Harvard&ndash;Yale soccer rivalry

Harvard–Yale soccer rivalry

The Harvard-Yale soccer rivalry is a rivalry between Harvard University and Yale University. The men's series has been played regularly since 1907, except for interruptions during World War I, the Spanish flu, World War II, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The women's series has been played regularly since 1977. The soccer rivalry between the two schools has been compared to the association football rivalry between Cambridge University and Oxford University.
History
The soccer rivalry between Harvard and Yale is part of the larger rivalry, both athletically and academically, between the two universities. The two schools are amongst the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States, and amongst the most prestigious schools in not only the United States, but in the world. The rivalry itself is also due to the school's proximities to each other, their competition for prospective students, and the rivalries in other sports between the schools, particularly the gridiron football rivalry and the annual Regatta.
Early years
The early history of the soccer rivalry between the men's sides dates back to the 1870s, and is intertwined with the evolution of gridiron football and rugby union as sports. The two schools finally played each other in 1875, after Yale, which had been following soccer rules, agreed to play according to the rugby-style rules adopted by Harvard, and lost, 4-0.
From 1906 to 1925, both Harvard and Yale participated in the Intercollegiate Soccer Football League (ISFL), which included several East Coast colleges that would later be part of the Ivy League. During that period, Yale and Harvard each won the ISFL championship twice, based on their win-loss records for those seasons.
Annual sports weekend
Through the 1980s, the Harvard-Yale men's soccer game was "a big part of the schools' traditional sports weekend" in November. In 1931, the annual Harvard-Yale soccer day took place on the Harvard Business School Field, with matches between their varsity, junior varsity, and freshman teams. Starting in 1935, the Yale and Harvard intramural soccer teams also began playing each other on the Friday before the main varsity gridiron football game.
In 1960, the The Boston Globe suggested that the Harvard-Yale soccer game might be a bigger draw than the annual freshman football game for the first time, due to the popularity of Christian Ohiri, a Nigerian international who played for Harvard. In 1962, Sports Illustrated reported that the largest crowds on the Friday before The Harvard-Yale Game were at the soccer game and at the freshman football game, with approximately 3,500 people attending each.
In 1965, Yale defeated Harvard 6-3 in its first win against Harvard in soccer since 1956; they had tied in 1960. Future United States senator John Kerry, then a Yale senior, scored a hat-trick,
In the late 1970s, the two women's programs were among the first women's college soccer teams in the United States. In 1985, The New York Times reported that although Harvard won the annual varsity soccer game, 4-1, Yale won the junior varsity soccer game, as well as the Edward S. Harkness Cup for winning all four matches between the two schools' intramural champions in men's soccer, women's soccer, tackle football, and touch football.
As of 2022, the two schools in men's soccer have met 107 times.
Men's results
Source:
Women's results
Source:

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu