Un/Un

Another slow day in the Dartmouth/Ivy League football newsphere so it's time for another dive into the record book in the never-ending quest to keep you entertained and enlightened ;-)

Following up on yesterday's posting about un/un (undefeated and untied) Ivy League teams since 1900, here are a few more lists:

Number of undefeated/untied teams overall since the start of official Ivy League play in 1956:

4 – Dartmouth (1962, 1965, 1970, 1996)
4 – Penn (1986, 1993, 1994, 2003)
3 – Harvard (2001, 2004, 2014)
2 – Princeton (1964, 2018)
1 – Yale (1960)
0 – Brown
0 – Columbia
0 – Cornell

Note: Harvard and Yale finished 8-0-1 in 1968.

Number of undefeated/untied teams in conference play since 1956:

8 – Penn (1984, 1986, 1993, 1994, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010)
6 – Harvard (1997, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2014)
4 – Dartmouth (1962, 1965, 1970, 1996)
3 – Yale (1956, 1960, 1967)
2 – Princeton (1964, 2018)
0 – Brown
0 – Columbia
0 – Cornell

Note: Finishing undefeated with a tie at 6-0-1 were Harvard and Yale in 1968 and Dartmouth in 1991.

Teams finishing 9-1 since the Ivy League began playing 10 games in 1980:

5 – Harvard (1997, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015)
4 – Dartmouth (2015, 2018, 2019, 2021)
4 – Yale (1981, 1999, 2007, 2017)
3 – Penn (1988, 2002, 2010)
2 – Brown (1999, 2005)
1 – Princeton (2006)
0 – Columbia
0 – Cornell

Note: Penn finished 8-1 in 2001 when Ivy teams played only nine games, and the Quakers were 8-1 again in 1984 in another nine-game season.

#

EXTRA POINT
Regular visitors to this electronic precinct have heard before about "The Squirrel," Griff the Wonder Dog's favorite toy. (OK, it's not a squirrel, but work with me here.)

At some point virtually every night while we are watching Jeopardy Griff wanders over to his toy basket and sorts through it. Some days he'll spend a few minutes trying to tip the thing over to get a better look at the offerings, although most of the time he just ends up with The Squirrel. Once he's dug it out he'll prance into the middle of the living room with it in his mouth and swing it around wildly a few times, perhaps even surprising himself by tossing it into the air. Then he'll grab it, hop up onto the couch and fall asleep with it under his chin. That whole dance often lasts no more than a minute.

Time for a story.

Back in the summer of 2020 with COVID raging and state parks shut down, Mrs. BGA and I fed our camping Jones by putting up a tent in our own side yard. That might sound pretty weak, but trust me, there aren't many campgrounds with better views and fewer neighbors.

Griff slept with us in the tent but left The Squirrel outside. In the morning it was gone, spirited off, we finally  decided, by some curious or perhaps lonely critter. (I confirmed that when I found it cutting back some brush at the end of our field a year later.)

Because it has been far and away Griff's favorite toy for most of his eight years, after the "squirrel-napping" we bought not just a replacement, but a replacement for the replacement.

With the Griff loving the last replacement literally to pieces, we're back on the lookout for a new squirrel. Or maybe three ;-)