Harvard-Howard Football Game Brings HBCUs and Ivy League Together in Rare Event -

Harvard recovers a fumble by Howard during a game at Audi Field. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)

When the call went up, “H-U,” with that last syllable dragging for emphasis, there was no confusion in the stands. Howard University may have been facing Harvard University on the field, but it was the Bison sitting inside Audi Field who immediately responded, “You know!” — again, holding on to that final syllable.

That was just one of the nuances Howard was able to share at the Truth and Service Classic against Harvard on Saturday afternoon. The meeting was just the fifth time an HBCU has played an Ivy League team in football, according to the Ivy League.

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Howard has been part of three of those games, all occurring in the past four years. Harvard hosted in 2019, and the Bison traveled to face Yale last week. The recent push to get Ivy teams on the schedule has not been random.

The Crimson cruised in the second half to a 41-25 victory in the Truth and Service Classic.

“It is a conscious decision that we’ve made in all of our sports, not just football, to play games against members of the Ivy League,” Howard Athletic Director Kery Davis said Friday. “Ivy League schools are traditionally really strong academically, and Howard’s a very strong academic school, and we wanted people to make that association and understand the importance of athletics as part of the overall institutional curriculum.

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SOURCE: The Washington Post, Kareem Copeland