For 42 years, Brian Dowling has answered questions about what happened, how it could have happened, that the Yale and Harvard football teams ended up in a 29-29 tie on that strange and fateful afternoon.

He did it again last Saturday night, sitting in the New Haven living room of Charlie Pillsbury and Allie Perry, where he was guest of honor for a dinner benefiting LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership).

You might think Dowling wouldn't want to talk about this. He was the quarterback for an undefeated and heavily favored Yale team (although Harvard was also undefeated) that with less than two minutes to play held a commanding 29-13 lead over its rival. But incredibly, Yale did not win that game.

Pillsbury was an appropriate host because of his ties to his guest. Dowling noted he was recently in a dentist's office and told a woman he had played college football but "my claim to fame is I've been a character in a cartoon strip for more than 40 years."

Dowling added, "When I said I was 'B.D,' the woman said, 'You're Brian Dowling!'"

Pillsbury connected the dots. "Garry Trudeau and I were roommates at Yale. He started doing a comic strip called 'Bull Tales' for the Yale Daily News. My nickname was 'the Doone.' 'Doonesbury' is a combination of that and my last name."

When a syndicate bought the strip, they said "Bull Tales" was "way too parochial," Pillsbury recalled. "It was going to be either 'Zonker' or 'Doonesbury.' In a weak moment, Garry chose 'Doonesbury.' "

Dowling remarked, "I was relatively conservative but not as hawkish as 'B.D.' "

Dowling, now an insurance industry consultant who works with a venture capitalist in the Boston area, is so proud of his athletic achievements that he reeled off details of a Cleveland high school basketball game where he sank the winning foul shots.

Regarding his Yale football team of 1968, he said, "We averaged 500 yards a game. We were fifth or sixth in the country in offensive yards."

Dowling also told us, "I'm the exact same weight I was 42 years ago."

Several people at the dinner seemed awestruck to be in the presence of the man who carried the nickname "God" when he was at Yale.

"Brian Dowling was my hero," said Will Ginsburg. "He still is."

Ginsburg said he "still hasn't gotten over" that game. He was 14 at the time.

Settling in to tell the story, Dowling said, "Going into senior year, I didn't think anybody could stop us. We could outscore everybody." (It helped to have Calvin Hill, later of the Dallas Cowboys, as a running back).

Although Dowling has almost total recall of his playing days, he picked up a few reminders by watching Kevin Rafferty's documentary, "Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29," which took its name from the famous Harvard Crimson headline.

The date: Nov. 23, 1968. The place: Harvard Stadium, a sell-out crowd.

Yale totally dominated the first half, leading at halftime by 22-6.

With only 1:13 left in the game, Yale was still comfortably ahead, 29-13. But the Crimson, suddenly fired-up under back-up quarterback Frank Champi, scored a touchdown.

On their first attempt at a two-point play afterward, the pass was incomplete but pass interference was called. Given a second chance, Harvard made the two points. Yale 29, Harvard 21, with 42 seconds left.

On the sideline, Dowling pleaded with Coach Carmen Cozza to put him in on defense. "He said no. He didn't want to demoralize the team that was out there."

Harvard tried an on-side kick and, unbelievably, recovered the ball. "The clock didn't start during that kick," Dowling said. "The time-keeper was too excited watching the game."

After a few more plays, with three seconds left, Harvard scored again, to trail by two. Time had expired but they went for another two-point conversion and pulled it off. Pandemonium vs. despair.

Dowling told us there were two terrible penalty calls against Yale, including "that phantom interference call." But he credited Harvard for "a terrific comeback."

"I wasn't upset," he said. "I was disappointed we ended a special career on somewhat of a sour note."

He's still irked at the reporter who approached him in the locker room and noted that since seventh grade, Dowling had never lost a game in which he had finished. "How does it feel to finally lose a game?" the scribe asked.

Dowling replied: "I thought it was a tie."

Contact Randall Beach at 203-789-5766 or