Lehigh Football Nation

Lafayette dominated the early Rivalry, but in the late 1880s the tides turned dramatically, thanks to a play devised by the founder of Lehigh’s football program. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the origins of the play have also been disputed with a distinct Lehigh/Lafayette flavor. The “V Trick”, or “Lehigh V”, as it’s known in South Bethlehem, was a revolutionary play in college football at the time. It involved, on a kick resulting in a change of possession, to have the eleven men form a “V” with interlocked arms to direct the mass of the entire team against a hapless weak link on the opposition’s line, with the halfback running behind the rush line. This was especially effective after a kick, since the ten men would be able to run forward and get a head of steam going, applying their mass momentum to make larger gains.  To some, it was the basis of all the mass momentum plays that followed, such as the infamous “Flying Wedge” implemented by Harvard. Though it would ulti...

The same year Lehigh and Lafayette started their football Rivalry, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid down on Beldoe's Island on August 5th, 1884. In attendance at that event was the president at that time, Republican Chester A. Arthur , and Democrat Grover Cleveland , who would win the presidential election later in the year. In 1884, Mark Twain lived in a house just outside Hartford, Connecticut, a Victorian Gothic mansion where he and his family settled after he had penned The Innocents Abroad .  That year, in the upstairs billiards room, he wrote Huckleberry Finn . More local to the Rivalry, in that same year the city of Easton would get electric power for the first time in its history.  “Electric lights now burn brightly in Easton’s streets,” the Lafayette student newspaper noted, “and in many of her business houses and places of amusement.”  (South Bethlehem wouldn’t get electric streetlights until 1887.) It also would be year of the first...

It was one of the worst-kept secrets of the 2012 season.  Even though it was unconfirmed for many months, people in the know heavily suspected that something big was on the horizon for "The Rivalry" for the upcoming 150th meeting between Lehigh and Lafayette. In 2014, when "The Rivalry" celebrates its 130th birthday, the game will be played outside the state of Pennsylvania. In two splashy announcements before the 148th meeting between the two rivals right before Thanksgiving, Lafayette and Lehigh jointly announced that the 150th game - Lafayette's home game - will be contested at the new, 36,000 seat Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

For the past few years, Lehigh and Lafayette folks have had informal talks about how to commemorate the 150th football meeting between the two schools, in the most-played college football rivalry in history. One of the ideas, mentioned on this blog back in April, was to possibly move the game to a neutral location, in order to accomodate all the added interest in that particular game. As the date of November 22nd, 2014, inches closer, some of the big ideas for the 150th continue to come into focus. This week, Barry Miller of the Express-Times reported the rumor that folks at Lehigh and Lafayette are "messing around with the idea of playing the 150th edition of their football rivalry in 2014 at Yankee Stadium". In a week where the football discussion generally involves the incoming classes, suddenly, the conversation shifted to the Yankees.

Picture this: it's November 22nd, 2014, the day when Lehigh and Lafayette face off for a historic 150th time on the gridiron. But instead of heading over to Fisher Field in Easton or Murray Goodman stadium in Bethlehem - you're going somewhere else. You're taking your mimosas and fried turkeys and heading to Citizens Bank Park - home of the Phillies - for a fantastic, full day of tailgating, events - and, obviously, bitter hatred of the Leopards or Mountain Hawks. The idea of bringing "The Rivalry" to a neutral location is still in its infancy, but is still a very intriguing prospect that could bring with it a lot of new fans, TV exposure... and fun. (more)