Andrew Fischer was all alone at the Yale 35, a few feet inside his own sideline, a clear path to the end zone ahead, no defender in sight.
It was Harvard’s first play from scrimmage in the first quarter. Senior Conner Hempel, seeing his first action in three weeks, zipped a nice ball for his fleet-footed 5-foot-9-inch, 170-pound junior receiver. Fischer dropped the ball.
“First play of the game, nerves are obviously a big factor there,” said Fischer, who emerged as the Crimson’s big-play receiver with senior Ricky Zorn (hamstring) unable to go the first nine games of the season.
“It was really windy.” And as Hempel later noted, on the chilly, dry day, the ball was pretty slippery.
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“As soon as that play was over, I forgot about and went on with the game plan. My coach said, ‘settle down.’ ” He sure did.
Fischer had a career-high 264 yards, including 149 and a pair of TDs on eight receptions, in Harvard’s 31-24 win.
He caught the winning 35-yard TD with 55 seconds left, and he was also on the receiving end of a 40-yard option pass for a score from wideout Seitu Smith in third quarter.
“The last game of the season, you always bring out all the plays, plays we worked on all year, this was the game to bring them all out,” said Fischer.
“He’s a great player, a shifty guy, and he made plays when he needed to,” said Yale linebacker Charles Cook.
Fischer finished the year with 55 catches for 677 yards and four TDs.
Zorn (team-leading 50 catches last season) was the last senior to be introduced. He made his return to the field in the first quarter and snared one reception along the Harvard sideline.
Classmate Ryan Jones had his second blocked punt in three weeks, getting a hand on a bid by Bryan Holmes in the first quarter to set up Andrew Flesher’s 25-yard field goal.
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Markus makes it
Bill Markus (Harvard, Class of ’60) and his wife, Carole, arrived in town Friday, after an early morning flight (3 a.m. wake-up call) from their home in Pittsburgh. Acknowledged as the Crimson’s most loyal fan, attending every football game home and away (junior varsity too), he proudly carried the Little Red Flag of 1884, a tradition started, and continued for 59 years, by Frederick Plummer (Class of 1888). Markus now has a 14-year streak going.
“When you live in Pittsburgh, you never have a home game,” said Markus, nattily bundled up in Crimson attire, with a chuckle. As an undergrad, he was the team manager for indoor track and lacrosse. “I was not an athlete,” he emphasized, though he did play club lacrosse for 13 years, post-college. “Worst player ever.”
Friday was an exciting day for Markus and Bob Glatz, executive director of the university’s Varsity Club, who have overseen the production of the third H book, the history of Harvard athletics (spanning 1963-2012). The two-volume tome, covering nearly 1,400 pages, was published Friday.
Markus will fly home after the Crimson’s annual breakup dinner Monday night.
Quite a crew
2013 Harvard captain Josh Boyd, the pride of Hyde Park, was back at the Stadium this week, on the job. Since graduation, the former all-Ivy linebacker has worked in the operations department at ESPN, and was working with the production crew setting up Saturday morning’s “College GameDay” telecast. He was joined by ex-teammate Treavor Scales, who sealed the Crimson’s 34-24 victory in 2012 with a 63-yard gallop down the right sideline. He has been at the network for a little over a year. “It’s really unbelievable, the season Harvard has put together,” said Boyd, alongside the GameDay set . . . After wrapping up their “GameDay” duties, and thawing out, broadcast host Chris Fowler and analyst Kirk Herbstreit headed straight to the airport to call the Missouri-Tennessee SEC matchup in Knoxville. Their colleague, Lee Corso, pulled on a Bulldog head at noon, signifying his allegiance for the day with Yale . . . Rafe Chapple, the fourth of the Alpharetta, Ga., Chapple boys to suit up for a college football program, joining Lee (QB/Northern Alabama), Colton (QB/Harvard), and Jared (TE/Georgia), is a freshman quarterback at Yale . . . Concord’s John Norton, a former Harvard statistician, was in attendance for his 67th consecutive Harvard-Yale game. He’s witnessed 332 straight home games . . . Yale leads the series, 65-58-8 . . . H-Y 2015 is Nov. 21, in New Haven . . . Dartmouth, whose only losses were to Harvard and UNH (nonleague), finished second in the Ivy . . . It was the third unbeaten season for Harvard under Tim Murphy.
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Craig Larson can be reached at clarson@globe.com.