The title of the film . . .
The title of the film comes from a headline in the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson which read "Harvard beats Yale 29-29" explaining the come from behind tie.
“To accept injustice is cowardice.” ---Gandhi
But they didn't actually beat them. So what does it mean?
sharePerhaps its a 'Harvard thing' but from watching the film, its seems that Harvard wasn't expected to do as well as they did, so Harvard saw it as a victory.
“To accept injustice is cowardice.” ---Gandhi
It's mostly psychological. As an avid football fan (Tennessee Vols), some of our bitterest 'losses' were games in which we had a big lead and the opponent came back to tie the game by the end, just as in Harvard-Yale. And some of the sweetest 'wins' were games in which we were behind, and scored in the final seconds to end the game in a tie.
shareThe title is from the headline of the Harvard newspaper article after the game, a clever way of describing the game in a headline, as only the Ivy League writers could do.
Since this is a documentary there are no spoilers; Yale was heavily favored with two stars with pro futures, Calvin Hill and Brian Dowling and had a substantial 16-point lead with one-minute to go. Yale fans were already celebrating the win over their arch-rivals and the outcome was a foregone conclusion. In order to tie, Harvard had to score two touchdowns and go for two points each time in one minute. The fact that Harvard came back and tied the score was incredible and is considered an incredible feat and a victory of sorts, while Yale had to consider the game a loss, since they were heavily favored and 59 minutes into the game were ahead by two touchdowns.