festival.

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