HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29

In this Nov. 23, 1968 photo, Harvard's Pete Varney (80) catches quarterback Frank Champis' two-point conversion pass in front of Yale's Ed Franklin (15) to tie the football game in Cambridge, Mass.

Outside of NFL Films and assorted looks at the storied programs of individual NCAA schools, where are all the football documentaries? “Rites of Autumn”, a good look at the history of college football in general comes to mind. But now we have another score.

“Harvard Beats Yale 29-29″ is the new documentary now out in wide release from director Kevin Rafferty (“The Atomic Café”).

On November 23, 1968 both Harvard and the heavily favored Yale went into their rival game undefeated. With 1:13 to go, Yale was up 29-13. Then a series of miracles or unfortunate events, depending on your rooting interest, began to unfold in obviously rapid succession. Amazingly Harvard scored twice to end the game in a tie.

The movie’s title, “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29,” comes from a celebrated Harvard Crimson headline. Rafferty while a Harvard man himself, gives a pretty balanced, if not simple presentation. Interviews with former players from both sides, most now in their 60s, are sprinkled throughout the grainy game broadcast.

The 104-minute documentary also scores with critics across the country-

              “…..the final half-hour, in particular, generates the sort of suspense you rarely get in a sports documentary, or any documentary….”

            -Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune

            ”The larger point “Harvard Beats Yale” makes, perhaps, is about the inevitability of loss. Many of these men, now in their early 60s, look terrific. Others, let us say, do not. Either way, all of them look very different from the helmeted young athletes of 40 years ago. A sense of mortality shadows the documentary.”

            -Mark Feeney Boston Globe

           ”What makes the movie so effective is that Rafferty uses game footage instead of interspersing the movie with cliched scenes of Vietnam protests, campus mayhem, etc. The effective use of this footage builds suspense, even though we know the result.”

            -Leba Hertz San Francisco Chronicle

SportandCinema’s Randy Williams interviews director Kevin Rafferty:

Where did the idea for the documentary come from?

My daughter, my only child, getting into Yale had something to do with it because it made me think about my college days. I was there at that game as an undergraduate at Harvard even though my father had played football for Yale and my grandfather had played football for Yale, was their captain in 1903 and an All-American then became their coach. I saw an opportunity to get out of that legacy syndrome. I knew that I had gotten into Harvard on my own, so I said, O.K., I’m going to Harvard.

My father was at the game sitting on the Yale side and of course I was on the Harvard side. I found him afterwards. I said ‘Dad, how’d you like the game?’ This is a guy who landed at Guam and Iwo Jima as part of the Marines. He lost friends and a brother to the war and he looked me in the eye and a with a wry grin says – ‘Worst day of my life.’

You were present at the game, how much research of the broadcast did you do before starting your interviews?

I watched it quite often. I had a play-by-play script which I had typed up, about 15-pages of what happened on each play. And I had that near by during the interviews. I had a general sense of the game, but there was all sorts of stuff that came up that I didn’t know. I didn’t know (Mike) Buscaren was involved in these penalties. Quite frankly, some of the gems in the interviews didn’t come because I asked a great question. It was simply  because I was sitting there and suddenly these guys are remembering things.

How did the actual production go overall?

It was a dream. The biggest obstacle was getting rights to the actual telecast. Once I got those I knew I could make the movie. I knew I could find the guys and knew they’d have something to say. That is an understatement.

Did you know any of the guys on the team?

I knew a couple of them. Ray Hornblower, the running back. Though I didn’t know him all that well. I played poker with Rick Berne, the defensive tackle. Vic Gatto, he was always walking around campus smiling and everybody knew him. A wonderful person.

How did you find the former players?

I got a hold of their reunion books and I just compiled them through online alumni resources and word of mouth. Of the 64 players, 61 of them said yes. I wrote them a letter and then I called them up afterwards.

One of those three out of 64 who did not participate was future great NFL running back Calvin Hill. What happened there?

That was a big disappointment. His stated reason was that he’d talked enough about this game. I’m certain he gets requests like this all the time and he didn’t know me from Adam, so fair enough.

Tell us about the production process, how did you go about conducting the interviews?

I bought a car for $4,000, a slightly dinged up 1996 Audi A4. My wife bought me a GPS. I had the best time I’ve ever had making a movie doing this movie. It was just really fun. I drove 15,000 miles. It was great. These guys were pleasant and genuine and really eager to share their memories.

From the simple format, how did the editing of this film come along?

I’ve never had a movie jump together so quickly and joyfully. The movie almost cut itself. I’ve spent years cutting a movie and this was the fastest movie I ever cut. I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning and get back at it, it was so much fun. There’s a certain sequence you’re following, a certain logic to it. Clearly one doesn’t put in a play that happens in the second half in front of a play that happened in the first. It was the political and sexual and social stuff where the choices came. How do I slip that in, that sort of material?

A starting offensive lineman for Harvard in that game, he went on to success in Hollywood as an actor – tell us about your interview with Tommy Lee Jones.

I missed him on my trip around the country. I think he was shooting “In the Valley of Elah.” He was shooting something in Louisiana. I then went through San Antonio, where he lives, because there was another player I interviewed who was there. But he was already gone. Tommy Lee always wanted to do it. It was just a question of finding him. He wasn’t in Hollywood when I was there, but finally I caught up to him in the function room of the Carlyle Hotel. That’s where that interview took place. It was the last interview I did. But it almost still didn’t happen.

Why is that?

Well, the interview started pretty badly. Both of us being in the movie business, we had a disagreement about the location of the microphone, how to attach the microphone to his shirt. He didn’t want to untuck his shirt and run it up under. He said, “That’s not necessary.” And I said, ‘that’s the way I do it.’ It was nearly over before it began.

Fortunately I won that argument and the interview got underway. I would ask him a question and he would perhaps be thinking about it. I don’t know what he was thinking about but he would stare at me for a while and then he would say something and sometimes it related to what I had asked him and sometimes it didn’t. It was really interesting, actually. Well worth the efforts to get the interview.

Whatever he said was interesting to me so I didn’t care. We went for over half an hour. After I had gone through all my questions and I said, ‘O.K., I’m done. Anything else you wish I’d asked you that I didn’t ask you?’ It is an old interviewer’s trick at the end.

And he said, ‘No, but I like hearing these stories about the game.’ So I told him a few things about his teammates. And then I told him that story about my father and Iwo Jima and worst day of my life. And that cracked him, broke the ice. Now he laughed for the first time. And then we started talking in a totally different kind of way. The interview went on for another 20 minutes.

Using your interviewer’s trick. Anything else you’d like to add about the experience of making this documentary film?

It was just so much fun. I had fun making the movie. I loved the shooting and cutting. Even driving around the country was fun. I hadn’t had a car since 1982 because you don’t need a car in Manhattan. So I bought this used car from the mid-nineties and I’m traveling the country by myself. I had my electric bike on the back of the car and I can go anywhere. It was great.

(Photo credit: Frank O’Brien file photo / Kino International)

Be Sociable, Share!

•