Today's Tidbit... When Harvard Was King

Watching the events from London this morning reminded me that we periodically see teams reign as champions for a handful of years, despite it being difficult to do. For example, back when we lacked a method of crowning champions, Harvard enjoyed a run that compares with almost anyone's, retroactively being named national champs four times in six years.

The first of those wins came in 1908, year one for Percy Haughton as Harvard's head coach. As was typical of them and the time, they opened with wins over the likes of Bowdoin, Bates, and Williams before hitting the meat of the schedule. Coming soon after the rule changes of 1906 that were to open up the game, most teams had yet to figure out how to leverage those rule changes. Harvard gave up 8 points all season while scoring only 132 themselves, scoring more than 17 points only once. Over the next eight years, they never gave up more than 36 points in a season while scoring as many as 225.

Harvard Stadium sits just off the Charles River.