Yale defends the belt, 1–0, on the road at Harvard.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Yale came in 723 days into reign #3, which began with a win over Princeton, with 9 defenses already behind it; this was its 10th defense. It was the last defense: Princeton took the belt in the very next belt game, on November 28, 1878.
For Harvard this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
It was the first of 20 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Yale leads 12–6–2. Every meeting →
About this game
Yale traveled to Harvard on November 23, 1878, in week 6 of the regular season. Harvard won 1-0. Yale, the defending belt holder, retained the belt with the victory.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 89) · This game in the downloadable dataset