The Press Box Scam.

We almost always  went into New Haven in the fall, Saturdays mostly, and that was almost exclusively to go the football games at Yale Bowl. Well, in truth, the football games were dessert from the legendary Tail Gating Party. It was like a gourmet buffet sitting out on the tailgates of Ford Country Squire wagons and the food was just incredible. Eggs Benedict, grilled ham and cheese, fried chicken and buns and rolls and cinnamon everything. And no telling who you'd run into. Governor of Ct., Lowell Wicker, Walter Pigeon... and it was just plain fun. The air was cool and crisp, everyone was happy and smiling and waving to each other, just flat out almost perfect Saturdays. Everyone would have some food, some hot cocoa and some Bloody Mary's and stroll across to watch the game. There are 8 Ivy League colleges and they played football against each other every year. All in the same order. Every single year. 2nd week, Harvard, week 3, Columbia. Yale bowl is huge, it can seat over 80,000, it's impressive to say the least. The highest portion of Yale Bowl other than the lights and scoreboard was the Press Box. It sat perched above the crowds and field on the 50 yard line and was pretty good sized. It had an aisle towards the back for members of the press to walk up and down without getting in front of anyone and potentially blocking some reporters view to a historic moment in Ivy League Sports History and a rail. Down a few steps towards the front there was a row of seats and desks and then right at the very front were the seats for the various incarnations of Scoop Newsworthy, Ace Reporter. At one end of the press box sat a table that had a huge pile of incredibly delicious sandwiches, and against the wall they had thermos dispensers of coffee and hot chocolate and chicken soup. And it wasn't 7-11 snacks, it was ridiculously good food and the hot cocoa was just... perfect. On any given Saturday there were perhaps on the high side of 50 people in the press box. It was an exclusive club as well, if you didn't have a Press Box Pass hanging around your neck with the number of the week and the name of the Ivy League team you were playing surrounded by a huge red circle you didn't get into the Press Box, No Way.

I usually went with the Goulds and Todd and I noticed a flaw in the system. The Press Box Passes looked the same every single year. The sequence of games  and the corresponding number of the week were the same. The Press Box Passes year after year looked exactly the same, the only variation being the date of the game, which was printed in probably at that time the smalled font available to nearby commercial printers and you literally had to look HARD at the pass to see the date. It was a Eureka Moment in our young lives and we immediately, at the end of every game, would ask anyone we saw who had a Press Box Pass if we could have it, and the game being over and members of the press leaving, they always said yes. Didn't do us any good at the time but the following fall, for two years, Todd Gould and I, adorned with what appeared to be authentic Press Credentials, sat hight above Yale Bowl, drinking hot chocolate and eating sandwiches and watched the games on those brisk, crisp fall mornings. What a view!