Fordham

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.

The Pitt rivalry began in 1935 when the teams settled for a scoreless tie. The squads exchanged scoreless draws in 1936 and 1937 (when the Panthers won a national championship) as well in what was later dubbed the "Much Ado About Nothing to Nothing" series. After 13 consecutive scoreless quarters Pitt broke the drought with a second-quarter field goal in their 1938 encounter won by the Panthers, 24–13. After some revenge for Fordham in 1939, the Rams again beat Pitt in 1940 and later earned a trip to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Two blocked extra points were the difference in their 13–12 loss on New Year's Day to Texas A&M, the defending national champions. A win over TCU the following season set up a Sugar Bowl date against Missouri. In a monsoon setting, a first-quarter blocked punt through the end zone gave the Rams a 2–0 lead that held until the game's waning moments. The Tigers missed a last-minute field goal, and Fordham won by the lowest American-football score possible. Back at the Polo Grounds in their 1942 rematch, Fordham again beat Missouri, 20–12. Still, the season as a whole was only mediocre. Fordham finished 5–3–1 and unranked (introduced in 1935) for the first time ever.

The era subsequently came to a close as football was suspended for the remainder of World War II. Prior to that the Rams had gone 88–20–12 (.783) during their 1929–1942 glory years. Over that same period, only Alabama had a higher winning percentage in all of college football. Other milestones for the Rams included a 34–7 win over little-known Waynesburg to start the 1939 season. That contest was famous for being the first televised college football game. A week later, in a matchup between the era's two best, Fordham lost to Alabama, 7–6, in the second televised college football game. Both games were aired locally by NBC on an experimental New York-based channel called W2XBS that was available to only about 1,000 sets in the New York City area.

Following the conclusion of World War II, Fordham football returned in 1946 but on a deemphasized basis. National opponents were replaced with a regional schedule and recruiting became more difficult as the school put more emphasis on academics. University president Father Robert Gannon SJ did his best to diminish the program. Claiming that having a top-level football team didn't provide any real benefit to the school Gannon declared, "Fordham does not ever again want a football team rated among the nation's ten heaviest." Gannon further claimed sportswriters were "tyrants of tyrants" who believed universities only existed "to provide them with income." His hope would not be completely fulfilled as, after three straight abysmal seasons, some pre-war greatness reawakened in 1949. Coincidentally, shortly after Gannon's departure from Rose Hill, Fordham jumped to a 4–0 record and was briefly nationally ranked before suffering a 35–0 loss to second-ranked Army. Dubbed the "Donnybrook on the Hudson" the game featured 23 unnecessary roughness penalties and several fistfights as, according to team captain Herb Seidell, "17 teeth came out of nine different mouths." That loss aside, the Rams led the nation in passing and, at 5–3, experienced their first winning record since 1942.

The 1950 team, which boasted wins over San Francisco and Syracuse, finished with an even stronger 8–1 record. During a weak period for the Eastern region as a whole however, Fordham remained unranked and was passed over during the postseason despite getting consideration from both the Orange and Gator Bowls. Early into the 1951 national rankings Fordham did appear in the "others receiving votes" category but were never again a bowl threat. The team combined for an 11–14–1 mark over the next three years although, thanks to the QB platoon of Roger Franz and Vinnie Drake, did again lead the nation in passing in 1952. Franz and Drake (one of the first African American quarterbacks in college football), who were both seniors continued to put up prolific numbers in 1953 despite another losing season. The highlight of the season came in a 20–0 shutout over Miami (FL) on Halloween Day, 1953 in front of 20,000 fans at the Polo Grounds. In 1954, up against a young squad depleted by graduation, the Hurricanes easily handled the rematch. In front of 37,000 Orange Bowl fans, Miami ran roughshod over Fordham, 75–7. It was the Rams' single worst debacle of the 1950s. The team finished the 1954 campaign at 1–7–1 and, with crowds averaging under 12,000 per game while inside the cavernous but deteriorating Polo Grounds, administrators decided to drop the program.

Back on campus and while calling the baseball diamond, Jack Coffey Field, home, students brought football back to Fordham at the club level in 1964. It again became a varsity sport within the small "College Division" in 1970 and was reclassified as a Division III program in 1973. After over a decade of ups and downs the Rams qualified for the 1987 D-III playoffs and reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions, Wagner. Still, the successful 1987 campaign renewed an interest in elevating the program.

35 years after dropping big time football, Fordham finally regained Division I status (at the I-AA level, later renamed FCS) upon moving up in 1989. Initial excitement was diminished as the Rams began a dismal stretch of 12 straight losing seasons. Fortunes finally changed in 2001 with a 7–4 finish under the leadership of head coach Dave Clawson. They changed even more so in 2002 when the Rams won their first ever Patriot League title, reached the quarterfinals of I-AA playoffs, ended 10–3 and earned their first season-ending national ranking (albeit this time at the I-AA level) since 1941. Fordham built on that achievement with another Patriot League title in 2007 and a return to scholarships in 2010. Moving from need-based financial aid to full football scholarships however appeared to give the Rams a competitive advantage over the rest of the Patriot League. After some deliberation Fordham was allowed to continue with its conference schedule although those contests did not officially count in the conference standings. Furthermore the school was ruled ineligible from any conference titles (and thus an automatic bid into the Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs) until 2014 when the rest of the league was also able to switch to mostly scholarship rosters. Still, Fordham qualified into the FCS playoffs as an at-large in 2013. This was followed by a league title in 2014 and another at-large appearance in 2015. Each of those seasons also ended with Top-20 FCS rankings.

The move to scholarships not only provided Fordham with a successful FCS run, but also allowed the Rams to add FBS (formerly I-A) programs to their schedule. Higher profile contests against Cincinnati (2012), Navy (2016) and Nebraska (2021) were added and although those games resulted in lopsided losses, Fordham was capable of knocking off weaker FBS teams like Temple (2013), Army (2015) and Buffalo (2023).

Joe Moorhead was the architect of the first two FCS victories but despite steady modern era success, Fordham is still best known for their famous "Seven Blocks of Granite." It was a name given to the team's 1929/1930 and 1936/1937 impenetrable offensive lines. The 1936 team was coached by "Sleepy" Jim Crowley, one of the famed "Four Horsemen" that brought Notre Dame glory during the early 1920s. Aside from Notre Dame-inspired gold helmets, Crowley also brought an all-Notre Dame staff with him to Rose Hill. This included line coach Frank Leahy, who later returned to South Bend and became arguably the greatest college head coach ever. Vince Lombardi, who later became arguably the greatest NFL head coach ever, played for Leahy on that famous "Granite" line.

Additionally, Fordham is credited with inspiring the term "Ivy League" after New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Caswell Adams compared the Rams to Princeton and Yale, two powerhouses of the day. Adams remarked disparagingly of the latter two that they were "only Ivy League" squads. Up until then what is now called the Ivy League was a loose collection of schools informally known as the Ancient Eight. Ironically, although Fordham shunned most Ivies during their glory years, since moving to the I-AA/FCS ranks in 1989, the bulk of the Rams' out of conference schedule has come against Ivy competition.

Back in the early days of the draft, and again more recently, Fordham has placed many players in the NFL. Their lasting mark on the pro ranks however came in 1936. A club from a new startup league, the AFL, and based in Cleveland, named themselves the Rams to honor Fordham. The Cleveland Rams jumped into the NFL the following season. Later, with competition coming from another new franchise from within another new startup league, the AAFC's Cleveland Browns, the Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946. The franchise relocated again to St. Louis in 1995 where, in 1999, the NFL's Rams won their first ever Vince Lombardi Trophy. They returned to L.A. in 2016 and are still the only NFL team named after a college one.

• 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

• 1881–1954: Independent
• 1955–1963: no team
• 1964–1969: club team
• 1970–1972: College Division Independent
• 1973–1977: Metropolitan Intercollegiate Conference
• 1978–1984: Division III Independent
• 1985–1988: Liberty Football Conference
• 1989–1989: Division I-AA Independent
• 1990–present: Patriot League