Virginia–Virginia Tech Football Rivalry

The Virginia–Virginia Tech football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia (called Virginia in sports media and abbreviated ''UVA'') and Virginia Tech Hokies football team of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (called Virginia Tech and abbreviated ''VT''). The two schools first met in 1895 and have played annually since 1970. The game counts for 1 point in the ''Commonwealth Clash'' each year, and is part of the greater Virginia–Virginia Tech rivalry.

Since 1990, the game has nearly always been held in late November, often on Thanksgiving weekend. The scheduling of this rivalry has taken the place of Virginia's South's Oldest Rivalry game versus North Carolina, which was played on Thanksgiving Day every year between 1910 and 1950 (save for when the programs disbanded during World War I). It has also taken the place of the VMI–Virginia Tech football rivalry which was held on Thanksgiving Day up through 1971. In 1964, the UVA–VPI game began alternating between Lane Stadium and Scott Stadium on the campuses of the two universities. Previously, the series was sometimes played in Richmond, Norfolk, and at Victory Stadium in Roanoke.

The rivalry has seen many streaks. Virginia started 8–0 in the series, outscoring VPI 175–5. The Cavaliers again went unbeaten (7–0–1) from 1945 to 1952, outscoring the Gobblers 267–47, with four shutouts. Soon after, UVA president Colgate Darden turned down an invite to the 1952 Orange Bowl and de-emphasized Virginia football (causing Art Guepe to leave the program). VPI then went 12–2 in games from 1953 to 1966. More recently, Virginia Tech won a series record 15 straight games in the rivalry from 2004–2018 before the Cavaliers defeated the Hokies in 2019.

Virginia and Virginia Tech were both led by College Football Hall of Fame coaches in the 1980s and 1990s. George Welsh led UVA to a three-week run as the nation's AP No. 1 ranked team in 1990; shared ACC championships in 1989 and 1995; 85 ACC wins, second-most all-time (behind only Bobby Bowden); and an 8–6 record against Frank Beamer, a fellow Hall of Famer who led Virginia Tech to an appearance in a BCS National Championship Game; sole ACC championships in 2004, 2007, 2008, and 2010; four previous Big East Championships; and a dominant 14–1 record against Welsh's successors ( Al Groh and Mike London). This rivalry game has three times served as a ''de facto'' Coastal Championship Game: in 2007 and 2011, won by Beamer's Hokies; and in 2019, won by Bronco Mendenhall's Cavaliers.

In the wake of the 2022 University of Virginia shooting, resulting in the death of 3 Virginia players, the 2022 edition was cancelled.

Commonwealth Cup Trophy

In 1996, a trophy was created for the rivalry, known as the Commonwealth Cup. The winning team holds the trophy until the next game, which has been held annually since 1970. Currently, the Virginia Tech Hokies football team holds the cup, having won the 2021 edition of the contest.

The trophy is constructed of marble and cherry wood, and is four feet high. It also contains the scores of all of the games in the series. The cup is engraved with the names of the two schools and is mounted atop a trapezoidal base that makes up most of the trophy's length. The front of the base features a stylized map of Virginia with Blacksburg and Charlottesville represented by stars on the map.'

History

The Virginia–Virginia Tech rivalry has existed since the 1890s, but did not reach pre-eminence until the 1980s. Traditionally, Virginia's primary rival had been the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in a game which became known as the South's Oldest Rivalry. UVA and UNC had the most successful football programs of early Southern college football, as the name indicates: between 1889 and 1902, either Virginia or North Carolina claimed a southern championship in twelve out of fourteen years. VPI's rival was the Virginia Military Institute, with whom they shared a military tradition, geographic proximity, and similar acronyms (VMI and VPI).

The Virginia–VPI rivalry did have its heated moments, even early on. Hokie Hunter Carpenter, played nearly two full modern college football careers with Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina. " ''The Cavalier Daily'' accused Carpenter of being paid, as he had played college football already for nearly a decade. Carpenter signed an affidavit that he had not received payment to play against UVA in any of the eight years (two of which he actually played for UNC in the South's Oldest Rivalry). After the VPI victory, Carpenter threatened to sue the UVA student paper for libel and UVA refused to play VPI again for eighteen years after, until 1923. Carpenter moved to