The 1990 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 with ...

team that represented the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

during the

1990 NCAA Division I-AA football season The 1990 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 1990, and concluded with the 1990 NCAA Division I-AA ...

. Holy Cross finished first in the newly renamed

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...

, for its fourth championship in five years of league play. In their fifth year under head coach

Mark Duffner Mark Duffner (born July 19, 1953) is an American football coach who is currently a senior defensive assistant for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). Duffner served as the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins football ...

, the Crusaders compiled a 9–1–1 record. Willie Bradford, Craig Callahan, Joe Foy and Mark Gallagher were the team captains. The Crusaders outscored opponents 339 to 106. Their undefeated (5–0) conference record placed first in the six-team Patriot League standings. This was the first year of competition under the Patriot League banner; the league had been known as the Colonial League since 1986. The Crusaders were ranked No. 4 in the preseason national Division I-AA rankings, but a 0–1–1 start dropped them out of the top 20 in the first round of in-season rankings. They later returned to the top 20 during their nine-game win streak to finish the season, and were recognized as No. 8 in the final poll, released after their last game. The Crusaders did not participate in the Division I-AA playoffs, as Patriot League rules at the time forbade postseason play. 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

{{Patriot League football champions Holy Cross Holy Cross Crusaders football seasons Patriot League football champion seasons Holy Cross Crusaders football