New Haven, CT - It is simply called "The Game" (always capitalized) and it has been played, since 1875, 126 times. It is the Harvard-Yale season ending football game, the oldest continuous rivalry in college football history and its third most played game. Yale has the edge with a 65-53-8 series record; however, Yale has only won The Game twice this decade, unfortunately. Yes, I said unfortunately. I'll admit it, my allegiance lies with Yale, as my son Jonathan "Jack" Ross-Harrington is a student at the Yale School of Law.

Harvard filmmaker Kevin Rafferty and Yale cartoonist Garry Trudeau signing at the Yale Bookstore tent outside the Yale Bowl.

The game has been played every year since 1875 with the exception of nine times. Four games were suspended, understandably, during the First and Second World Wars and it was not played in 1877, 1885 and 1888 for reasons I have not been able to ascertain. The Game was also not played in 1895 and 1896 after an 1894 game so brutal that a local newspaper reported that at least seven players were carried off the field "in dying conditions." This was not due to the 1892 "flying wedge formation" that was introduced by Harvard in the second half of that game and banned the following year, but the brutality of the 1894 game resulted in a total break in communications between the two schools, including all athletic competition.

Admittedly on the national scale, The Game has little significance with the emergence of the almost professional level of play at schools like Ohio State, USC and Notre Dame. The Ivy League schools do not award athletic scholarships, so the caliber of player is not nearly the same, however through 1927 Harvard had won eight national championships and Yale had won 18.

NBC Anchorman Brian Williams at his first Harvard-Yale game.

The lack of recent national ranking should by no means suggest a lack of passion in this historic rivalry. As I drove along I-95 last week heading up to this year's game at the Yale Bowl, I stopped counting the cars with Harvard or Yale window decals or bumper stickers at 27. Driving up Chapel Street in New Haven in the direction of the Bowl the sidewalks were packed with students and alumni from both schools walking to The Game. Alternating clusters of Yale blue and Harvard crimson clad sweatshirt fans shouted good natured insults at each other along the way. Each year creative commemorative tee-shirts are created by students from each school as a way to taunt the other. For example, one such Yale shirt had the likeness of President George W. Bush with the slogan, "We taught him how to party, you taught him how to destroy an economy." This was a reference to Bush's party-hardy undergraduate education at Yale and his graduate school education at the Harvard School of Business.

Another unique characteristic of this game, particularly when played in New Haven, is the abundance of English Bulldogs. Yale is credited with creating one of the first college mascots, "Handsome Dan," an English Bulldog first brought to campus by a British undergraduate student named Andrew Graves in 1889. The student body quickly adopted Handsome Dan as their mascot and this year, as tradition demands, Handsome Dan XVII was paraded across the field prior to the start of the game. The original Handsome Dan was stuffed after his death and stands sentinel in one of the trophy rooms of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium and Handsome Dan II can be viewed in the Admissions Center on the New Haven Green. I assume that the rest of the "Handsome Dan" mascots have been stuffed, but I cannot give you their exact locations.

Yale students at The Game, dressed "traditionally" to impress!

A Harvard tradition at The Game is "The Little Red Flag," an actually very large Harvard "H" pennant flag which, since 1884, has been waved along the End Zone by Harvard's "most loyal fan" after each score by Harvard during The Game. (I am not sure how the "most loyal fan" honor is determined). The Harvard cheerleader squad then drops and does push-ups based on the number of Harvard points scored.

Not "Handsome Dan" himself, but one of many English Bulldogs at The Game.

All the hoopla associated with college football is part of The Game for these two highly prestigious and storied institutions from half-time marching bands to tailgating parties. In truth there seems to be as many fans at the joint tailgating parties as there are in the stadium during the game. There appears to be no concern by the New Haven police regarding altercations between fans in the combined tailgating party area of Yale Bowl parking lot 5. As my son Jack noted, "What is the worst they have to worry about, breaking up a verbal argument in Latin or ancient Greek?"

Obviously there are lots of tweed jackets and college ties, along with more raccoon coats than one might find at the average college game this century. I chatted with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams at The Game, his first, and he noted, "It took me a long time to get here. I am a Jersey Shore kid so this part of American sports folklore is new to me, but it's great. I have already seen two grown men in fur coats." Unknowingly picking up on my son's earlier comment Williams said, "I was joking that the timeouts take longer because they over think everything."

Unfortunately, Yale definitely over thought this game because they pulled a recent Bill Belichick like move by faking a punt instead of actually punting with a three point lead at the end of the game. No, Yale did not make the first down and Harvard got the ball back within 40 yards of the end zone. Yes, Harvard went in for a score and its eighth win this decade. Ouch, very painful! However, if ever a tie could be more painful than a win, the 29-29 tie of 1968 is it and probably the most famous of all The Games.

The Harvard "Little Red Flag" waved at the winning touchdown.

In 1968 Yale was actually ranked 16th in the nation with a quarterback, Brian Dowling, who had not lost a game since sixth grade and a tackle that was Vice-President Al Gore's roommate, actor Tommy Lee Jones. Both teams were undefeated, but Yale was highly favored and expected to wipe up the field with Harvard. Like this year, Harvard rallied in the fourth quarter scoring 16 points in 42 seconds; they didn't win, but tied the game in the closing minute, no overtime in those days.

The Harvard Crimson ran a headline after the game that read "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29!" At the game this year was filmmaker Kevin Rafferty, a Harvard undergraduate in 1968, who documented that game in his 2008 film with the same title as the headline and a newly released book. Rafferty went to Harvard, but came from a family of Yale men, including his father, uncles and a grandfather who was the Yale football captain in 1903. Commenting on the impact of the game he explained, "My father was on the Yale side during the game, you have to understand he had been in the Marine Corps and landed on Guam and Iwo Jima. He lost a lot of friends and lost his brother Kevin, a bomber pilot, to the Nazis. I ran into him afterwards and asked him how he liked the game; he looked me in the eye and said, 'Worse day of my life.'"

The joint Yale-Harvard tailgating party in Yale Bowl parking lot #5.

I asked Rafferty about his motivation in making the film, "It was when my daughter decided to go to Yale. I just started thinking about the importance of that game, particularly in the midst of all the political turmoil at the time in which The Game was played. I had been tear-gassed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But here comes this football game in the midst of all this and it was unforgettable and unbelievable."

During half-time Rafferty signed his book about the infamous game he had documented at the Yale Bookstore tent at Yale Bowl gate 20. He was joined by 1968 Yale undergraduate "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau who was signing several of his own books. I asked Trudeau to comment on his recollections of The Game of 1968, "I am still recovering from my PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome]. This is a way of doing that, coming to terms with it."

The legendary Yale quarterback of the 1968 team Brian Dowling was at this year's game, the inspiration for Trudeau's cartoon strip, football helmeted character "B.D." Trudeau explained the connection between The Game and his "Doonesbury" comic strip, "The strip began actually as a sports strip for the Yale Daily News, I was riding Brian's coattails. The team was something of a phenomenon and I developed the strip in response to that. Over the summer I put together a few strips based on this character B.D., who was modeled after Brian Dowling. I took it to the Yale Daily News and it started running in late September. From there I was offered my current job upon graduation. I was essentially scouted during that fall by Universal Press Syndicate."

The Yale student section of the Yale Bowl.

The Hamptons are filled with Yale and Harvard alumni; perhaps the most beloved was George Plimpton (Harvard, Class of 1950). They know the importance of The Game, however, for those that have never experienced it I hope this article inspires you to make the trip. When played at Yale, a 20-minute drive from where the Port Jefferson/Bridgeport Ferry lands in Connecticut will take you to New Haven, from where the Orient Point Ferry lands in New London it is a two hour drive to Boston when the game is played at Harvard.

Share in the storied history and revel in the passion of The Game. If nothing else you can throw on that raccoon coat you have been hiding in the closet all these years and not feel at all out of place. Go Yale!