Hilarious prank: The day MIT won the Harvard-Yale game

crimsonaudio

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I love series like these.

Patrons at a small bar in Pocatello, Idaho, were a bit confused as to why a stranger showed up intent on watching the Harvard-Yale football game one day in 1982. He tried to explain, but no one really paid much attention until he offered to buy all the beer.

Had they been listening, they might not have believed him. He was only there because he received a cryptic phone call that consisted of just three words: "Watch the game."

Still, the message was received. There was only one reason he could have received such a strange call: After four years, plans for an elaborate prank he helped design as part of a group of MIT students -- to this day only willing to identify themselves publicly as the Sudbury Four -- had been put into motion.

The mission: to bury a weather balloon beneath the grass at Harvard Stadium and then inflate it during the middle of the game.

By the time the game was over, he was the one drinking for free.

The day MIT won the Harvard-Yale game
 

GrayTide

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I loved this type ingenuity done with humor and no harmful intent, but as stated in the article, something like this in today's world would get the perpetrators a visit to the slammer and, probably all kinds of lawsuits.
 

Probius

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I'm sure they couldn't have gotten away with that today, and I think we've lost something because of that. This story harkens back to a time where people weren't so uptight, which is what made it so fun and refreshing for me.
 

Ole Man Dan

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MIT had a reputation for frats pulling elaborate stunts.
MIT managed to look the other way, and gloried in the achieved stunts.

In the late 60s I had a genius Cousin who was a MIT frat boy.
(Didn't end well for him... Died from an OD)
RIP TNM)
 

RT27

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This reminds me of an old story, not sure if it is true. But supposedly Aubs way back in the day greased the rail road tracks so when a visiting team came to town the train slid way down the tracks. They had to walk a long way back to town, hence tiring them out for the next days game.Again this was way back and I heard it from an old guy, not sure if true, but if it is that is funny stuff. I miss things like this.
 

Elefantman

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This reminds me of an old story, not sure if it is true. But supposedly Aubs way back in the day greased the rail road tracks so when a visiting team came to town the train slid way down the tracks. They had to walk a long way back to town, hence tiring them out for the next days game.Again this was way back and I heard it from an old guy, not sure if true, but if it is that is funny stuff. I miss things like this.
My understanding is they did that to Ga Tech.
 

TitleWave

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I was told at the time that a kid from Anniston was up to his pocket protector in all of this.
Just a l'il quibble with the article's noting that MIT "didn't even have a football team." Actually, they were up to their hip pads in DIII status as "the MIT Beavers" (technically the MIT Engineers but le castor being their mascot, thus the Beavers), and play at the decently, and relatively recently ('78) ennobled Henry G(eorge) Steinbrenner '27 Stadium. The "self-inflicted" pranks I've seen over the years far outstrip what went down (or up) at The Game in '82.
 

crimsonaudio

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Just a l'il quibble with the article's noting that MIT "didn't even have a football team." Actually, they were up to their hip pads in DIII status as "the MIT Beavers" (technically the MIT Engineers but le castor being their mascot, thus the Beavers), and play at the decently, and relatively recently ('78) ennobled Henry G(eorge) Steinbrenner '27 Stadium. The "self-inflicted" pranks I've seen over the years far outstrip what went down (or up) at The Game in '82.
Looks like the article was correct:
"The MIT Engineers football represent the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the sport of American football. The student body of MIT voted to eliminate varsity football from their program in 1900 by a vote of 117-113. The university did continue to field sophomore and freshman football teams into the 1920s. The last game played against another university was the MIT sophomore team against the Harvard freshman team in 1901. It was reinstated as a club sport in 1978, and as a varsity sport in 1988."
 

RedWave

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Best part is that the fraternity was on probation at the time. When the head of MIT called them up and asked and they confessed it was them (worrying that it might cause more trouble, but more concerned about getting caught in a lie), he let them off probation instead. Those really were better days.
 

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