The 1969 Lehigh Engineers football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...

during the

1969 NCAA College Division football season The 1969 NCAA College Division football season was the 14th season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the NCAA College Division level. Conference and program changes Conference c ...

, and completed the 86th season of Engineers football. Lehigh finished fourth in the Middle Atlantic Conference, University Division, and won the

Middle Three Conference The Middle Three Conference was an College athletics, intercollegiate athletic scheduling alliance from 1929 to 1969. It had three members throughout its 41-year existence: Lafayette College and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and Rutgers Unive ...

championship. The 1969 team came off a 3–7 record from the previous season. The team was led by coach

Fred Dunlap Frederick C. "Sure Shot" Dunlap (May 21, 1859 – December 1, 1902) was a second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball from 1880 to 1891. He was the highest paid player in Major League Baseball from 1884 to 1889. He has also been rated b ...

. The team finished the regular season with a 4–5–1 record. Mike Leib and Pete Tomaino were the team captains. To kick off its conference schedule, Lehigh scored a significant upset against

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

, dealing the Scarlet Knights their first loss during college football's centennial season, the 100th anniversary of the 1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton that is considered the sport's first intercollegiate matchup. Dunlap compared the 17-7 victory to Lehigh's best season in recent memory: "We beat Columbia, Colgate and Harvard in 1961, our

Lambert Cup The Lambert Trophy is an annual award given to the best team in the East in Division I FBS (formerly I-A) college football. In affiliation with the Metropolitan New York Football Writers (founded 1935), the Lambert Trophy was established by brother ...

year and this is the greatest football triumph for us since then." The Engineers beat both of their Middle Three rivals, Rutgers and

Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...

, to win the conference championship. The Engineers were 2–2 against MAC University Division opponents, earning fourth place in that conference. Lehigh played its home games at

Taylor Stadium Ralph and Debbie Taylor Stadium at Simmons Field (also Taylor Stadium at Simmons Field) is a baseball stadium at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. It is the home field of the Missouri Tigers baseball. It was also the home of ...

on the university campus in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

Schedule

References

Lehigh Lehigh Lehigh Mountain Hawks football seasons Lehigh Engineers football {{collegefootball-1960s-season-stub