Since Dartmouth's first game with Yale, 110 years ago, the Big Green has been haunted by the Yale jinx -- which Dartmouth has only broken a few times in the past century.
In 1884, a highly outclassed Dartmouth football team played its way into the largest defeat ever recorded in the New England University Division against the Elis.
The 113-0 defeat began the 78-game rivalry between the two most successful teams in the Ivy League.
Despite having many great teams since that first game, Dartmouth did not record a single victory against Yale until 1935.
"The victory was a rite of passage...The Students placed a Yale jinx gravestone on the Hanover Green," notes David Shribmann '76 in "One Hundred Years of Dartmouth Football." That year Coach Earl Blaik even asked then College President Earnest Hopkins to make a bonfire of one of the Dartmouth buildings.
Since 1884, many other games have gone down in the record books for more positive reasons.
In one of the more exciting games,back in 1931, Yale's Albie Booth scored three touchdowns in the first half. He began his scoring by returning a Dartmouth kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. He also scored a touchdown on a 23-yard pass-reception.
Booth ended the half by scoring on a 55-yard run from scrimmage, giving Yale a 26-10 lead at the half.
But the determined Dartmouth team rallied to come back in the second half behind the extraordinary play of several team members.
William McCall '32 scored on a 93 yard kickoff return and a 65-yard interception return. After blocking a Yale punt, Ward Donner '32 picked up the ball and ran 40 yards to score another touchdown.
With only a few moments left, Dartmouth kicker and quarterback Todd Morton '32 kicked a 43-yard field goal to tie the game 33-33. However, the jinx went on.
Four years later at the Yale Bowl, Dartmouth recorded its first ever victory against the Eli's. Frank "Pop" Nairne '36 led the Dartmouth team past Yale, scoring the only offensive touchdown for Dartmouth.
In the final moments with Dartmouth leading 7-6, Yale quarterback Jerry Roscoe tried a desperate heave from deep within his own goal.
The pass was intercepted by Carl "Mutt" Ray '37, who then ran the ball back for a touchdown, effectively sealing a Dartmouth victory and forever vanquishing the Yale jinx.
The mystique around the Dartmouth-Yale game plagued many successful Yale and Dartmouth teams since 1935.
In 1959, an unbeaten Yale team was defeated by a 4-1 Dartmouth team. The favor was returned in 1967, when Yale trounced an unbeaten Dartmouth team 56-15.
The jinx played no part in last year's meeting between the two teams, as Dartmouth rolled over the Bulldogs 31-14.
Jay Fiedler '94 rose to the occasion during last year's game thrice converting on fourth downs in the second half. Those conversions led to two touchdowns and helped Dartmouth pull away from the encroaching Bulldogs.
The game became a turning point in the Big Green's season. After the Yale victory, they shook off a 2-3 record overall to end the season in second place behind the undefeated Quakers.
This year Yale coach Carm Cozza will bring the 2-0 Bulldogs up to Hanover for another meeting of the two most successful teams since the formal inception of the Ivy league.
"It should be an exciting game," said Cozza said. "When I first came here everyone told me that the alumni wants to beat Harvard, the faculty wants to beat Princeton and the players want to beat Dartmouth."
