It has been a "grand" history of success and adulation for the Franklin & Marshall College football program as the Diplomats will continue the march to another 1,000 games this week versus Johns Hopkins University.

     

Historically, F&M is the only Division II or III collegiate football team in America to play 1,000 football games, far outdistancing the program's closest rivals.

 

Entering the 2002 season, the closest Division II school to F&M's record was Washburn, which had played 989 games through the 2001 season.

 

Widener University (987), Washington & Jefferson (983), Mount Union (982), Ohio Wesleyan (982) and Wittenberg (980) round out the Diplomats' closest pursuers for the record of most games played among Division III member institutions.

 

At the Division I-A and AA levels, several teams have surpassed the

"grand mark".  Among Division I-A level programs, 50 schools have surpassed 1,000 games.

 

Overall, Rutgers University leads the way at 1,142 with Navy (1,117), Michigan (1,115), Syracuse (1,111), Nebraska (1,105), Virginia (1,104), Penn State (1,103), Texas and North Carolina (1,092), Pittsburgh (1,084) and Kansas (1,078) rounding out the top ten.

 

The Ivy League leads the way among Division I-AA schools as five of the top ten schools in games played are from the conference.  Penn (1,223) leads the way for the Ivy League and the sport as the Quakers have played more collegiate football games then any other institution in America. Yale (1,171), Bucknell (1,157), Harvard (1,152), Fordham (1,148), Lehigh (1,147), Lafayette (1,138), Princeton (1,123), Brown (1,070) and Richmond (1,044) round out the top ten.

 

For F&M, which has amassed a record of 536-420-47, every September since 1889 has begun with the green grass of the gridiron alive with the excitement on intercollegiate football.

 

The birth process of the sport at the College began in 1886 when F&M joined the University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh, Lafayette, Swarthmore and Haverford in founding the Inter-State Athletic Association.  However, interest waned in the sport during the year leading to the program agreeing to begin play the following season.

 

On October 18, 1887, the Nevonians (as all F&M teams were known until 1935) boarded Conestoga Wagons and traveled to the York YMCA for the first recorded game in the program's history. The result, a 9-0 loss, was the first of two games (the other being a 6-4 loss versus the York YMCA in Lancaster) the team played to begin the program's history. The following year, politics took precedence over play as the scheduled 12 game season was cancelled to focus on the 1888 presidential campaign.

 

Certainly the program has come a long way from the days of Conestoga Wagons and coaches on the sidelines dressed in long coats and bowlers, but what made F&M successful 115 years ago continues today, its history.

 

The ancestry of the Diplomats' success can be traced back to William M. Irvine who entered the Reformed Theological Seminary in 1889. Irvine, who led a campaign in Lancaster to raise funds to construct a $7,000 gymnasium on the campus of F&M in 1891, built a legacy that still stands to this day.

 

The most important element that Irvine brought to campus was a winning attitude. In his first year as head coach (with F&M driving up and down the field behind his patented "revolving wedge" offense) F&M went 5-1-1 and picked up the program's first win in a 60-0 romp over Millersville University.

 

In 1891, Irvine stepped down and handed over the coaching duties to Bruce Griffith, a new seminary student, who went 6-7 over the next two years.

 

The program grew from 1893-1913 under head coaches such as H. S. Wingert (1899), J.H. Outland (1900), W. P. Bates (1904-05) and a distinguished gentleman by the name of Charles Mayser (1913-14).

 

Mayser, who returned to the football sidelines from 1924-25 and 1944-45 while compiling a 25-21-3 record, engineered the first major event in F&M football history, a 10-0 win over the University of Pennsylvania in 1914.

     

For F&M the win was the first step to recognition as a dominating force in college football. The F&M Weekly reported, "The bloody carnage now taking place in Europe could not be compared to the awful havoc by the wearers of the Blue and White upon the sons of Ol' Penn within the very walls of the City of Brotherly Love?it is the greatest football win in F&M's history."

 

With the kindling of added respect and notoriety, the embers of the program's infancy began to spark, as did the field's grandstands. In 1916, a pep rally-party bonfire lit by fans to help build widespread enthusiasm about the Nevonians became uncontrollable and burned down the grandstands at the football stadium.

 

However, no one year or game changed the Diplomats program more than the 1935 squad's meeting with heavily favored Fordham University in the season opener. Led by brash coach Al Holman, the Diplomats started the year in the land of Giants by traveling to New York City to face the Rams in the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants professional baseball team.

 

How big was the game? Consider that Fordham's offensive and defensive lines, under head coach "Sleepy" Jim Crowley, one of Notre Dame's legendary "Four Horseman", were known as the "The Seven Blocks of Granite".  On the line looking across at the Diplomats was a pair of future National Football League Hall-of-Fame players in Alex Wojciechowicz and a sophomore by the name of Vince Lombardi.

 

The Diplomats, as they would be called following the game, entered the contest with all 11 starters either seniors or juniors following a 1934 season which saw the team finish 8-1 (a 6-0 loss at Ursinus spoiling the team's quest for a perfect season).

 

According to the newspapers of the time, F&M was a bump in the road for Fordham, which was acknowledged as one of the best college football teams in the nation, and a sure bet to advance to the only post-season game in 1935 - the Rose Bowl.

 

To get to the game, the 33-member F&M team took the railroad to New York, including a young center by the name of Solomon Woodrow "Woody" Sponaugle.

 

Sponaugle, who coached F&M's football team from 1948 to 1962 and led the program to a record of 59-58-6, got the Diplomats on the board first blocking and recovering a punt as the team's left the field at halftime with the Nevonians leading 7-0.

 

What happened next changed the name of F&M athletics.

 

"The Diplomats' downfall could be traced indirectly to their penchant for oratory, conference, or just plain gas in the clubhouse, a failing customary in the diplomatic services of both hemispheres. An uncommon penalty was revoked against F&M for remaining too long in its dressing room between halves," noted sportswriter Arthur Dailey.

 

Fordham came back to win the game 14-7, but Franklin & Marshall College had garnered respect as a football power earning the title of "greatest small-time college team" from Crowley.

 

The label would stick through wars, baby booms, the birth of rock-and-roll, the age of disco, Middle Atlantic and Centennial Conference championships and the dawn of a new millennium to today.

 

Off the field, the program has received countless awards including four academic All-America selections, three NCAA Post-Graduate Scholars and 24 first team All-Americans with seven players earning a spot on a National Football League (NFL) roster.

 

Much has changed over the past 1,000 games, but football remains part of the College's history, culture and future.