Lehigh Football Nation

For a very long period during the Rivalry, parades and bonfires have played a large part of the festivities, though their timing and purpose have changed over time. And just like “smokers”, parades bonfires started out as athletic celebrations separate from the Rivalry, but ultimately became intertwined with the traditions of the game. The tradition of the parade and bonfire dates from the times when cars were still rare, and most of the transportation into South Bethlehem came by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, whose station was only a few blocks from campus. Bonfires celebrating athletic victories were not unknown in the late 1890s at both Lehigh and Lafayette, as well as parades for successful athletic teams.  They may have been inspired by Harvard, Yale and Princeton, who were starting to celebrate their biggest victories over each others with large bonfires.

As you meander to Yale's website, you're greeted by an intro video when you click on the link to bring you to " Inside Yale Football ". The video, featuring a pump-up-the-faithful talk by head coach Tony Reno , has a gothic soundtrack, panning over Yale's 100 year old stadium, and also panning over walk of fame involving players from as far back as 1872. That's not going to be Lehigh's issue, however, when they're Yale's opponent in the Eli's opening-day game, where the Bulldogs will be celebrating their 100th season playing in the Yale Bowl. Yale saw its first game played there 100 years ago, minus six days, with a team that was one of the college football powerhouses in the entire nation.  This time around, though, they'll be a team that is picked to finish fifth in the eight-team Ivy League, and is a very young team.

When you look at politics, whether on a formal or informal basis, you see fads appear and disappear as so many fashion trends. Today the fad goes to "libertarianism", which, supposedly is being revisited by the younger set and some of the cognigentia as an interesting, currently viable political philosophy. I've always been of the philosophy that people can believe politically in what they want.  Generally, I have no quarrel with "libertarians". Until their worldview creeps into a narrow subset of collegiate athletics, using faulty, incorrect applications of economic theory to justify an economic world that is wrong - and dangerous.