Football Team

Columbia's football team is well-known for its dismal performance in recent decades. However, since the arrival of coach Norries Wilson, things have been looking better.

The football team is (officially, though not necessarily de facto) the most important sporting component of Columbia's membership in the Ivy League.

Facilities

The team plays its home games at the beautiful, bucolic, bilateral, urbane, multicultural, eleemosynary, yet still iconoclastic Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at Baker Field on 218th Street in the Inwood section of Manhattan.

History

Early football game between Columbia and Harvard. Characteristically, Harvard is winning.

Early Columbia-Yale game.

Against Cornell, late 1930s. Sid Luckman (#44) is running the football.

Players practice in 1947 about a month after their legendary win over Army.

Early history

Football existed as a "campus diversion" at Columbia since at least 1824, when games involved "seniors and sophomores lin[ing] up against juniors and freshmen". Columbia's college football team was formed in 1870. They played against Yale in 1872 in one of the first ever intercollegiate football games.

On November 23, 1876, Columbia joined Harvard, Princeton, and Yale and at the so-called "Massasoit Convention" to decide on uniform rules for the collegiate football, which rapidly spread throughout college football. This convention is sometimes referred to as the "IV" League -- for the Roman numeral four -- which was supposedly the original Ivy League.

First half of 20th century

However, University President Nicholas Murray Butler banned the sport from 1905 to 1915, claiming it was too rowdy.

After that, though, the Lions enjoyed consistent success on the gridiron throughout the first half of the 20th century. Between at least 1934 and 1947, the team was coached by Lou Little. In 1934, the team won the Rose Bowl against Stanford, in what was the precursor to the national championship. In 1947, the squad won a match agaisnt the cadets of Army, who were the defending national champions and hadn't lost a game in four years. They then won 32 consecutive games, one of the most stunning winning streaks of the century. Famous players included Luckman, an All-American quarterback who went on to lead the Chicago Bears to four NFL championships in the 1940s.

At some period during this project, the football team was even involved with the Manhattan Project, employed to carry uranium on their strong backs.

1960s to 1990s

In 1961, the team shared their only Ivy League title with Harvard. However, since then, the football team has enjoyed just three winning seasons: 6-3 in 1971, 5-4-1 in 1994, and 8-2 in 1996. In the 1980s, the team experienced a record 44-game losing streak. The jubilation that ensued upon the end of this nightmare was possibly the largest outbreak of school spirit ever seen at Columbia.

These losses are attributed to several reasons. First, the practice facilities at Baker Athletics Complex are far away from the main campus in Morningside Heights. Second, there is weak support because the student body is more often interested in all the other diversions in Manhattan. And third, coaches find it hard to recruit potential football players given Columbia's lack of a winning tradition.

Annual Events

Homecoming

Main article: Homecoming

Homecoming is traditionally the most heavily attended football game of the year, with significant alumni and student presence. Columbia has not won at Homecoming since 2000.

Liberty Cup

Main article: Liberty Cup

A recent addition to Columbia's storied football history is the annual Liberty Cup game with crosstown rival Fordham University. This tradition was begun in 2002 to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attack which killed significant numbers of alumni from both schools. Columbia and Fordham are the only two I-AA schools in NYC, and Fordham is an associate football member of the Patriot League.

As of 2012, Fordham leads the series 7-4. Columbia has only one the Cup once since 2006. Columbia's overall record against Fordham is now 12-9, which includes a Columbia victory in the first game played between the two schools in 1890.

Empire State Bowl

Main article: Empire State Bowl

In 2010, Columbia's annual game against Cornell was formally dubbed the "Empire State Bowl", a name that had been informally used for the in-state showdown. The winning team claims possession of a travelling trophy. Columbia won the inaugural fixture, overcoming a two touchdown deficit in the final quarter.

Rivalry Weekend

The final weekend of the football season is 'rivalry weekend' for the Ivy League. Harvard and Yale play the laughably self-important "The Game", while Princeton play their fierce mid-atlantic rivals, Penn State. The schedule makers then decided that Cornell should play Dartmouth, and Columbia should play Brown. It is unclear what kind of 'rivalry' Columbia has with Brown. A fight for the title of most-radical-left-wing-liberal school in the league? We may never know.

Other history

Bakergate

In 2005, the athletics administration tried to ban alcohol at football games in a controversy that became known as Bakergate. This proved unwise and unsuccessful. (Some say they reintroduced limited alcohol consumption because no one could rationally cheer for Columbia while sober.)

Notable players

• Bill Campbell
• Brian Dennehy
• Marty Domres
• William Joseph Donovan
• Stuyvesant Fish
• Matthew Fox
• Paul Governali
• Jack Kerouac
• Sidney Luckman
• Johnathan Reese
• Archie Roberts
• Gene Rossides
• Bill Swiacki
• Russell Warren
• Marcellus Wiley
• John Witkowski

Trivia

• An early Columbia-Princeton game was the first live televised sporting event.
• Football players sometimes come back to speak at Columbia College Class Day.

External links

• Columbia Football
• Roar Lions Roar: a Columbia football blog with far better coverage than Spec