Students Get Naked at the Harvard-Yale Football Game to Continue a Weird 40-Year Tradition

The "Saybrook Strip" tradition for Yale students dates back to the 1970s.

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The annual matchup between Harvard and Yale is one of the nation's oldest rivalries dating back to 1875. Simply known as "The Game" among students and alumni of both Ivy League schools, this is a tradition that gathers one-percent elitists, CEOs, executives of Fortune 500 companies, wealthy Wall Street denizens, state legislators, and congressmen, and maniacal students.

The contest was played at Harvard Stadium where approximately a dozen Yale students carried on an odd tradition of getting naked at the game. The tradition, known as the "Saybrook Strip" delayed the kickoff as these crazy students jumped on the wall along the field to "hang out" in front of the crowd. If you want to look, this is NSFW.

Neither rain, nor snow, nor the harsh New England weather can prevent another nude Yale tradition. For decades, the Saybrook Strip has entertained and shocked fans of Ivy League football. It began in the 1970s, when a single Saybrook student mooned the opposing fans at the Harvard-Yale game. The next year, some of his friends joined him. In the decades since these intrepid acts of anti-Harvard (or anti-clothing) rebellion, the Saybrook Strip has become a fixture at every Yale football game.

Police eventually intervened to make the students put some clothes on and stop acting like the were in the Garden of Eden instead of the fact they were sharing space with over 30,000 fans.  

According to the Yale Daily News, the "Saybrook Strip" is a yearly rite of passage conducted by Yale's Saybrook residential college that has been going on for at least 40 years.

Since Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale pride themselves on really weird traditions, you can bet that the strip is here to stay for generations to come.

The Bulldogs beat the Crimson 21-14, ending Harvard's 10-year win streak (no pun intended) over them.

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