college sports grew wildly popular with the public. >> yale squared off against harvard in the final game of the season. >> spawning powerful athletic departments and loyal alumni. >> i think if you gave the average college president at these kinds of colleges a few drinks and said, do you want to dial this down, they would say yes. but they would say, the alumni, i would just hear from them immediately and they would put up a big fuss. >> college presidents like to talk about meritocracy but in fact they kept key elements of the old aristocracy in place like athletics and legacies. >> yale was found more than two centuries ago by ten congregational clergymen. >> when one college president tried to take on legacies, all hell broke loose. kingman brewster was yale's president.