Columbia Lions football

The Beginning (1870–1899)

Sometime in early November 1870 – while November 12 is most cited, others claim November 5 or 11th – Columbia's intercollegiate football journey began with a short trip to New Brunswick, NJ to play Rutgers, which they lost 3–6 in the first college football game between schools from different states. The school struggled for most of the 19th century, and it was not until after the turn of the century to which the team would have any success.

The 20th Century

The program was much more successful in the first half of the 20th century, and was at times a national power. The 1915 squad went undefeated and untied. The 1933 Lions won an unofficial national championship by upsetting the top-ranked Stanford Indians 7–0 in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day. Lou Little, who coached the team from 1930 to 1956, is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Streak

Between 1983 and 1988, the team did not have a win in 47 games and lost 44 games in a row, which was the record for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision until Prairie View A&M broke the record en route to 80 consecutive losses from 1989–1998. In the fifth game of the 1983 season, they won 21–18 over Yale. After that game, they did not win a game again for almost five years. The streak began with a tie with Bucknell in the following game, and ending the season with a loss to Holy Cross, a tie with Dartmouth, and losses to Cornell and Brown. The losing streak was so bad, that at one point, when the team came out on the field, the school's band would play the theme to The Mickey Mouse Club rather than their fight song. One notable loss during the streak was in a 1985 game vs. Harvard, where the Lions led 17–0 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, only to see the Crimson score 7 touchdowns in the remaining time to lose 49–17. 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 current coach at the time told reporters, "I'm realistic; there's not a lot of talent here." ESPN rated the 1983–1988 Lions teams at 4th in its list of the top 10 worst college football teams of all time.^[4] The streak was broken on October 8, 1988, with a 16–13 victory over archrival Princeton after a missed field goal attempt by the Tigers late in the game. Matthew Fox most notably played on the '88 team. That was the Lions' first victory at Wien Stadium, which was already four years old, having been opened during the streak.^[5][6]

College Football Hall of Fame members

Notable alumni

• Jeff Adams
• William V. Campbell
• Steve Cargile
• Eddie Collins
• Tad Crawford
• Brian Dennehy
• Marty Domres
• "Wild Bill" Donovan
• Jason Garrett
• John Garrett
• Lou Gehrig
• Paul Governali
• Jack Kerouac
• Walter Koppisch
• Sid Luckman
• Josh Martin
• Cliff Montgomery
• Bill Morley
• Jeff Otis
• Michael Quarshie
• George Starke
• Harold Weekes
• Marcellus Wiley
• John Witkowski
• Vinnie Yablonski

National championships

The 1875 team was retroactively declared co-national champion by Parke H. Davis, along with Harvard and Princeton.

Conference championships

The Lions have just one Ivy League conference title, which they won in 1961, sharing it with Harvard.^[7]

Cornell Big Red

The Columbia Lions and the Cornell Big Red, the only two Ivy League teams in New York, have met 103 times since 1889. They dedicated the Empire State Bowl in 2010. Cornell leads the series 65-37-3. Beginning in 2018, the teams will meet on the final weekend of the Ivy League season.

Fordham Rams

The Columbia Lions and the Fordham Rams, the two biggest Division I programs in New York City (Wagner also has a D-I football team) had met 24 times between 1890 to 2015. They dedicated the Liberty Cup after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Columbia discontinued the series in 2015. The series was tied 12-12.