While some still persist, not all the original Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry game traditions are still practiced today.
One beloved former tradition occurred every year at the end of the game. Lehigh or Lafayette, depending on the location of the game, would replace the usual metal goalposts with wood ones. By the end of the game, students would rush the field to tear them down.
When the game was on Lehigh’s campus, wooden pieces from those posts often ended up on the hill at different fraternity houses.
Marshall Davis ’89 loved the tradition. He still remembers the frigid November day in 1987 when the last rivalry game was played in Taylor Stadium.
In the last quarter, he said he and fellow students gathered around the field and stormed it as soon as the game clock hit zero.
“The post comes down, you grab on to a piece, and you with your fraternity brothers, hold on to it,” Davis said. ”There's people trying to fight you off it, and you've got other fraternity brothers defending you. And then you grab the post and take it out of the stadium and walk it up the hill to your fraternity house.”
While many people enjoyed the tradition, it sometimes turned aggressive. Fights broke out as people jostled for a piece of the post, and both schools halted the tradition in the 1990s.
Davis, now living in Florida, doesn’t often attend Lehigh football games in person, but he said he still follows the team and watches the Rivalry game every year.
He gathers with other alumni living in the area to watch the game at a local sports bar and reminisce about time spent at the university.
“Last year there were some older alumni that were there, which was great,” Davis said. “You get to hear their stories and stuff they did.”