Submitted by Russ and Mary Johnson
We are residents of El Encanto Tower in Coronado Shores. Russ attended Harvard College in the class of 1955 and has not attended The Game with Yale since he was an undergraduate, as we both are native Californians and Russ has, ever since college years, lived in California. This is not unusual for Harvard graduates since more of them now live in California than in any other state, including Harvard’s home state of Massachusetts and nearby New York.
The past weekend of November 18-20 both of us flew from SoCal to Boston and attended on Saturday the 19th the 133rd playing of The Game at venerable Harvard Stadium (constructed in 1903 as the world’s first concrete reinforced structure). Harvard was heavily favored to win, having won nine straight of The Games over Yale. We watched as the Harvard announcer introduced the players who were seniors and their families, including Ryan Halvorson, CHS ’13, and his parents, Navy Captain Tom and Carol. We were not in a position to see other than the group of senior players and their families, so we didn’t get a chance to see the Halvorsons individually. But we took the announcer’s word for it that they were all there present.
During the game we saw Ryan catch three passes as we could clearly see his number 85 on his jersey. As it turned out, the Yalies were much better than expected and they won 21 to 14, but the last one of Ryan’s catches was for a short yardage touchdown which resulted in Harvard tying the score at 14 apiece. It was the last Harvard touchdown of the 2016 season and the final touchdown of Ryan’s college career, as Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League does not play in postseason bowl games anymore. Incidentally, Harvard has played in one Rose Bowl game (1920 in which they defeated Oregon 7 to 6) and no other bowl games.
The Harvard website discloses that Ryan is concentrating in Engineering Science and has lived for the last three years of his college career in Mather House, one of the undergraduate Houses (most all of which, including the original Houses, are named after Presidents of Harvard). These houses were established after my years at the College during the years around the time when Harvard became coed largely by merging Radcliffe College into Harvard.
The only time I have ever met Ryan was at the Hotel Del in 2013 during the Rotary Club annual luncheon honoring the outstanding senior athletes at CHS; and he played briefly for Harvard during their win in September of that year in the first game of his freshman year at the University of San Diego stadium and Mary met and talked with his dad at the reception the night before the game and his mom briefly as we jointly entered the stadium for the game.
Although Harvard lost the game it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for us, particularly seeing the genuine enthusiasm of the fans and the general good nature of The Game and seeing Ryan and his teammates performing under such pressure so calmly and controlled. As the Harvard Magazine summarized, Ryan and his class of 2017 won 35 football games and lost only 6 during their college careers, just one win short of the record established by the classes of 2015 and 2016. So they have nothing to be ashamed of in their football legacy. The outstanding Senior player of the year as selected by the team members was James Duberg, a Chula Vista resident and graduate of Bonita Vista High School. So ancient Harvard, established in 1636, only six years after the Puritans settled in Massachusetts, has a current strong connection to the South Bay of California.
All the best to our fellow Coronadans.
Russ and Mary Johnson
