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The Rivalry is an American
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...
game played annually between the
Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...
teams: the
Lafayette Leopards football The Lafayette Leopards football program represents Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania in college football. One of the oldest college football programs in the United States, Lafayette currently plays in the Patriot League at the NCAA Divisi ...
of
Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...
and the
Lehigh Mountain Hawks football The Lehigh Mountain Hawks football program represents Lehigh University in college football. Lehigh competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level as members of the Patriot League. The Mountain Hawks play their home games ...
of
Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...
. It is the most-played football rivalry in the nation and is the longest uninterrupted rivalry game. As of 2024, The Rivalry has been played 160 times since 1884 with only two interruptions, one in 1896 due to a dispute over a Lafayette player also playing professional baseball, and in 2020 due to
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
issues. The colleges' football teams met twice annually until 1901 (except 1891, when they played three games, and 1896, when they did not play at all). The two institutions are located seventeen miles apart in the
Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...
in eastern
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. Despite popular belief,
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
and
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
did not play The Game in four separate years during The Rivalry's streak of 159 consecutive games. Furthermore, Lehigh and Lafayette met twice per season in 1943 and 1944 during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The Rivalry is so old that it predates football trophies; the winning team instead keeps the game ball. These are painted with the score and kept at the winning institution's campus. Lehigh displays its game balls in its athletic hall of fame, and Lafayette keeps its game balls at the official residence of its president. The evolution of the shape of the football can be seen in the displays of past game balls, since the early ones predate even the invention of the forward pass. The game has inspired books and a
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television documentary narrated by
Harry Kalas Harold Norbert Kalas (March 26, 1936 – April 13, 2009) was an American Sports commentator, sportscaster, best known for his Ford C. Frick Award, Ford C. Frick Award-winning role as lead Sports commentator, play-by-play announcer for the Phila ...
. In 2006,
ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...
ranked The Rivalry No. 8 in their Top Ten College Football Rivalries, and ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' has told its readers that seeing it "is something you have to do once in your life." In 2018, The Rivalry was ranked among
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top 25 rivalries in the history of college football. The 150th game, on November 22, 2014, was played at
Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the home field of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. The stadium opened in April 2009, replacing the Yankee S ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. The game was broadcast live nationally on
CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
.


Series history


Early days

Although they did not meet on the football field until 1884, an anecdote from David Bishop Skillman's history of
Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...
reveals that bad blood existed between the two places even before
Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...
was founded. When
Asa Packer Asa Packer (December 29, 1805May 17, 1879) was an American businessman who pioneered railroad construction, was active in Pennsylvania politics, and founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was a conservative and religious man who ...
first moved to Mauch Chunk in present-day
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania Jim Thorpe (known as East and West Mauch Chunk until 1954) is a borough in and the county seat of Carbon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania and is historically known as the burial site of Native Ameri ...
as an uneducated carpenter, he followed his family's footsteps in joining a local
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
church. However, he did not fit in well with the other more strait-laced members of the congregation, and so he left and joined an
Episcopalian Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protes ...
congregation that was more welcoming to him. After Packer had risen to affluence and before he founded Lehigh University,
Ario Pardee Ariovistus Pardee (November 19, 1810 – March 26, 1892) was an American engineer, coal baron, philanthropist, and director of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In the 1840s he began purchasing land in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, suspecting it to contain ...
, a coal baron from Hazleton, approached Judge Packer in connection with the addition of an engineering wing to Lafayette College. While eager at first in the proposition, Packer's enthusiasm turned sour when Pardee mentioned that the school would be under the control of the
Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...
. Packer let him know that he would have nothing to do with any school run by the Presbyterians. Packer later enlisted the help of the Episcopal Bishop of Philadelphia,
William Bacon Stevens William Bacon Stevens (July 13, 1815 – June 11, 1887) was the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. Early life and education William Bacon Stevens was born in Bath, Maine on July 13, 1815. He was educated at Phillips Acad ...
, in founding Lehigh University.


First athletic events

Lafayette records indicate that the first athletic meeting between the two schools was a series of
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
games played in Easton and Bethlehem in October 1869. The first game was a 45–45 tie, and Lafayette won the second meeting 31–24. The first joint athletic
track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
event held between the two institutions was on May 14, 1881, on the grounds of Lehigh University. The meet consisted of fourteen events: a 100-yard dash, a half-mile run, a hammer throw, high jump, 440-yards dash, mile walk, shotput, broad jump, 220-yard dash, mile run, pole vaulting, 120-yard hurdle race, bicycle race, a standing high jump, and tug of war. Lehigh won the event decisively, winning ten of the fourteen events. As a sign of the intense rivalry that was already developing between the two schools, an article in Lafayette's student newspaper, the ''Lafayette College Journal'', called Lafayette's loss to Lehigh a "defeat in our recent contest with Lehigh University, -a defeat, too, doubly humiliating, coming, as it did, from an adversary in every other respect our inferior."


Early football

Lafayette football began in 1882. The game was closer to
rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...
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 Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 – April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish–American War, the Second Boer War, and World War ...
, which gamely played and lost twice to the more experienced Lafayette team. The Lehigh freshmen 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 Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
were a disgrace and set them on fire at the end of the game to celebrate Lehigh's first win. Thus, the tradition of exuberance surrounding the game was started. Since the start in 1884, only in one season (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 twice have Lafayette and Lehigh played somewhere other than in Easton or Bethlehem. In 1891, the teams played a third game in
Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( , alternatively or ) is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. ...
, 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 Lafayette-Lehigh games that year; Lehigh won all three. The next meeting outside the Lehigh Valley did not take place until 2014, when the schools played at Yankee Stadium to commemorate the 150th game in the series.


20th century

The Rivalry's football game was postponed only twice during the 20th century. 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 30 following the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...
. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the war restricted travel to other opponents and Lehigh was hosting officer training programs which limited sports programs. Thus, to fill out their schedules, the nearby schools played two football games again in 1943 and 1944, with Lehigh students forming ad hoc teams just to keep The Rivalry tradition alive. Between November 1943 and November 1947, Lafayette won six games in a row by a combined score of 193–0, but by the early 1950s Lehigh was winning in lopsided shutouts. The combination of only missing one year of play since 1884, plus 19 years with two games and one year with three, has led to The Rivalry becoming the most played in college football. Prior to 1991, when new rules and game start times were imposed, it was traditional for the fans to tear down the temporary wooden goalposts that the schools erected for the event. The pieces were kept as souvenirs in the fraternities of each school. Eventually, taking down the goalposts got out of hand with students fighting for the torn down goal posts, and with each other, as early as before the third quarter. New rules were implemented for the 1991 game played at Lehigh when H-shaped steel goalposts anchored 10 feet into the ground were first used. The fans who rushed the field were frustrated by the new changes and showed this by tearing up and throwing pieces of sod at the security guards and police who were surrounding the posts. Only one fan actually was able to climb the posts, and when he was pulled down, he was maced and handcuffed.


21st century

Starting in the 2000s, the regular season ending game has often become a factor in deciding the winner of the
Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...
. During the 2004 and 2006 meetings, Lehigh came into Fisher Stadium leading Lafayette by one game. Due to tie breaking rules, the winner of the game would be crowned the League champion. The second runner-up during this period was
Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...
, which had beaten Lafayette or Lehigh that year. Following nine years of consecutive Lehigh victories, Lafayette earned a four-year parade of Lafayette victories from 2004 to 2007 wherein the Lehigh Class of 2008 witnessed no football victory against Lafayette at all. This was then reversed by Lehigh, with Lehigh running a five-year streak from 2008 to 2012, making the Lafayette Classes of 2012 and 2013 winless. The tide changed in 2013, when, for the first time since 2006, The Rivalry was played with a Patriot League championship on the line. Much like in 2006, the Leopards jumped out to a large lead, fought off a Lehigh rally, and pulled away down the stretch, winning 50-28 and claiming the Patriot League crown outright, this time on their rival's home turf. Quarterback Drew Reed took MVP honors, becoming the first Lafayette freshman in almost 25 years to do so.


150th meeting

The 150th meeting of The Rivalry took place in 2014 at
Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the home field of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. The stadium opened in April 2009, replacing the Yankee S ...
in
the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
. While this was the first neutral-site game in more than a century, Lafayette was the designated home team. The stadium was much larger than either school's regular venue, and likely larger than any venue where all but a tiny number of players from either side would ever play. Each team debuted special uniforms with Lafayette sporting a plain gray jersey, while Lehigh paid tribute to the stadium and usual home team by sporting a pinstripe jersey. While Lafayette had won the last meeting, and had a slightly better record than their competitor, Lehigh's chances were vastly improved as Lafayette's starting and backup quarterbacks were injured in the previous game and in practice respectively, leaving third string senior Zach Zweizig to lead the team. Lafayette still won, defeating Lehigh 27–7.


COVID-19 postponement

The game was originally canceled in 2020 for the first time in 124 years due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
and the cancellation of fall sports by the Patriot League. A decision was later made to move the Patriot League fall 2020 season to spring 2021, thereby allowing the Rivalry to remain uninterrupted in the school calendar year. Lafayette and Lehigh were originally scheduled to play on April 3, but the game was postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Lafayette program. The teams eventually played on April 10, with Lafayette winning 20–13.


Schedule deviation

The two schools announced on May 25, 2023, that the venues for the games in 2024 and 2025 were swapped. Lehigh will host the matches in 2023 and 2024, with the contests moving to Lafayette in 2025 and 2026. The change was to accommodate Lafayette's bicentennial celebration in the 2025–26 academic year in honor of the school's 1826 founding. The Rivalry will revert to its regular venue schedule in 2027.


Memorable moments


No game in 1896

The only season, and first calendar year, in which there was no game was 1896, when Lehigh refused to play Lafayette over a dispute about the eligibility of their best running back, George Barclay, who had played professional baseball at
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Franklin County, in the South Central Pennsylvania, South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Gre ...
, the previous summer. The question of his eligibility centered around whether Barclay had received more than reimbursement of travel expenses.


Longest run in 1918

During a 17–0 Lehigh victory in 1918, it is rumored that Lehigh halfback Raymond B. "Snooks" Dowd ran 115 yards for a touchdown. As Lehigh Athletic Media Relations relate the story, "Dowd ran the wrong way, circled his own goalposts," and then ran the length of the field for the touchdown eluding Lafayette's All-American linebacker Zac "Baker" Howes in the process. Some reports have been exaggerated to credit the length of the run to as much as 160 yards.


Overtime catch in 1995

In the 1995 game, the first year in which the Patriot League used overtime, the game was decided in the second overtime session. Following a 30–30 regulation score and a scoreless first possession of overtime, Lehigh wide receiver Brian Klingerman caught a pass with one hand from quarterback Bob Aylsworth in the back of the end zone. The catch not only won the game for Lehigh, which trailed 30–14 midway in the fourth quarter, but led them to clinch the Patriot League championship.


Lafayette's catch in 2005

In the 2005 game played at Lehigh, Lafayette backup quarterback Pat Davis threw a 37-yard TD pass to running back Jonathan Hurt on 4th-and-10 with 38 seconds left to give the Leopards a 23–19 win. The victory gave Lafayette the second of three straight Patriot League championships and NCAA Division I-AA (FCS) Playoff appearances. Davis entered the game after Lafayette starting quarterback Brad Maurer, the MVP of wins in 2004 (24–10) and later 2006 (49–27), was injured on the game's first series.


Lehigh's goalpost in 2024

In the 160th meeting played in 2024 Lehigh would defeat Lafyatte 38–13 at home in front of a sellout 16,000 crowd, earning Lehigh its first winning season since 2016, and its 13th Patriot League championship and entry into the Division I FCS Playoffs. After the game ended, Lehigh students stormed the field and tore down a goalpost, marching it more than four miles over South Mountain to throw it into the
Lehigh River The Lehigh River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward ...
at the Fahy bridge. This would be the first time that goalposts would come down at Lehigh since 1989. Tearing down the goal posts after a rivalry game had been a tradition at both schools until 1989 when Lafayette won at Bethlehem and a fight broke out between Lehigh fans attempting to defend their goal-posts, and Lafayette students attempting to tear them down, afterwards both schools agreed to make their goal posts out of reinforced steel with a concrete base to prevent future tear-downs. Despite this Lehigh students where still able to take down the metal goal-posts. Northampton County district attorney Stephen Baratta, a Lafayette alumnus, stated that the act constituted "criminal code violations" and that "this is not behavior that we can really sanction."


Football record


Summary

160 meetings since 1884


Game results


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 – 34 *Years won by Lafayette – 2 *Ties – 6 ;Women's sports *Years won by Lafayette – 12 *Years won by Lehigh – 10 *Ties – 0


See also

*
List of most-played college football series in NCAA Division I This is a list of the most-played college football College rivalry, series in NCAA Division I. The The Rivalry (Lafayette–Lehigh), Lafayette–Lehigh rivalry, known as "The Rivalry," is the most-played in Division I at 159 games. Lehigh and Lafa ...
*
List of NCAA college football rivalry games This is a list of List of sports rivalries, rivalry games in college football. The list also shows any trophy awarded to the winner of the rivalry between the teams. NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ...


References


External links


"Lehigh-Lafayette Rivalry"
Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...
website
"Lafayette-Lehigh football: Memorable moments, all-time history"
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
website, December 1, 2024
"Memories of the Rivalry"
Lehigh Football Nation blog, November 2006

''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', November 19, 2004
''The Lehigh/Lafayette Legacy''
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:The Rivalry (Lafayette-Lehigh) 1884 establishments in Pennsylvania College football rivalries in the United States College sports in Pennsylvania Lafayette Leopards football Lehigh Mountain Hawks football Patriot League Sports in the Lehigh Valley