Fordham Rams football

History

Fordham, then known as St. John's College, played its first official intercollegiate football game in 1882. The Rams beat Seton Hall 1–0 at home and followed that with a 2–1 road victory in New Jersey. The points seem to represent goals as the game, even after Walter Camp's creation of a line of scrimmage and a system of downs, was very different during its early days. Scheduling was also different as the bulk of Fordham's early opposition came from local athletic clubs, military and naval units, YMCA groups and even its own reserve team. When up against other colleges, Fordham's primary rivals were Xavier (a school that later dropped its college division but still exists as a high school and to this day is a rival of Fordham Prep), CCNY, Saint Peter's and Seton Hall.

At around the turn of the century Fordham began occasionally mixing more established universities like NYU, Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Cornell, and Syracuse to their schedule but, for the most part, was still playing at a smaller level. Aside from a budding rivalry with cross-borough NYU, by the 1920s the bulk of Fordham's opposition came from elite Catholic schools like Boston College, Holy Cross, Villanova, and Georgetown. Toward the end of that decade Fordham made a drastic jump in moving up and playing within college football's major level. Program changes included the hiring of Hall of Fame coach Frank Cavanaugh, more challenging, national schedule and a move from on-campus home games at Fordham Field (current site of the practice facility Murphy Field, softball diamond, and tennis courts) to the 55,000-seat Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan.

From 1929 until the program went on hiatus after 1942, the Rams reeled off fourteen consecutive winning seasons and often played in front of capacity or near-capacity crowds. Rivals during this era included NYU, Saint Mary's (CA), Pittsburgh, Purdue, North Carolina, and West Virginia. After the 1935 season, United Press (later UPI) conducted the first-ever national poll. Fordham finished with a Top-20 ranking and followed that with six straight additional Top-20 (AP) finishes from 1936 through 1941. Only Duke also finished in the Top 20 in each of those first seven years of postseason polls. Fordham's best finish came in its undefeated 1937 season (7–0–1) when it ended the year ranked third in the country.

Memorable victories during this era began with one over Boston College in 1929, ending the Eagles' 17-game unbeaten streak, still a school record. From there Fordham defeated NYU in 1930 in front of 78,500 spectators at Yankee Stadium for a contest that both teams entered undefeated. Other wins came against Detroit in 1931, St. Mary's in 1932, a major upset over Alabama in 1933, another upset, over Tennessee, in 1934 and another win over NYU in 1935. That result cost the Violets a chance to play in the Rose Bowl. NYU returned the favor the next season by upsetting the Rams and ending Fordham's "Rose Hill to the Rose Bowl" campaign. Further conquests included North Carolina in 1937, South Carolina in 1938 and Pitt in 1939.

Classifications (since 1937)

1937–1954: NCAA (pre-divisional)

1955–1963: No team

1964–1969: Club team

1970–1972: NCAA College Division

1973–1988: NCAA Division III

1989–present: NCAA Division I–AA/FCS

Conference memberships

1881–1954: Independent

1955–1963: no team

1964–1969: club team

1970–1972: NCAA College Division independent

1973–1977: Metropolitan Intercollegiate Conference

1978–1984: NCAA Division III independent

1985–1988: Liberty Football Conference

1989–1989: NCAA Division I-AA independent

1990–present: Patriot League

Traditions

Victory Bell

Since 1946 Fordham wins have been celebrated by ringing the bell which sits just west of Jack Coffey Field and in front of Historic Rose Hill Gymnasium. Originally the bell sat atop the Japanese aircraft carrier Junyō, launched on June 26, 1941. Jun'yō took part in several World War II battles before being torpedoed by three American submarines on December 9, 1944. She made it to a repair dock where she remained through the end of the war. Jun'yō was surrendered to the Allies on September 2, 1945, and scrapped in 1946. Only the bell was salvaged as United States Admiral Chester W. Nimitz presented it to Fordham for the university's wartime sacrifices. Cardinal Francis Spellman blessed the restored bell, and on May 11, 1946, President Harry S. Truman became the first to ring it on campus.

Since then the bell has been rung by senior football players directly after home wins or upon returning to campus following road victories. Underclassmen are required to lift each senior, one at a time, so each can have a turn at ringing the bell. Afterwards the entire team, with the school band playing along, sings Fordham's fight song for gathered fans. Once strictly a football tradition, the bell has been used by other teams for special occasions. Most importantly, the Victory Bell is used to commence graduation ceremonies. In 2021 HeroSports ranked the ringing of the Victory Bell as the 7th best tradition in all of FCS.

Championships

National championships

Fordham ended the 1929 season as title holders according to college football's lineal "fictitious national championship". That team was also retroactively declared national champions by University of Tennessee physics professor, Soren Sorensen. However, according to a national poll conducted by Albert Russel Erskine, Notre Dame finished as the top ranked team. The Dickinson System, a math formula used at the time to rate college football teams, also gave the 1929 crown to Notre Dame. The Dunkel Index, another math formula, confirmed Notre Dame as the nation's top program. Other later math systems including Sagarin-ELO, Boand, Poling and Billingsley all retroactively backed the real-time assessments, as did Helms, the College Football Researchers Association and the National Championship Foundation.

In fact, according to James Howell's Football Power Ratings (who also listed Notre Dame as 1929 champions), Fordham finished the season rated only 24th. The Rams finished as low as 48th according Sports-Reference (also having Notre Dame at the top spot) but there is no denying that, on the field, Fordham has a lineal claim to the 1929 title. It's a claim that is still occasionally referred to in the media despite the fact that Ram teams generally finished with higher national ranking/ratings throughout the 1930s and early '40s.

Long after those glory years, and as a non-varsity club in 1968, Fordham won a minor national championship. That success helped propel the team back to varsity status in 1970. Fordham also reached the quarterfinals of the 1987 NCAA Division III playoffs. That success helped propel the team over the NCAA Division II level entirely and into what would later be known as the FCS level in 1989. Fordham reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 FCS playoffs but that is the closest they've come to another national championship.

Regional championships

Fordham won the 1941 Lambert Trophy, an annual award given to the best team in the Northeast. The ECAC awarded the Rams with a similar honor as the Northeast's best FCS team in 2015.

Conference championships

Aside from brief memberships inside local NCAA Division III conferences (the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Conference in the '70s where the Rams won a league title in 1977 and the Liberty Football Conference in the '80s, where the Rams won league titles in 1987 and 1988) Fordham has spent the bulk of their football existence as an independent. They then joined the Patriot League in 1990 and after over a decade of struggles, finally won conference crowns in 2002, 2007 and 2014. Each title earned the team automatic bids into the NCAA FCS (previously I-AA) playoffs.

Postseason play

Over 60 years after their last major bowl game, the Rams returned to the NCAA Division I postseason by knocking Northeastern out of the first round of the 2002 I-AA playoffs. A week later they fell to Villanova in the I-AA quarterfinals. Fordham fell to UMass in the first round of the 2007 playoffs. In the 2013 playoffs, Fordham defeated Sacred Heart in the opening round before bowing to Towson in the Round of 16. They again beat Sacred Heart in the 2014 playoffs before losing badly to New Hampshire in the Round of 16. They were soundly defeated by Chattanooga in the opening round of the 2015 playoffs. The Rams did not return to the playoffs until 2022 when they lost an opening round shootout to New Hampshire.

Playoff appearances

NCAA Division III

The Rams played NCAA Division III football from 1973 to 1988. They made one playoffs appearance and have a record of 1–1 at that level.

NCAA Division I FCS

The Rams have played in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) since 1989. They have made six playoff appearances since and have a record of 3–6 at that level.

Rivalries

Columbia Lions

The Liberty Cup (on hiatus since 2016) was instituted in 2002 to honor alumni from both Fordham and Columbia University who were lost in the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Cup also honored the thousands of others who lost their lives on September 11. Columbia called off the series before the 2015 season, making that season's encounter (a 44–24 Fordham win), the Cup's last.

The series ended with the Rams holding a 10–4 Liberty Cup lead and victories in the final six meetings. The all-time series dates back to 1890, though in the first 100 years only three games (all Columbia wins) were played. The rivalry was a near annual affair afterwards. The overall record sits tied, 12–12.

Holy Cross Crusaders

Fordham and Holy Cross first met on the gridiron in 1902. The Ram-Crusader Cup (on hiatus between 1955 and 1989) was instituted in 1951 to honor the memory of Major Frank Cavanaugh. The "Iron Major" spent three seasons as the head coach at Holy Cross (1903–1905) where he built a 19–10–2 record. Decades later he spent six seasons at Fordham (1927–1932) where he compiled a 34–14–4 record and also elevated the program to college football's highest level. Due to health concerns, Major Cavanaugh was relieved of his duties following the 1932 season and died in August 1933.

Holy Cross has won the last seven encounters and leads the "Iron Major" series, 24–15. The all-time series dates back to 1902, just a year before Cavanaugh began patrolling the Holy Cross sideline. The Crusaders also lead the overall series, 35–25–2. The 2016 game was played on November 12, at Yankee Stadium, where in front of over 21,000 fans, Fordham defeated Holy Cross by a score of 54–14. This marked Fordham's first game at the Stadium since 1946 and the first encounter between the schools at a professional venue since 1954. Previous Cups were staged in Ireland (1991) and Bermuda (1995).

Future non-conference opponents

Future non-conference opponents announced as of June 25, 2026.