LEHIGH-LAFAYETTE FOOTBALL GAMES (THE RIVALRY)

Lehigh University Mountain Hawks logo		Lafayette College Leopards logo

'Lehigh University' and 'Lafayette College' have one of the most passionate rivalries in college sports. The two well-regarded academic institutions are located 17 miles apart in eastern Pennsylvania. "The Rivalry" is not limited to one sport, but is seen in any meeting of the two schools, whose competitors are true college "student-athletes," pursuing significant majors and reaching top twenty NCAA graduation rates.
The football rivalry has been played 142 times since 1884, making it the most-played football rivalry in the nation. It is also the longest uninterrupted rivalry, since the teams have met every year since 1897. (Although Harvard and Yale began The Game in 1875, they did not play in 1885, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1917, 1918, 1943, or 1944). "The Rivalry" is so old that it predates football trophies; the winning team just gets to keep the game ball. These are painted with the score and displayed in winning institution's hall of fame. The evolution of the shape of the football can be seen in the displays of past game balls.
The football game is always sold out months in advance and has inspired books and a PBS television documentary. ESPNU recently ranked The Rivalry #8 in their Top Ten College Football Rivalries and ''Sports Illustrated'' has told its readers that seeing it "is something you have to do once in your life." Similar to the younger Army-Navy Game series, Lafayette and Lehigh alumni annually meet in locations around the world to watch the live telecast of "The Rivalry".

Contents

Rivalry History

Pre Football

The First Meeting

Early Football

Modern Era

Memorable Moments

No Game In 1896

The Longest Run

The 100th Meeting

The Catch

The Pass

Football Record

Summary

Individual Games

'All Sports Trophy'

All Sports Trophy record

2005-2006 Results

Men's Sports

Women's Sports

References

Rivalry History

Pre Football

Although they did not meet on the football field until 1884, an anecdote from David Bishop Skillman's history of Lafayette College reveals that bad blood existed between the two places even before Lehigh was founded. When Asa Packer first moved to Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania) as an uneducated carpenter, he joined the congregation of a local Presbyterian Church following his family's footsteps. However, he did not fit in well with the other more straight-laced members of the congregation, and so left and joined an Episcopalian congregation that welcomed him.
One day, after Asa Packer had risen into affluence and before he founded Lehigh University, Ario Pardee, a coal baron from Easton, approached Judge Packer in connection with the addition of an engineering wing to Lafayette College. While eager at first in the proposition, Judge Packer's enthusiasm turned sour when Pardee mentioned that the school would be under the control of the Presbyterian Church. Judge Packer let him know that he would have nothing to do with any school run by the Presbyterians.
^[1]
Asa Packer later enlisted the help of the Episcopal Bishop of Philadelphia when
founding Lehigh University.

The First Meeting

The first joint athletic event held between the two institutions was on May 14, 1881 on the grounds of the Lehigh University Athletic Association. The meet consisted of fourteen events; Hundred Yards Dash, Half-Mile Run, Throwing the Hammer, Running High Jump, 440 Yards Dash, Mile Walk, Putting the Shot, Running Broad Jump, 220 Yards Dash, Mile Run, Pole Vaulting, 120 Yards Hurdle Race, Bicycle Race, Standing High Jump, and Tug of War. Lehigh emerged with a decisive victory winning ten of the fourteen events.^[2]

Early Football

Lafayette began playing football in 1882. The game was closer to rugby back then and even the goals and touchdowns were recorded separately in the scores. After football rules were standardized in 1883, Lafayette's manager Theodore L. Welles approached Lehigh and offered to play them. Lehigh thus formed its first team in 1884, managed by Richard Harding Davis and gamely played and lost twice to the more experienced Lafayette team.
The Lehigh freshman were dismayed by the lack of support that the administration showed the team. They thought the rickety stands built for the 1887 event in Bethlehem were a disgrace and set them on fire at the end of the game to celebrate Lehigh's first win. Thus the tradition of excess surrounding the game was started.
Since the start in 1884, only in one year (1896) have the teams not met. Because few schools were playing football at the time and travel was more difficult in the horse and buggy era, Lehigh and Lafayette played each other twice in the early years with each school hosting one of the games. This continued until the development of modern football in 1902 when the current annual game was established.
Only once have Lehigh and Lafayette have played other than in Easton or Bethlehem. In 1891 the teams played a third game in Wilkes-Barre, before 3,000 spectators. A newspaper report stated: "... by far the largest crowd that ever witnessed a football game in Wilkes-Barre, and the cheering of the students seemed to startle the natives." That was one of three Lehigh-Lafayette games that year; Lehigh won all three.

Modern Era

The Rivalry's football game has been postponed only twice. The first postponement occurred in 1904 because of the death of Dr. Henry S. Drown, president of Lehigh and former faculty member at Lafayette. The only other postponement was in 1963 when the game was moved from November 23 to November 30 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
During World War II, the war restricted travel to other opponents. Thus to fill out their schedules, the nearby schools played two football games again in 1943 and 1944. The combination of only missing one year of play since 1884 plus 19 years with two games has led to The Rivalry becoming the most played in college football.
Until 1991, when new rules and venues were imposed, it was traditional for the fans to tear down the temporary wooden goalposts erected for the event. Pieces of the goalposts were highly sought as trophies. Eventually this got out of hand with the goalposts often being torn down by the end of the third quarter. Obviously, field goals were impossible to score once the goal posts were down.
In recent years, the regular season ending game has also become a factor in deciding the winner of the Patriot League and post-season playoff berths, further adding to the intensity of the event.

Memorable Moments

No Game In 1896

The only year in which there was no game was 1896, when Lehigh refused to play Lafayette over a dispute about the eligibility of their best player, Charles "Babe" Rinehart. A dominating lineman on Lafayette's national-champion 1896 team (who tied Princeton and beat Penn), Rinehart was a Walter Camp All-American, and is considered one of the finest players of the first half-century. He is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
On this same Lafayette team was halfback George "Rose" Barclay, who in the same year was widely credited for "inventing" the football helmet.

The Longest Run

In 1918, as recorded by various observers, Lehigh halfback Raymond B. “Snooks” Dowd completed a 115-yard touchdown run. According to the story, Dowd ran the wrong way, circled his own goalposts, and went the right way 100 yards to score.

The 100th Meeting

The 100th meeting of The Rivalry in 1964 didn't live up to the hype in Fisher Field in Easton. Ending in a 6-6 tie in a mistake-filled game, both teams' kickers missed extra points that would have given them the victory. Coincidentally, this would be the last-ever tie in the football rivalry.

The Catch

The 131st clash may go down as the most exciting and dramatic of all because it was the first one to go to overtime. The extra sessions were made possible thanks to a Patriot League rule created in the summer of 1995. Following a scoreless first possession of overtime, Lehigh broke the tie when Brian Klingerman caught Bob Aylsworth’s pass with one hand in the back of the end zone as darkness fell on Goodman Stadium. The miraculous catch all but clinched a 37-30 win and the league title for Lehigh, which trailed 30-14 midway through the fourth.

The Pass

In 2005, Lafayette's Jonathan Hurt somehow got behind the Lehigh defenders and caught a miracle 37-yard touchdown heave as quarterback Pat Davis was smothered by Lehigh's defense on fourth-and-10 from the Lehigh 37 yard line with 38 seconds left. This gave Lafayette a 23-19 comeback win over Lehigh and a share of its second straight Patriot League championship in the 141st meeting of the nation’s most-played rivalry. Lafayette's win also secured Colgate's co-Patriot League Championship, and gave Colgate the Patriot League's automatic birth to the playoffs. Hurt was named MVP of the game after running 18 times for 125 yards and a touchdown, and hauling in the game-winning score.

Football Record

Summary

142 Meetings since 1884

★ Number of Wins

★
★ Lafayette - 75

★
★ Lehigh - 62

★
★ Ties - 5

Individual Games

Game	Year	Site	Winner	Score	Notes
1	1884	Easton	Lafayette	50-0	First Game - Standardized Football Rules only established previous year
2	1884	Bethlehem	Lafayette	34-4
3	1885	Easton	Lafayette	6-0
4	1885	Easton	Tie	6-6
5	1886	Easton	Lafayette	12-0
6	1886	Bethlehem	Lafayette	4-0
7	1887	Bethlehem	Lehigh	10-4
8	1887	Easton	Lafayette	6-0
9	1888	Easton	Lehigh	6-4
10	1888	Bethlehem	Lehigh	16-0
11	1889	Bethlehem	Lehigh	16-10
12	1889	Easton	Tie	6-6
13	1890	Easton	Lehigh	30-0
14	1890	Bethlehem	Lehigh	66-6
15	1891	Bethlehem	Lehigh	22-4
16	1891	Wilkes-Barre	Lehigh	6-2	Only Neutral Ground game and only year with three games
17	1891	Easton	Lehigh	16-2
18	1892	Easton	Lafayette	4-0	Lafayette breaks 9-game unbeaten streak by Lehigh
19	1892	Bethlehem	Lehigh	15-6
20	1893	Bethlehem	Lehigh	22-6
21	1893	Easton	Lehigh	10-0
22	1894	Easton	Lafayette	28-0
23	1894	Bethlehem	Lehigh	11-8
24	1895	Bethlehem	Lafayette	22-12
25	1895	Easton	Lafayette	14-6
	1896				Due to an eligibility dispute, only year teams did not play each other
26	1897	Easton	Lafayette	34-0
27	1897	Bethlehem	Lafayette	22-0
28	1898	Bethlehem	Lehigh	22-0
29	1898	Easton	Lafayette	11-5
30	1899	Easton	Lafayette	17-0
31	1899	Bethlehem	Lafayette	35-0
32	1900	Bethlehem	Lafayette	34-0
33	1900	Easton	Lafayette	18-0
34	1901	Easton	Lafayette	29-0
35	1901	Bethlehem	Lafayette	41-0
36	1902	Easton	Lehigh	6-0	Modern era of one game per year
37	1903	Bethlehem	Lehigh	12-6	Wright Brothers fly
38	1904	Easton	Lafayette	40-6	Delayed a week due to death of Henry Drown (Lehigh president)
39	1905	Bethlehem	Lafayette	53-0
40	1906	Easton	Lafayette	33-0	Forward Pass invented by future Lehigh coach
41	1907	Bethlehem	Lafayette	22-5
42	1908	Easton	Lehigh	11-5
43	1909	Bethlehem	Lafayette	21-0	Lafayette T Aaron Crane throws first-ever TD pass in series
44	1910	Easton	Lafayette	14-0	NCAA Established
45	1911	Bethlehem	Lafayette	11-0
46	1912	Easton	Lehigh	10-0	Lehigh QB "Pat" Pazzetti throws first TD pass in series for Lehigh in victory
47	1913	Bethlehem	Lehigh	7-0
48	1914	Easton	Lehigh	17-7
49	1915	Bethlehem	Lafayette	35-6
50	1916	Easton	Lehigh	16-0
51	1917	Bethlehem	Lehigh	78-0	Largest margin of victory (Lehigh)
52	1918	Easton	Lehigh	17-0
53	1919	Bethlehem	Lafayette	10-6
54	1920	Easton	Lafayette	27-7
55	1921	Bethlehem	Lafayette	28-6	Lafayette National Champions
56	1922	Easton	Lafayette	3-0	Game-winner kicked with 45 seconds remaining
57	1923	Bethlehem	Lafayette	13-3
58	1924	Easton	Lafayette	7-0
59	1925	Bethlehem	Lafayette	14-0
60	1926	Easton	Lafayette	35-0	First Fisher Field Game
61	1927	Bethlehem	Lafayette	43-0	Lafayette National Champions
62	1928	Easton	Lafayette	38-14
63	1929	Bethlehem	Lehigh	13-12	Substitute center Ayre blocks kicks to seal victory
64	1930	Easton	Lafayette	16-6
65	1931	Bethlehem	Lafayette	13-7
66	1932	Easton	Lafayette	25-6
67	1933	Bethlehem	Lafayette	54-12
68	1934	Easton	Lehigh	13-7
69	1935	Bethlehem	Lehigh	48-0
70	1936	Easton	Lehigh	18-0
71	1937	Bethlehem	Lafayette	6-0	Lafayette Undefeated; Tony Cavallo's TD only score
72	1938	Easton	Lafayette	6-0
73	1939	Bethlehem	Lafayette	29-13
74	1940	Easton	Lafayette	46-0
75	1941	Bethlehem	Lafayette	47-7
76	1942	Easton	Tie	7-7
77	1943	Easton	Lafayette	39-7	Played two games due to wartime travel restrictions
78	1943	Bethlehem	Lafayette	58-0
79	1944	Easton	Lafayette	44-0	Played two games due to wartime travel restrictions
80	1944	Easton	Lafayette	64-0	Largest margin of victory (Lafayette)
81	1945	Bethlehem	Lafayette	7-0
82	1946	Easton	Lafayette	13-0
83	1947	Bethlehem	Lafayette	7-0
84	1948	Easton	Lafayette	23-13
85	1949	Bethlehem	Lafayette	21-12
86	1950	Easton	Lehigh	38-0	Lehigh Undefeated; breaks 15-game unbeaten Lafayette streak
87	1951	Bethlehem	Lehigh	51-0
88	1952	Easton	Lehigh	14-7
89	1953	Bethlehem	Lafayette	33-13
90	1954	Easton	Lafayette	46-0
91	1955	Bethlehem	Lafayette	35-6
92	1956	Easton	Lehigh	27-10
93	1957	Bethlehem	Lehigh	26-13
94	1958	Easton	Tie	14-14
95	1959	Bethlehem	Lafayette	28-6
96	1960	Easton	Lehigh	26-3
97	1961	Bethlehem	Lehigh	17-14
98	1962	Easton	Lehigh	13-6
99	1963	Bethlehem	Lehigh	15-8	Delayed a week due to JFK assassination
100	1964	Easton	Tie	6-6	Missed extra points seal tie; both teams combine for one win on year
101	1965	Bethlehem	Lehigh	20-14
102	1966	Easton	Lafayette	16-0
103	1967	Bethlehem	Lafayette	6-0
104	1968	Easton	Lehigh	21-6
105	1969	Bethlehem	Lehigh	36-19
106	1970	Easton	Lafayette	31-28	Rick Nowell kicks game-winning FG with 1:10 left
107	1971	Bethlehem	Lehigh	48-19
108	1972	Easton	Lehigh	14-6
109	1973	Bethlehem	Lehigh	45-13
110	1974	Easton	Lehigh	57-7
111	1975	Bethlehem	Lehigh	40-14
112	1976	Easton	Lafayette	21-17
113	1977	Bethlehem	Lehigh	35-17	Lehigh National Div II Champions
114	1978	Easton	Lehigh	23-15
115	1979	Bethlehem	Lehigh	24-3	Lehigh National Div 1-AA Runners-Up
116	1980	Easton	Lehigh	32-0
117	1981	Bethlehem	Lafayette	10-3
118	1982	Easton	Lafayette	34-6
119	1983	Bethlehem	Lehigh	22-14
120	1984	Easton	Lafayette	28-7
121	1985	Bethlehem	Lehigh	24-19
122	1986	Easton	Lafayette	28-23	Colonial League Established
123	1987	Bethlehem	Lehigh	17-10	Last Taylor Stadium Game
124	1988	Easton	Lafayette	52-45	Largest number of combined points scored, game (97)
125	1989	Bethlehem	Lafayette	36-21	First Goodman Stadium Game
126	1990	Easton	Lehigh	35-14	Patriot League Established
127	1991	Bethlehem	Lehigh	36-18
128	1992	Easton	Lafayette	32-29	Lafayette Patriot League Champions
129	1993	Bethlehem	Lehigh	39-14	Lehigh Patriot League Champions
130	1994	Easton	Lafayette	54-20	Lafayette Patriot League Champions
131	1995	Bethlehem	Lehigh	37-30	Lehigh Patriot League Champions
132	1996	Easton	Lehigh	23-19
133	1997	Bethlehem	Lehigh	43-31
134	1998	Easton	Lehigh	31-7	Lehigh Patriot League Champions
135	1999	Bethlehem	Lehigh	14-12
136	2000	Easton	Lehigh	31-17	Lehigh Patriot League Champions
137	2001	Bethlehem	Lehigh	41-6	Lehigh Patriot League Champions
138	2002	Easton	Lafayette	14-7
139	2003	Bethlehem	Lehigh	30-10
140	2004	Easton	Lafayette	24-10	Game decided Patriot League champions (Lafayette & Lehigh)
141	2005	Bethlehem	Lafayette	23-19	Game decided Patriot League champions (Lafayette & Colgate)
142	2006	Easton	Lafayette	49-27	Game decided Patriot League champions (Lafayette & Lehigh)

'All Sports Trophy'

'The Rivalry' was further cemented by the creation of the "All Sports Trophy" in 1968. The trophy is held by the school which wins the most varsity sports meetings during a school year. One point is awarded per victory. At the year end, points are totaled to determine the overall champion.

All Sports Trophy record

★ 'Men's Sports'

★
★ Years won by Lehigh - 32

★
★ Years won by Lafayette - 1

★
★ Ties - 6

★ 'Women's Sports'

★
★ Years won by Lafayette - 12

★
★ Years won by Lehigh - 8

★
★ Ties - 0

2005-2006 Results

Lehigh won the 2005-2006 All Sports Trophy as follows:

Men's Sports

Mon	Sport	Winner	Points
Sep	Men's Cross Country	Lehigh	1
Nov	Men's Soccer	Lafayette	1
Nov	Men's Swimming and Diving	Lehigh	1
Nov	Football	Lafayette	1
Jan	Men's Basketball	Lehigh	1
Jan	Men's Indoor Track and Field	Lehigh	1
Feb	Men's Basketball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Men's Tennis	Lehigh	1
Apr	Men's Lacrosse	Lehigh	1
Apr	Baseball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Baseball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Baseball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Baseball	Lafayette	1
Apr	Men's Outdoor Track and Field	Lehigh	1

2005-2006 Men's Totals:

★ Lehigh - 11

★ Lafayette - 3

Women's Sports

Mon	Sport	Winner	Points
Sep	Women's Cross Country	Lehigh	1
Sep	Field Hockey	Lehigh	1
Oct	Women’s Soccer	Lehigh	1
Oct	Volleyball	Lafayette	1
Nov	Volleyball	Lafayette	1
Nov	Women's Swimming and Diving	Lehigh	1
Jan	Women's Basketball	Lafayette	1
Jan	Women's Indoor Track and Field	Lafayette	1
Feb	Women's Basketball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Women's Crew	Lehigh	1
Apr	Softball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Softball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Softball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Softball	Lehigh	1
Apr	Women's Tennis	Lehigh	1
Apr	Women's Golf	Lehigh	1
Apr	Women’s Lacrosse	Lafayette	1
Apr	Women's Outdoor Track and Field	Lafayette	1

2005-2006 Women's Totals:

★ Lehigh - 12

★ Lafayette - 6
2005-2006 Overall Totals:

★ Lehigh - 23

★ Lafayette - 9

References

1. The Diaries of Robert Hersham Sayre, , Frank, Whelan, Lehigh University, ,
2. History of Lehigh University, , Catherine Drinker, Bowen, The Lehigh Alumni Bulletin, ,


★ Memories of the Rivalry

★ Lafayette-Lehigh Above All Others

★ One Hundred and Twenty Years in the Making

★ I-AA.Org Story and Photos of the 142nd Game

★ ''Legends of Lehigh/Lafayette; College Football's Most-played Rivalry'' by Todd Davidson and Bob Donchez, 1995

★ ''The Lehigh/Lafayette Legacy'', PBS, 2004