The Freshman Fishwrap / IHTFP Gallery

Harvard-Yale Game Banner

Location: Harvard Stadium
Date: 11/17/90
Group: ZBT

The Harvard-Yale game is a highlight of the football season for students and alums from both universities. Periodically, however, MIT pranksters have taken advantage of the event to generate a little amusement at the expense of both Harvard and Yale.

Half way through the third quarter of the 1990 Harvard-Yale football game, just as Yale prepared to score a field goal, a banner with the letters ``MIT'' shot out of the zero-yard line and over the goal post.

The 8.5' x 3.5' banner was concealed under the sod just inside the end zone. The banner was propelled aloft by a model rocket engine controlled by wire running under the field and into the Harvard stadium. A hacker connected the wires in the stadium to a battery pack concealed in the inner pocket of his jacket to ignite the rocket and trigger the hack -- after all, ``all tech men carry batteries!''

The next day, Boston Herald's headline read:

  MIT 1--Harvard-Yale 1
  Tech Pranksters Steal the Show

The Tech carried an article: ZBT launches rocket at Harvard-Yale game.

The Tech Talk also covered the hack with: MIT Strikes Again.

Hackers left a diagram of the mechanism with the MIT Museum.

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