Yet even with his aching feet securely planted behind the line of scrimmage, Fitzpatrick defied logic time and again.

A 79-yard game-capping touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Brian Edwards on a mistaken play, for example. Or the fact that on top of the injuries he entered the game with, Fitzpatrick was also sacked three times. You could almost feel the crowd wincing with every hit.

And still somehow, miraculously, he got back up again.

The pregame decision to take that field with the help of some tape and a brace remained unyielding. Fitzpatrick was a man with a mission that day, and no mere corporal hindrance was going to keep him from going out there.

Above all, he had a very special crowd to please.

“I had struggled through the last half of the season—broken hand, shoulder, ankle, knee,” Fitzpatrick acknowledged, “but what was more of a thrill was to have my family all there to watch, all together.”

His younger brother was seeing him play in college for the first time, and that along with his duty to the seniors and the rest of his teammates was more than enough to trump a simple thing like logic.

Harvard fans couldn’t believe their eyes.

But they could believe in their quarterback when he said, simply, “There was no way I wasn’t gonna be on the field that day.”

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.