Harvard scores two first half tries to defeat Yale 12-3

In a hard fought battle, Harvard scored twice in the first half, then held on to defeat Yale in this classic rivalry 12-3. Harvard and Yale will meet again this fall before the football matchup.

Cambridge Mass.  - In a low scoring affair, Harvard led Yale 12-0 at halftime on tries by de La Cal and Cummins, and a de La Cal conversion.

Yale’s only points came on a second half penalty goal by Vandersloot.

Harvard 12
Tries: de La Cal, Cummins
Conv: de La Ca

Yale 3
Pen: Ryan Vandersloot

Yale Tweets

Harvard strikes first with a try in the corner and converts 7-0
Half hour in and yale's kept the ball in their half all day.
Harvard scores again just before half on a fluke mistake. 12-0

Half: Harvard 12 - Yale 0

2nd half starts 12-0 to Harvard.
Vandersloot slots a penalty from 30 yards out in front of the posts to make it 12-3.
After a lot of back and forth the game ends 12-3 to Harvard.

Final: Harvard 12 - Yale 3

Harvard v. Yale rugby was played this evening just outside Harvard's football stadium. The match in 1875 is often sited as the beginning of American Football. As rugby becomes more popular, especially in the Ivy League, many begin to realize that it was rugby that started and eventually continued in the schools of America.

1875-The First Game

In 1875 came an event that contributed greatly to the shape of football as it developed in the United States. Harvard challenged Yale to a game under "Concessionary Rules" and thus inaugurated one of the most celebrated of all U.S. football rivalries.

The game was played in November 1875 at New Haven, Connecticut, and was part rugby and part soccer. The two teams played with 15 players on a side instead of 11 as Yale would have preferred, and Harvard won by 4 goals and 4 tries, or touchdowns, to none.

Despite its decisive defeat, Yale was so taken with rugby that it became a convert and adopted the rules. Observers from Princeton who saw the game also were won over to rugby, and in 1876 representatives of Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia organized the Intercollegiate Football  Association. They adopted the code of the Rugby Football Union with a change in the scoring rule--instead of a match being decided by a majority of goals alone, it was decided by a majority of touchdowns. The egg-shaped leather ball replaced the round rubber ball of soccer. Rugby thus became the American college football game.