It’s that time of the year again — and how lucky that our annual Gilmore Girls rewatch coincides with the real-life Harvard-Yale game.
Ivies Harvard University and Yale University held their annual collegiate football matchup on Saturday, November 23, to widespread fan excitement.
While the Crimson and the Bulldogs face off on the gridiron, Us Weekly can’t help but remember the biggest moments from Gilmore Girls’ own staging of the game.
During season 4 of the hit WB-turned-CW series, Rory (Alexis Bledel) and mom Lorelai (Lauren Graham) hit up the big game with the latter’s parents, Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard (Edward Hermann), in the episode titled “Ted Koppel’s Big Night Out.” (Rory, if you remember, was a freshman at Yale at the time, which is where Richard had also attended.)
“So, I have to go watch a football game, but at least I get to hang with you before finals,” Lorelai quipped. “Of course, and what’s a football game last? Hour, hour and a half? Longer than an hour and a half? Are you kidding me?”
Once the Gilmore girls arrive at the game, they soon find out that even wilder moments and revelations happen off the football field.
Look back with Us at the biggest memories below:
The Outfits
To start, Lorelai was “horrified” to see her parents all decked out in Yale gear, including sweatshirts, hats and scarves. Emily also wore a button that read, “Harvard go to hell.” The elder Gilmores, however, disapproved of their daughter’s wardrobe.
“Lorelai, what are you wearing?” Emily asked. “You’re wearing crimson.”
Crimson is Harvard’s main color, which Richard proclaimed was a “dangerous” decision when they were rooting for Yale in all its blue-and-white glory.
“Look at Rory, [who] is dressed in Yale colors,” Emily added, referencing Bledel’s white sweater and jeans. “Rory looks perfect.”
Emily then made Lorelai wear her navy coat buttoned up to conceal any traces of red.
The ‘Fun Flask’
While Emily and Richard were notably sticklers about the proper place to drink alcohol, they brought along a flask to toast mascot Dan’s honor. The first shot inspired Richard to start a “Bulldog” chant before Lorelai ended up swiping the flask for use throughout the day.
The Mother of All Tailgates
Emily and Richard do tailgating a bit differently than most, bringing a private chef, a maid and a large RV camper to cook steaks — branded with a “Y” for Yale, naturally — and drink bloody Marys. One piece of meat was even specially cooked for the “current Dan” mascot, a real bulldog.
At one point, Emily even berated the hired help for “dumping” a bag of Fig Newton cookies brought by Rory on a plate without a doily. She quipped, “Take them, fix them.”
Meet the Ex
The biggest shock of the episode was the arrival of Pennilyn Lott (Linda Gehringer), who was Richard’s collegiate girlfriend. Emily kept trying to keep the interactions brief, but she was ultimately shocked to learn that Pennilyn was aware of Lorelai’s plans to open an inn. It was revealed that Richard had informed Pennilyn of the construction progress during one of their clandestine lunches each year.
“Lorelai, what were you thinking?” Emily scolded her daughter. “We do not talk to Pennilyn Lott. We run into her once a year, we say hello, goodbye and that is it. We do not have conversations, talk about our lives. We do not joke with Pennilyn Lott. We do not refer to Pennilyn Lott as anything by ‘Pennilyn Lott,’ and I would appreciate you remembering that.”
Introducing the ‘Naked Guy’ — And Learning of Another
In the middle of lunch, Rory bumped into her friend Marty (Wayne Wilcox), whom Lorelai remembered as “Naked Guy.” (In the season 4 premiere, Rory met Marty after he ended up completely nude following a back-to-school dorm party.)
“Why did my daughter just call you ‘Naked Guy?’” Richard asked, prompting Marty to recall the anecdote. “Oh, please, that’s nothing. I was naked an entire month my sophomore year. … I and a group of like-minded young men decided to protest the new dress code by wearing silk ties and nothing else.”
Leaving Early
Once Richard’s big reveal about Pennilyn came out, Emily yelled at Lorelai for getting involved and starting the mess by speaking to her in the first place. As a result, Lorelai left abruptly — and agreed to have dinner with Jason “Digger” Styles (Chris Eigeman).
Jason was Richard’s business rival, who she previously turned down for a date out of family loyalty. And yes, she brought the “fun flask” to the formal outing.
Paris and the Professor
After a very quiet remainder game with her grandparents, Rory filled her mom in on the details later that night. Hanging up, she noticed roommate Paris Geller (Liza Weil) in a dark corridor passionately kissing one of her professors, Asher Fleming (Michael York). Paris was in a relationship with high school boyfriend Jamie at the time.
Gilmore Girls is streaming on Netflix.
