Eleven crimson and eleven silver flecks of light danced under an indigo mist in the lurid last minutes of a Harvard-Brown game that held 23,000 at Harvard Stadium entranced on Saturday afternoon.

In the bewitching blur the ball was hurriedly snapped, placed down and kicked, rising into the twilight and fading out to the left of the goalposts standing like twin beacons in the gloom. Harvard kicker Gary Bosnic had missed a 30-yd. field goal with 1:14 left in the game and now Brown was assured of a 31-30 victory in a struggle that eddied back and forth between two evenly matched teams.

The margin of victory came on a two-point conversion with 4:11 left in the game, after Brown had scored a touch-down to trail, 30-29. On the decisive play, quarterback Mark Whipple faked a dive play up the middle, rolled to his right, and flipped to Rick Villella just inside the endzone flag.

Both teams played with a cold, relentless fury which produced some of the supreme individual efforts in recent Harvard football history. Quarterback Larry Brown completed 16 of 29 passes for 260 yards to break Jim Kubacki's old record of 2218 career passing yards. Brown threw two touchdown passes on the day and also sashayed for 74 yards on the ground.

Running back Ralph Polillio ran for 89 yards--67 of which came in the second half--caught six passes for 98 yards, and pranced 28 yards for Harvard's final touchdown. Receivers John MacLeod, Rich Horner, and tight end Paul Sablock combined for eight receptions, almost all of them coming in crucial situations.

Second Half Lightning

At the end of the first half the score stood Harvard 7, Brown 3. It was little more than a prelude to the sublime second half. In the fourth quarter alone the Crimson stormed for three consecutive touchdown drives and then marched all the way down to the Brown 12-yd. line to set the stage for Bosnic's do-or-die attempt.

The first half saw plenty of scoring opportunities, but miscues prevented either team from marshalling a concerted offense. There were seven fumbles in the half alone and 15 penalties.

The Crimson received an early setback when Brown laced a bomb to Horner, who was all by himself in the endzone, but the normally sure-handed receiver dropped the ball. Harvard was able to recoup quickly, however, as Brown then hit Sablock over the middle at the eight to make it first-and-goal.

On the next play, Brown drew a bead on John MacLeod, who was sandwiched between three defenders in the endzone, and threw a perfect scoring strike with a little over four minutes left in the first quarter.

The Bruins had to settle for a single field goal midway through the second quarter as the visitors coughed up three fumbles in a 12-minute span.

So Tough

A tough Crimson goal-line stand kept the Bruins out of the endzone, as Chuck Durst wrapped up Bruin back Rick Villella like an overgrown anaconda snake for a third-down loss at the two-yard line. Tad Barrows then came on to kick the 21-yd. chip shot.

Harvard had one more scoring chance before the sands ran out on the half, but came up empty-handed when halfback Jon Hollingsworth fumbled at the Brown seven with 18 seconds remaining.

The second half began inauspiciously for the Crimson when, on the first play from scrimmage at the Harvard four-yard line, Brown (the QB) threw a dainty screen pass intended for Polillio. The toss was picked off by linebacker John Woodring, who lumbered seven yards down the left sideline for the score that put Brown ahead, 10-7.