Losing streak

Columbia's losing streak is known on campus to refer to the football team's 44-game losing streak from 1983 to 1988.

The losses

The term "losing streak" is a bit of a misnomer, since the team didn't actually lose every game, the streak included ties as well, though the phrase "famous not winning streak" never really caught on. The streak began with a tie game to Bucknell in the 6th game of its 1983 season, followed by a loss to Holy cross, and a tie with Dartmouth. [[www.espn.com ESPN.com] rated the Lions team from 1983 to 1988 4th in its list of the top 10 worst college football teams of all time. After their 35th loss, they set the record for the longest Division I losing streak in history (beating Northwestern's 34 game losing streak from 1979-1982). After this game, Larry McElreavy, the then coach of the team said in an interview with The New York Times, "I'm realistic; there's not a lot of talent here."

The win

The Lions finally broke the streak on Saturday October 8th, 1988 with a 16-13 victory over Princeton in the fourth game of the season. The victory came after Princeton kicker John Lutz failed a 48-yard field goal in the last seconds of the game, which would have put the game into overtime. Humiliated at being the first team to lose to such an awful team, Princeton coach Steve Tosches said after the game "This is really what you dread...". Matthew Fox, a senior at the time did his part in the game by catching a 40-yard touchdown, which was ruled out of bounds and earned the Lions no points. After the victory, more than 5,000 fans and the players rushed onto the field in celebration, in the process tearing down both goal posts (one of which the marching band, claims to have stolen and kept). The Spectator named the game one of the four best games in Columbia history. The win sent the campus into a 2 day celebratory partying frenzy, setting Columbia's record for most consecutive days spent partying at solid 2.