A Weekend Away: The Game?

A couple hours into my wait to purchase a ticket for the game, I began talking to a security guard tasked with managing the crowd lined up to buy tickets. With an accusing tone, he questioned why we as a student body do not show up to Yale’s other sporting events. He grilled me on some team statistics, news of recent injuries, and the success of men’s basketball and women’s lacrosse. My responses all but confirmed his accusation — the student body doesn’t really care much for Yale athletics. He asked if, for us, the Game was merely a social event. Someone behind me in line chimed in, “Unashamedly.” The security guard was unimpressed. But what’s wrong with spurring up an otherwise irrelevant rivalry on the eve of Thanksgiving break if it makes for a good weekend? The fun of the weekend is rooted in the student body forgetting its normal stressors for a day — united by mutual Yale allegiance which, on campus, sometimes falls flat. Surrounded by Harvard students, however, Yalies feel a bit closer. The result of the Game isn’t particularly important to most of us, but the weekend really is. And that’s probably why we lined up early one Thursday morning for tickets.