| Lehigh Mountain Hawks football | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
 | |||
| First season | 1884 | ||
| Athletic director | Joe Sterrett | ||
| Head coach | Kevin Cahill 1st season, 2–9 (.182) | ||
| Stadium | Goodman Stadium (capacity: 16,000) | ||
| Field surface | Grass | ||
| Location | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S. | ||
| NCAA division | Division I FCS | ||
| Conference | Patriot League | ||
| All-time record | 650–568–46 (.532) | ||
| Claimed national titles | 1 (1977 Div II) | ||
| Conference titles | 12 | ||
| Rivalries | Lafayette (rivalry) | ||
| Current uniform | |||
 | |||
| Colors | Brown and white[1] | ||
| Website | LehighSports.com | ||
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks football program represents Lehigh University in college football. Lehigh competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level as members of the Patriot League.[2] The Mountain Hawks play their home games at Goodman Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tom Gilmore was the team's head coach from 2019 to 2022; he resigned following the 2022 season with a cumulative Lehigh coaching record of 9–27.[3]
The program ranks 40th all-time in terms of wins with 680 out of 1,312 games played for a winning percentage of 56 percent. In the modern era since 1945, Lehigh has won at a 60 percent pace. The program's nationally-recognized rivalry with Lafayette in neighboring Easton in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, known as The Rivalry, is the longest-standing rivalry in all of college football with 158 consecutive games played annually since 1884.[4][5][6][7]
The Lehigh football program began in 1883, when student J. S. Robeson organized a football team to play against the University of Pennsylvania's sophomore class team. Athlete and future journalist Richard Harding Davis was a part of that squad. "J. S. Robeson is the father of football at Lehigh," Davis was quoted as saying in Lehigh Quarterly in 1891. "It was he who induced the sophomores at the University of Pennsylvania to send their eleven up to play an eleven from the class of '86 on December 8th, 1884, and it was he who captained the Varsity team the following year," Davis said.[8]
In 1884, Lehigh's intercollegiate team was formed, and Lafayette team captain Theodore Welles immediately approached Robeson to challenge them, establishing a rivalry which continues to today.
Since 1986, Lehigh has been a charter member of the Patriot League, formerly called the Colonial League. Lehigh has won ten Patriot League titles and has played in 20 postseason games, winning 10 of the contests. Along the way, Lehigh has won a Division II National Championship (1977) and has been national runner up in the I-AA tournament in 1979.
- ^ "Lehigh University" (PDF).
- ^ "Lehigh Historical Data". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on 2003-12-06. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
- ^ "Tom Gilmore resigns after four seasons as Lehigh University football coach". WFMZ.com. 21 Nov 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
- ^ Lopresti, Mike (September 19, 2017). "7 of the most-played college football rivalries of all time". NCAA.com. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
- ^ "Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry makes history". Lehigh Valley Live. November 15, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
- ^ ""The Rivalry" that transcends the game". cfbhall.com. College Football Hall of Fame. November 19, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
- ^ "'The Rivalry' Pauses as Patriot League Cancels Fall Sports". Lehigh University. 2020-07-23. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
- ^ Burton, Chuck (2014). The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most-Played College Football Series.
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