For Tufts football, Saturday afternoon's showdown with the Bowdoin Polar Bears isn't the only thing marked on the calendar for this weekend.
Today is the 50th anniversary of perhaps the most celebrated win in the history of Tufts athletics.
On Oct. 6, 1956, the Jumbos made history by toppling heavily favored Ivy League foe Harvard, 19-13, in a game held at The Stadium in Cambridge. The Tufts squad was out for blood-the Crimson kind-and returned to Medford with one of the biggest upsets in Tufts history.
Tufts coach Harry Arlanson called it "the biggest game any of us have ever played," and the New York Times printed the score the next morning alongside scores from national powerhouses Nebraska and Ohio State.
An excerpt from a preview in the Harvard Crimson on Sept. 27, 1956, recognized the symbolic weight of a Tufts win and criticized the Harvard Athletic Department for scheduling games against team with "nothing to lose and everything to gain," rather than playing bigger local rivals like Holy Cross or Boston College:
"The defeat of Harvard would catapult the Jumbos to long-sought national notice; spread the word of their prowess to every school in the East; in short, give Tufts students a feeling of achievement they couldn't receive by winning all their other games," the article read.
Nils Wessell, president of Tufts at the time, was asked by a reporter what he thought his team's chances were against the giant down Mass. Ave. According to David Wells (LA '57), a senior co-captain of the 1956 team, Wessell responded, "Well, we'll win."
The Jumbos did just that, topping the Crimson 19-13 on Harvard's opening day. Quarterback Ralph Thompson, called "the picture of ease" in the Crimson's coverage, led the Jumbos back from an early 6-0 deficit.
A roster of 40 to 45 Jumbos took the field at The Stadium against a Harvard team that numbered over 100. But strict substitution rules in the 1950s meant that most players took the field on both sides of the ball, and that proved to be the equalizer between the two teams.
"We didn't have a special punter or special point-kicker or a field goal kicker; there were people who did that but they had to play something else, too," said Wells, who scored the final Tufts touchdown that day on a 14-yard catch in the end zone. "What it boiled down to was that our 11 beat their 11."
The Jumbos, under coach Harry Arlanson, boasted a strong running game. Coming off of 362 rushing yards in the season-opening win over Bowdoin the week before, the Tufts offense hammered the Crimson defense for 365 yards.
"Harry hated the forward pass; he called it the forward fumble, so the thing that characterized our team was the running game," Wells said. "There was one year where we led the country in running yards per game; [rushing] was Harry's game."
It may have been Arlanson's style, but it wasn't quite was Thompson had in mind with the game on the line. Wells recalled the pivotal play of the game, a trick play called by Thompson at the last minute-and without the blessing of old-timer Arlanson.
With fourth-and-long in the third quarter and the score tied 6-6, Thompson, who pulled double-duty as the team's punter, faked a punt and instead connected with senior co-captain Norman Wright.
"Ralph got the ball, made believe like he was going to kick it and threw a pass to Norman, who got the ball and ran [20] yards," Wells recalled. "That was the play where we knew we were going to win."
The gamble paid off-luckily for Thompson-and the duo finished the job five plays later as Wright scored off a pitch from Thompson at the Harvard four.
Rubbing salt in the wound, the Tufts JV team beat Harvard's JV 13-0 three days later. Not the prettiest game of Tufts football-the Jumbos fumbled six times and scraped out a win over an even-weaker Harvard second-string-but it was enough of a flourish on a game that needed none.
While the rivalry between the two programs has subsided as college football has stratified-Tufts now plays on the Div. III level while Harvard competes in Div. I-AA-there is plenty of history between the schools, which are separated by just a three-mile stretch of Mass. Ave.
According to the Tufts Athletics Department, the first game of modern football played between two college teams was the first Harvard-Tufts contest back in 1875. The Jumbos won then, too, although the different rules yielded a 1-0 score.
"[Tufts football] has a long storied tradition and history," current head coach Bill Samko said. "We talk about that stuff all the time, what it means to play here, and those who have gone before, and trying to maintain dignity. It's not a right or privilege to play here-you've got earn that stuff."
Evans Clinchy and Ethan Landy contributed reporting to this story.
