Delaware–Lehigh football rivalry

The Delaware–Lehigh football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Fightin' Blue Hens of the University of Delaware and the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh University.

Delaware–Lehigh football rivalry
Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens
Lehigh Mountain Hawks
SportAmerican football
First meetingSeptember 28, 1912
Lehigh, 45–0
Latest meetingDecember 4, 2010
Delaware, 42–20
Statistics
Meetings total47
All-time seriesDelaware leads, 30–17
Longest win streakDelaware, 9 (1961–1969)
Current win streakDelaware, 3
Locations of Delaware and Lehigh

Though the rivalry has been largely dormant since the 1990s, it was contested annually in the 1950s and 1960s, when both universities were members of the Middle Atlantic Conference, and was a marquee small-college fixture in the mid-1970s, when Delaware and Lehigh were two of the top-ranked teams in NCAA Division II.

Competitive rivalry

Delaware and Lehigh are in different conferences today – the Colonial Athletic Association and Patriot League, respectively – but Lehigh was Delaware's most-played opponent of the 20th century, and decades after the rivalry's heyday, fan interest in their matchups remained strong.[1]

For Lehigh, the Delaware game could not match the tradition of The Rivalry, its annual season-ending matchup with Lafayette, but those who experienced the height of the Delaware–Lehigh battle in the 1970s and 1980s looked forward to contests against the larger university.

Our alums at Lehigh talk so much about the Delaware game. We talk Lafayette, but all our alumni want to know about is the Delaware game.

— Kevin Higgins, Lehigh coach[2]

In 2005, former Delaware coach Tubby Raymond said he believes Lehigh cherished its wins over Delaware, a stronger program, more than those against Lafayette.[3] John Whitehead, who coached at Lehigh from 1976 to 1985, agreed with that sentiment in a 1993 interview, as did Lehigh athletic director and former quarterback Joe Sterrett: "Delaware always seemed to have the national respect ... the rankings. As a player, we always thought it was a benchmark game for our program."[4]

"When I came to Lehigh, I expected the Lafayette rivalry," said Engineers head coach Hank Small in 1993. "But I quickly found out that the game on the schedule was the Delaware game."[5]

History

Lehigh dominated the first three matchups between the teams, a one-off meeting in 1912 and a home-and-home series in 1938 and 1939. The two teams did not face each other again until 1950.

MAC rivals

Delaware and Lehigh, both football independents and members of the Middle Atlantic Conference in other sports, began playing an annual gridiron matchup in 1950. Initially, the Engineers (as Lehigh's teams were then known) were the established powerhouse and the Blue Hens were the upstart looking to prove themselves, a status reflected in Lehigh's 1950 shutout win. The rest of the 1950s was harder fought, reflecting Delaware's growth as a football program, and leading to a nine-year rivalry win streak in the 1960s.[6]

The Blue Hens–Engineers rivalry became a league game in 1958, when the MAC formally organized two football conferences, one of them a "University Division" including Delaware and Lehigh. The MAC University Division continued playing until 1969. During the last nine years of league play, Delaware won every game against Lehigh, the longest win streak between the two teams.

Those losses led to Lehigh adopting the Delaware Wing-T, which had troubled its defenses so much, as its own offensive scheme.[7]

D-II independents

As Division II independents in the 1970s, Delaware and Lehigh continued to meet annually in the regular season, in a matchup that almost always had playoff implications: Delaware took part in the Division II tournament in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979, winning the championship in 1979, while Lehigh earned Division II playoff berths in 1973 and 1975.

It was during this era that the rivalry really heated up, recalled The Morning Call sports columnist Terry Larimer in 2000. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw a series of hard-fought games with one-score margins.[8]

Both teams later moved up to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, originally known as Division I-AA: Lehigh in 1978 and Delaware in 1980. During this era, the matchup continued on their independent schedules, again pitting national powerhouse teams against each other, as Lehigh qualified for the postseason in 1979 and 1980, and Delaware participated in the Division I-AA playoffs in 1981 and 1982.

In 15 seasons from 1968 to 1982, the Lambert Cup, recognizing the top small-college football program in the Northeast, was awarded to either Delaware or Lehigh every year except two. Delaware won the cup 10 times, and Lehigh won it four times, including a Delaware-Lehigh tie in 1973.

For Lehigh players, the Delaware game was the one that mattered most, recalled late 1970s Engineers linebacker John Shigo. Not only was Delaware one of the toughest opponents on the schedule, but because the schools recruited in the same territory, many Lehigh players had been turned down by Delaware as too slow or too small – giving them extra motivation to beat the Blue Hens.[8]

Mike Schoenwolf, a quarterback and punter for the late 1970s Blue Hens, said his teams had a similar motivation: "The big thing at that time was, you don't lose to anybody in your backyard," he said. "And Lehigh was in our backyard. Back in those years, it was a game we had to win. There was no question about it."[1]

Different leagues

Regular-season matchups became rarer after 1986, when Delaware joined the Yankee Conference (later renamed Atlantic-10 and currently Colonial Athletic Association), and Lehigh joined the unrelated Colonial League (now called Patriot League).

Delaware, playing in a league with other state universities, continued to compete at a high level in Division I-AA, making the playoffs several times in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Lehigh's new conference, on the other hand, barred its members from offering athletic scholarships or participating in the postseason. As the Colonial League had modeled its bylaws on the Ivy League, Lehigh's non-conference schedule largely consisted of Ivy teams. Their last matchup of the 1980s was played in 1987.

After a five-year hiatus, the longest break in the series since 1950, Delaware and Lehigh played five games in the 1990s. As of 2020, the former league rivals have met during the regular season only once in the 21st century, a Delaware win in 2005. They have met twice in the FCS national playoffs, however, both Delaware wins.

Game results

Delaware home games were at Joe Frazer Field in Newark, Delaware (1938), Wilmington Park in Wilmington, Delaware (1951), and Delaware Stadium in Newark (since 1952).

Lehigh home games were at Taylor Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, until 1987, and at Goodman Stadium in Bethlehem since 1988.

Delaware victoriesLehigh victoriesTie games
No.DateLocationWinnerScore
1 September 28, 1912 Bethlehem Lehigh 45–0
2 October 22, 1938 Newark Lehigh 33–0
3 November 18, 1939 Bethlehem Lehigh 39–7
4 September 23, 1950 Bethlehem Lehigh 21–0
5 September 22, 1951 Wilmington Delaware 7–0
6 October 4, 1952 Bethlehem Delaware 7–6
7 October 3, 1953 Newark Delaware 26–13
8 October 2, 1954 Bethlehem Delaware 21–0
9 October 1, 1955 Newark Lehigh 19–13
10 September 29, 1956 Bethlehem Delaware 33–7
11 September 28, 1957 Newark Lehigh 19–14
12 September 27, 1958 Bethlehem Lehigh 8–7
13 September 26, 1959 Newark Delaware 12–7
14 September 24, 1960 Bethlehem Lehigh 27–14
15 September 23, 1961 Newark Delaware 14–6
16 September 22, 1962 Bethlehem Delaware 27–0
17 September 28, 1963 Newark Delaware 30–0
18 October 24, 1964 Bethlehem Delaware 46–8
19 October 23, 1965 Bethlehem Delaware 42–21
20 October 22, 1966 Newark Delaware 41–0
21 November 11, 1967 Newark Delaware 33–10
22 November 9, 1968 Bethlehem Delaware 27–13
23 November 8, 1969 Newark Delaware 42–14
24 November 7, 1970 Bethlehem Lehigh 36–13
25 November 6, 1971 Newark Delaware 49–22
No.DateLocationWinnerScore
26 September 16, 1972 Newark Delaware 28–22
27 September 29, 1973 Bethlehem Delaware 21–9
28 October 19, 1974 Bethlehem Delaware 14–7
29 October 18, 1975 Newark Lehigh 35–23
30 October 7, 1978 Bethlehem Lehigh 27–17
31 October 6, 1979 Newark Delaware 21–14
32 October 4, 1980 Bethlehem Lehigh 27–20
33 October 3, 1981 Newark Lehigh 24–21
34 October 2, 1982 Bethlehem Delaware 20–19
35 October 1, 1983 Newark Lehigh 24–19
36 September 29, 1984 Bethlehem Lehigh 46–6
37 October 26, 1985 Newark Lehigh 16–14
38 October 25, 1986 Newark Delaware 28–17
39 October 24, 1987 Bethlehem Delaware 28–24
40 September 4, 1993 Newark Delaware 62–21
41 November 5, 1994 Bethlehem Delaware 45–29
42 September 7, 1996 Newark Delaware 49–7
43 November 15, 1997 Bethlehem Delaware 24–19
44 October 16, 1999 Newark Lehigh 42–35
45 December 2, 2000† Newark Delaware 47–22
46 September 10, 2005 Newark Delaware 34–33
47 December 4, 2010† Newark Delaware 42–20
Series: Delaware leads 30–17[9]
† NCAA Division I FCS playoffs

See also

References
  1. Walter, Andy (November 30, 2000). "Hens, Lehigh Add Chapter to Heated Longtime Rivalry". Delaware State News. Dover, Del. – via NewsBank. Sure, Delaware-Lehigh doesn't pack the same emotion as the Hens' rivalry with Villanova. But, even when they've gone a few years without playing, there always seems to be the same old tension when they meet up again. Clearly the rivalry still means a great deal to Lehigh. On Monday, the Pennsylvania school quickly sold its allotment of 2,000 tickets for Saturday's game.
  2. Fleischman, Bill (December 1, 2000). "Hens Facing a Tough Test Against Lehigh". Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia, Pa. p. 152 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Two-Question Interview". The News Journal. Wilmington, Del. September 10, 2005. p. W1 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Kunda, John (September 2, 1993). "Nothing Like Hens' Game for Whitehead". The Morning Call. Allentown, Pa. p. C1 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Walter, Andy (August 31, 1993). "Hens Renew Rivalry with Lehigh". Delaware State News. Dover, Del. – via NewsBank.
  6. Tresolini, Kevin (October 1, 1981). "Hens-Lehigh Meet 33rd Time". The Morning News. Wilmington, Del. p. B4 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Larimer, Terry (October 4, 1979). "Take Ill Will, Competition and You've Got a Rivalry". The Morning Call. Allentown, Pa. p. C4 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Larimer, Terry (December 1, 2000). "Lehigh-Delaware Not Ordinary Rivalry: When Engineers Meet Blue Hens, It's More Like War". The Morning Call. Allentown, Pa. p. C1 – via Newspapers.com. 'As a player and as for my teammates, the game against Delaware was probably the biggest game of the year for us,' Shigo recalled. 'The Lafayette game was huge, but because of the tradition. With Delaware, it was the competition.' It still is. When Lehigh and Delaware meet, as they will at noon Saturday in the NCAA Division I-AA Quarterfinals, the game, more often than not, has national implications.
  9. "Year-by-Year Results". Lehigh Football Record Book (PDF). Bethlehem, Pa.: Lehigh University. pp. 21–24. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
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