The 1981 Holy Cross Crusaders 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 wi ...

team that represented the College of the Holy Cross as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

during the 1982 NCAA Division I-AA football season. In their second year under head coach Rick E. Carter, the Crusaders compiled an 8–3 record. Terry Malone and Doug O'Donnell were the team captains. This was the Crusaders' first year in Division I-AA, after having competed in the top-level

Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...

and its predecessors since 1896. A four-game winning streak to open the campaign put Holy Cross in the weekly national rankings in its first year in Division I-AA, rising as high as No. 4. The Crusaders ended the year ranked No. 13, following a rivalry loss to Tangerine Bowl-bound Boston College of Division I-A. Holy Cross played its home games at

Fitton Field Fitton Field is a football stadium in Worcester, Massachusetts primarily used for College of the Holy Cross sporting events. The stadium opened in 1908 as the official home for the Holy Cross Crusaders football team. Before that, most games were ...

on the college campus in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

Schedule

References

{{Holy Cross Crusaders football navbox Holy Cross Holy Cross Crusaders football seasons

Holy Cross Crusaders football The Holy Cross Crusaders football team is the collegiate American football program of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Patriot League, an NCAA Division I conference that participates in the F ...