Both the Cornell and Dartmouth hockey teams were played by Dartmouth's actual team. Cornell hockey coach Ned Harkness only allowed Cornell jerseys to be used in the film on the condition that Cornell win the game with Harvard.
Author Erich Segal wrote the screenplay first, then adapted it into a novel - which was published before the film's release and became a runaway bestseller.
Eight up-and-coming actors including Michael Douglas, Jon Voight and Peter Fonda turned down the role of Oliver, despite being offered 10% of the gross.
Barbara Parkins claimed recently that she turned down the lead role.
Incoming freshman at Harvard University, where the movie takes place, are traditionally shown a screening of the film at which they indulge in ritualized mass heckling.
The first television showing on this film, on ABC-TV in 1972, marked the shortest time span up to then between a film's theatrical release and first showing on television.
The scenes with Oliver walking alone through a snowy New York were added after principal photography was completed. The production was almost out of money and did not have the necessary funds for permits to shoot in New York City again - so all the shots were grabbed "illegally" using a skeleton film crew and Ryan O'Neal.
The most famous line from the film, "Love means never having to say you're sorry", was actually misspoken from the script. Originally the line was supposed to be: "Love means not ever having to say you're sorry."
The movie's line "Love means never having to say you're sorry." was voted as the #13 movie quote by the American Film Institute
This movie marked Ray Milland's first film appearance without the hairpiece he had worn for decades.
John Wayne refused to believe that Love Story (1970) "sold because the girl went around saying 'shit' all the way through it." Instead he believed that "the American public wanted to see a little romantic story."