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Concept
The Rivalry (Lafayette–Lehigh)
Summary
The Rivalry is an American college football rivalry game played by the Lafayette Leopards football team of Lafayette College and the Lehigh Mountain Hawks football team of Lehigh University. It is the most-played football rivalry in the nation and is the longest uninterrupted rivalry game. As of 2022, "The Rivalry" has been played 158 times since 1884 with only one interruption in 1896. No game was played in calendar 2020 due to COVID-19 issues, but the teams played in April 2021 after the Patriot League, home to both schools, moved its originally planned fall 2020 season to spring 2021. The colleges' football teams met twice annually (except 1891, when they played three games, and 1896, when they did not play at all) until 1901. The two institutions are located seventeen miles apart in the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania.
Despite popular belief, Harvard and Yale did not play The Game in four separate years during The Rivalry's streak of 156 consecutive games. Furthermore, Lehigh and Lafayette met twice per season in 1943 and 1944 during World War II. The Rivalry is so old that it predates football trophies; the winning team instead keeps the game ball. These are painted with the score and kept at the winning institution's campus. Lehigh displays its game balls in its athletic hall of fame, and Lafayette keeps its game balls at the official residence of its president. The evolution of the shape of the football can be seen in the displays of past game balls, since the early ones predate even the invention of the forward pass.
The football game is usually sold out months in advance and has inspired books and a PBS television documentary narrated by Harry Kalas. In 2006, ESPNU ranked The Rivalry No. 8 in their Top Ten College Football Rivalries, and Sports Illustrated has told its readers that seeing it "is something you have to do once in your life." In 2018, The Rivalry was ranked among Athlon Sports top 25 rivalries in the history of college football.
The 150th game, on November 22, 2014, was played at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
Official source
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