<p>Yale did have Putnam team. Usually the team is formed from last years top three scorers from Yale. Therefore I am not sure whether he was included in the team. But he will be leading the Yale team next year. Yale did have students taking Putnam Exam every year, so he is not alone. I do believe though that Yale students took Putnam Exam casually (which is different from MIT and Harvard Putnam participants). As a matter of fact, a recent Yale graduate, who earned Putnam honorable mention (top 75) once and top 25 twice, graduated in 2008, earned Yale major academic award given to graduating class, not in math or other hard-core sciences, but in humanity studies.</p>
<p>Yale is different. I dare say that overall Yale students may be happier. In this years Putnam competition, Yale has a Putnam fellow, two in the group II (top 200) and four in the top 500, probably at least half of them, not from math major.</p>