The 1985 Columbia Lions 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

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

during the

1985 NCAA Division I-AA football season The 1985 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1985, and concluded with the 1985 NCAA Division I-AA ...

. Amid a record-setting loss streak, Columbia finished last in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

. In their first and only season under head coach

Jim Garrett James William Garrett Jr. (June 19, 1930 – February 9, 2018) was an American football player, coach, and scout. He played college football at Utah State University. He served as football head football coach at Susquehanna University from 196 ...

, the Lions compiled an 0–10 record and were outscored 333 to 75. Bill Strack was the team captain. The Lions' winless (0–7) conference record was the worst in the Ivy League standings. Columbia was outscored 243 to 54 by Ivy opponents. By losing all of their games in 1985, the Lions extended a winless streak and a losing streak that began in 1983. They would not win or tie another game until an October 9, 1988, win against Princeton, an NCAA Division I record streak at the time. At the end of 1985, the streak stood at 24 games without a win, and 21 straight losses. Columbia played its homes games at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium in

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Schedule

References

{{Columbia Lions football navbox Columbia Columbia Lions football seasons College football winless seasons

Columbia Lions football The Columbia Lions football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Columbia University. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Ivy League. The Columbia football ...