The Rivalry Archives - The College Sports Journal

GAME TWELVE, #Rivalry161, LEHIGH AT LAFAYETTE – One Rivalry Game For All The Marbles

On November 21, 2025November 21, 2025By Chuck Burton

Four years ago, these freshmen were recruited to Lehigh at least in part because they wanted to be a part of college football history, the Lehigh/Lafayette Rivalry. The 2022 game, played right after the COVID pandemic, essentially, was not a sellout. This Saturday, four years later, Lafayette’s Fisher Stadium sold out easily. It’s the product of two college football programs that picked themselves up and have earned the hype and sellout this game has created.

#Rivalry160: A Historic First as the Goalpost Comes Down In Murray Goodman After Lehigh’s Dominant 38-14 Win Over Rivals Lafayette

On November 27, 2024November 28, 2024By Chuck Burton

In the aftermath of that Lehigh/Lafayette burst of energy, there was one casualty – the goalpost next to the grass banking, which was torn down by elated Lehigh students after their football team had achieved what many had thought impossible before the season.

#Rivalry160 Preview, Lafayette at Lehigh: It’s All Just A Little Bit Of History Repeating

On November 22, 2024November 23, 2024By Chuck Burton

For the first time since 2013, the game simply called “The Rivalry” – the most-played college football game in the world – will be a sellout.

#Rivalry159 Preview, Lafayette at Lehigh

On November 17, 2023November 17, 2023By Chuck Burton

It is, indeed, one where you have to throw out the record books and it’s the game you absolutely have to win, if you’re a Lehigh or Lafayette head coach. It’s great theater every year, no matter what the records are, but this year the theater suddenly ends up on the national FCS stage.

#Rivalry158 Preview, Lehigh at Lafayette

On November 18, 2022November 18, 2022By Chuck Burton

Many have said it’s something you should do at least once in your life. Whether you’re a Lehigh person, a Lafayette person, whether you’re from the Lehigh Valley, whether you consider yourself a college football fan, it’s a pilgrimage, a bucket list item.

OPINION: Great FCS Rivalries Like Montana/Montana State and Lehigh/Lafayette Seem To Thrive And Survive No Matter What Is Happening

On November 18, 2022November 18, 2022By Chuck Burton

For a long, long time – especially this year – I thought that college football might be dying, especially at the FCS level. But this week, especially, I am starting to realize that isn’t the case. The great Rivalries survive, because that’s what they do.

OPINION: With USC and UCLA Cali Cash Grab, Power Five, Inc. Makes College Football Unrecognizable

On July 1, 2022July 1, 2022By Chuck Burton

I still love college football. But I can’t abide what is happening in Power Five land. I don’t think I can watch it or enjoy it. And it no longer resembles the thing that made it so great for so long.

Remembering Andy Coen

On April 19, 2022April 19, 2022By Chuck Burton

He was a great man, taken from us too soon from a horrible disease. I know, because I had the honor of talking to him about his passion, Lehigh football, for his entire hall-of-fame coaching career.

The 157th Meeting of “The Rivalry” (Lafayette at Lehigh) – Game Preview, Drink Of the Week, And Fearless Prediction

On November 19, 2021By Chuck Burton

This Saturday, college football’s most-played Rivalry will contest its 157th meeting between the Lafayette Leopards (3-7) and Lehigh Mountain Hawks (2-8), and the hope is that it will be, well, normal.

The 157th Meeting of “The Rivalry” Means To Resume Bowl, And Party, Atmosphere

On November 16, 2021November 16, 2021By Chuck Burton

In terms of the Lehigh/Lafayette Rivalry, however, which resumes this weekend in the 157th meeting between these two schools, for Leopard and Mountain Hawk fans, I think, college football seemed to end on that day on November 23rd, 2019, and never really quite seemed to get back to the college football that fans once knew before they learned what COVID was and how it was to impact their lives.

QUICK RECAP: Hard Fought 156th Meeting Goes Lafayette’s Way, Prevail 20-13 over Lehigh

On April 10, 2021April 10, 2021By Chuck Burton

No matter when the game is played, when Lafayette and Lehigh get together on the gridiron, it almost always seems to be close and come down to a few plays.

History To Be Made By Lafayette and Lehigh’s Football Teams In 156th Meeting Between Rivals

On April 9, 2021April 9, 2021By Chuck Burton

This April, the same weekend as The Masters, Lehigh and Lafayette will be playing the first-ever Rivalry football game in the spring, a most atypical 156th meeting in the most-played college football game that’s simply called “The Rivalry”.

LEHIGH FOOTBALL: Excitement Is In The Air for an Historic Spring Football Season

On March 4, 2021March 4, 2021By Chuck Burton

“I’ve been very impressed with the enthusiasm and attitude across the board,” Lehigh head coach Tom Gilmore told me. “Getting the opportunity to be on the field and to be working towards competitive opportunities has really motivated everyone. It just feels different out there this semester. There’s an excitement in the air whenever we’re on the field.”

The Long Wait Is Finally Over: Patriot League Announces Spring Sports Schedules, Including Football

On February 5, 2021February 5, 2021By Chuck Burton

Today, the Patriot League was the final FCS football conference to unveil their spring competition schedule to the public, as a part of their release announcing the schedules of twenty-two different sports being contested in the spring.

OPINION: Lafayette And Lehigh’s Rivalry Put On Hold, As Athletes And Fans Wait in Agonizing Limbo

On November 17, 2020November 17, 2020By Chuck Burton

At the campuses at Lehigh and Lafayette, and the communities that surround them, there is a void in the third week in November, that most are trying to fill with virtual Rivalry activities and hope for a spring football season, making it not a cancelling of The Rivalry, but merely a delay to contest the game when it’s safer to have a more normal gameday experience.

OPINION: Patriot League Fall Sports Cancellation The Right Thing to Do, But A Terrible (Rivalry) Loss For the Community

On July 14, 2020By Chuck Burton

Hope is not a strategy, and the truth is any form of national strategy has failed in an effort to have college football this fall. In a community like the Lehigh Valley, it’s a crushing loss to the coronavirus.

How To Have A Late College Football Season In A COVID-19 World

On March 23, 2020March 23, 2020By Chuck Burton

In the past, college football has survived through outbreaks of disease and mass disruptions, and how the sport handled those circumstances provide a possible roadmap to a late post-COVID-19 football season. Looking to the past, how could we adapt that to today?

QUICK RECAP: Jeffrey Kordenbrock Boots Game-Winner for Lafayette To Win #Rivalry155 17-16

On November 23, 2019By Chuck Burton

It is rare that the MVP of the Lehigh/Lafayette game is a kicker, but that’s exactly what happened this afternoon at Murray Goodman Stadium as the Leopards beat their bitter Mountain Hawk rivals for the first time in five years in a 17-16 win.

For #Rivalry155, Two Young Teams At Lehigh And Lafayette Get Their First Taste Of Competition In The Historic Series

On November 22, 2019November 22, 2019By Chuck Burton

This season, though, there isn’t the same feeling of continuity that permeated many of these other games. Part of that comes from the fact that, unusually for The Rivalry, both teams are packed with young underclassmen, many of them playing in their first Rivalry ever. Normally, The Rivalry is filled with narratives. This season, it feels like the master narrative is waiting to be written with two teams that, even at this late date, have unknowns.

Christmas Comes Early for Lehigh As They Convert Gifts Into 34-3 Win over Archrival Lafayette

On November 18, 2018November 19, 2018By Chuck Burton

Christmas isn’t for another month, but for a day, people associated with the Lehigh football program felt like they’d received a bunch of presents. The first present from the gods of football might have been the one that set the tone the best for Lehigh’s 34-3 win over their archrivals in the 154th meeting between.

Tag: The Rivalry