This year’s events come as the Fordham football team is off to its hottest start in nearly a decade—and as the University prepares to celebrate the inauguration of its new president, Tania Tetlow, who will be on hand to welcome alumni and families back to the Bronx campus.

Led by quarterback Tim DeMorat, who was named the NCAA FCS National Player of the Week after Fordham’s 52-49 win over Monmouth University last Saturday, the Rams enter the game with a 2-0 record. It’s the team’s best start since 2013, when Fordham advanced to the second round of the FCS playoffs and finished the year ranked No. 10 in the country.

On Saturday, the Rams will take on the University at Albany Great Danes. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. on Jack Coffey Field.

For the Fordham faithful, however, Homecoming promises more than exciting action on the field. The weekend’s festivities kick off on Friday night, when undergraduate students will join Tetlow at her inaugural President’s Ball, a semiformal dance under the Homecoming tent on Edwards Parade. At the same time, recent graduates will reunite downtown and take in the views of lower Manhattan on the ever-popular Young Alumni Yacht Cruise.

Before kickoff on Saturday, students, alumni, and friends will take part in the 11th annual 5K Ram Run, which starts at 9 a.m. outside the new McShane Campus Center. For those not participating in the fun run, Patricia Peek, Ph.D., FCRH ’90, GSAS ’92, ’07, dean of undergraduate admission, will lead a campus tour to highlight the new facilities and offer advice for families with students preparing to apply to colleges.

At 10:15 a.m., all attendees are invited to a meet-and-greet breakfast with Tania Tetlow in the Great Hall of the campus center, where Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association, will introduce the University’s 33rd president, who took office on July 1 and will be officially inaugurated on Oct. 14.

The Homecoming tents will open at 11 a.m. and feature food and drinks, as well as activities for kids, including face painting and balloon animals. Award-winning author Stacey D’Erasmo, associate professor of English at Fordham, will be on hand to sign copies of her latest novel, The Complicities (Algonquin, 2022), this year’s selection of the Fordham Alumni Book Club, which members of the community are invited to join.

Also at 11 a.m., Robert Reilly, FCRH ’72, LAW ’75, former assistant dean of Fordham Law School, will lead a tour called “Hidden in Plain Sight: Discover the Jesuit Presence at Rose Hill.” Those looking for an alternative to the game are invited to venture across the street at 1 p.m. to explore the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden using an exclusive Fordham group rate.

The day will conclude with the annual Homecoming Mass at 4:30 p.m. in the University Church.

For more information and to buy tickets in advance for one or more of the Homecoming events, visit fordham.edu/homecoming.

Several thousand Fordham alumni, family members, students, and friends took part in the festivities, which included special receptions for the classes of 1970 and 1971, a 5K Ram Run, the launch of the first-ever Alumni Book Club, a jaunt to the New York Botanical Garden, and the traditional Homecoming tents on Edwards Parade, where attendees of all ages mixed and mingled for the first time since November 2019. (Last year’s Homecoming was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

“This is Fordham—active, students running around, Edwards Parade full of people,” said Mary Boland, a 1979 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

For Joe McAteer, a 1999 graduate of the Gabelli School of Business and a former Fordham football player, the day was a chance to resume a family tradition. He and his wife, Anne, took their daughters, Brigid and Melaney, to the family tent, where an artist drew caricatures of the girls and made balloon figures for them.

“I haven’t been on campus since the pandemic,” McAteer said. “And my daughters would come up here for years and loved, loved coming up here—it’s the family atmosphere. Being back on campus with my kids, it’s great. It’s just that ambience, that feel that you get walking back on campus.”

The celebrations commenced on Thursday evening, Oct. 7, when Fordham athletics inducted 13 alumni into its Hall of Fame during a ceremony under the Homecoming tent on Edwards Parade. Among this year’s honorees were record-breaking quarterback Mike Nebrich, FCRH ’15; former Red Bulls goalkeeper Ryan Meara, GABELLI ’13; former women’s basketball star Abigail Corning, GABELLI ’14; and Joe Moglia, FCRH ’71, a former CEO of TD Ameritrade and former head football coach at Coastal Carolina University.

Celebrating the Golden Rams

Moglia, who will be honored at the Fordham Founder’s Dinner on Nov. 8, was among the members of the classes of 1970 and 1971 who were invited to a special reception on Friday evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their graduation from Fordham. While the Golden Rams are traditionally honored during Jubilee weekend in June, the celebrations for both class years were delayed until Homecoming this year, when the alumni could be feted in person.

Prior to the reception, they visited Butler Commons in Duane Library, home to a quarter-scale replica of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco—a gift from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Fordham in 2018. Art history professor Maria Ruvoldt, Ph.D., gave alumni and their guests a sweeping history of the storied fresco, gesturing above their heads to indicate specific areas of Michelangelo’s masterwork.

For Timothy Buckley, FCRH ’71, LAW ’74, and Eileen McDonough Buckley, TMC ’71, the space was a far cry from the Duane Library they knew 50 years ago, when the two met on campus as undergraduates. After the lecture, as they headed to University Church for a Mass honoring the Golden Rams, they recalled their wedding at the church in 1975, the year after Buckley graduated from Fordham Law School, as well as the charm of the old library.

“Walsh Library was long overdue,” Buckley said, referring to the William D. Walsh Family Library, which opened in 1997, “but when you came from where I came from, [the Finger Lakes region of New York], Duane was a big deal.”

“I loved those spiral staircases” in the old library, McDonough added.

Likewise, Peter Dolan, GABELLI ’71, ’75, and his wife, Mary Marcia Dolan, arrived on campus Friday afternoon with 50-year-old memories of a place that has changed dramatically in the intervening decades. Dolan took only a few classes at Rose Hill, but he recalled a scrappy population of students who, like him, often worked to pay for tuition while pursuing their studies. Mary Marcia attended Manhattanville College, a Fordham football rival at the time, but the couple had little time for Homecoming games until this year. Dolan said that by the time he was in graduate business school at Fordham, they already had two children. For him, college rivalries played out in job interviews.

“I’m grateful to Fordham for my career. I went on so many interviews going up against Princeton and the like and they’d say, ‘Finally, somebody from Fordham is here,’” he said on the steps of Keating Hall, standing next to his wife and grandson Patrick, a first-year student at Rose Hill, before heading into the tent on Edwards Parade for the Golden Rams reception.

Dolan said he had tried to convince his children to go to Fordham, but they all went to other Jesuit colleges, making his grandson’s presence at Rose Hill all the more special.

“To have my grandson come here is a thrill of a lifetime,” he said.

Dancing the Night Away, Amid Views of Keating Hall and the Manhattan Skyline

On Friday evening, approximately 1,000 young alumni from the classes of 2011 to 2021 began their Homecoming weekend on a yacht cruise around lower Manhattan. For members of the classes of 2020 and 2021—who made up the majority of the sold-out crowd—it was one of their first opportunities to reconnect with classmates and friends since graduation. Many also saw it as an event that made up for a tradition they missed as undergrads: Senior Week programming.

“I don’t think any of us have been in that kind of crazy-busy celebratory environment since before 2020,” Finley Peay, FCLC ’20, said after the event.

Meanwhile, at Rose Hill, current undergraduates resumed another tradition: the annual President’s Ball. The dance had a new location this year—the Homecoming Tent on Edwards Parade, following the Golden Rams reception—and it drew more than 3,400 students, one of biggest turnouts in the history of the ball.

A Flying Start

On Saturday morning, about 50 students, alumni, staff, and other members of the extended Fordham family took part in the 5K Ram Run, which started and ended in front of the historic Rose Hill Gym. Their path, three loops around campus, took them past the new campus center, which is undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion that will enhance services, programming, and resources for Fordham students.

For Fordham College at Rose Hill senior Kyle McAuley, who placed first, the race was a chance to enjoy an early-morning run and be part of the larger Fordham community.

“I’m a distance runner—I recently finished the Bronx 10-mile and I just really enjoy running in the Bronx. I think we need more races here, so to have one on Fordham’s campus was pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a good time to be a part of the community—I’m graduating this year, so it felt nice to be able to do this, especially after not having really any type of Homecoming last year.”

Sophomore Michael Parrinello, who finished second, brought a family feel to the event, running with his sister, Lauren.

“It was exciting to welcome family onto campus after all this time,” he said. “There’s just a lot of energy, which has kind of been missing the last 18 months.”

Catching Up on Campus

Homecoming attendees also had the opportunity to learn about some of the work that’s been taking place on and off campus in the past couple of years.

The deans of Fordham College at Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center shared how the Cultural Engagement Internships program, which they launched in 2020 with support from Fordham alumni, has grown from two partners to more than 20 for the current semester. The program provides students with paid internships at local nonprofits and cultural institutions such as the Bronx Book Festival, the New York Hall of Science, and the Brooklyn Museum.

“Many of these organizations were introduced to us by alumni or by faculty or by other members of the community,” said Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

One of Fordham’s partners is the Elmhurst/Corona Recovery Collaborative, which unites the efforts of 24 nonprofits in Queens. Fordham College at Lincoln Center sophomore Arika Ahamad supported the collaborative’s communications efforts this past year, working on a newsletter and other publications to help connect residents to community resources such as vaccination locations and help with government forms. “What they were all doing was working together to help the area recover from COVID-19,” she said.

Alumni also had the chance to welcome Sally Benner, FCRH ’84, who will become the chair of the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) advisory board in January.

“I come here today, and I think of when I was a [student] trying to study on Homecoming Saturday,” she said, while speaking in the McGinley Center’s North Dining Hall. “I was wondering what was all that fuss? Who are these old people in that tent? And now, I am that person, and I want a bigger fuss—more noise!”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, led a champagne toast at the FUAA reception, after which he called for attendees to join him in singing “The Ram,” Fordham’s fight song.

“I want to thank you for everything you do for Fordham,” he said. “I want you to be proud of Fordham—be as proud of Fordham as Fordham is of you. Pray for Fordham that we might always be true to the vision and the mission that John Hughes had,” he said, referring to the University’s founder.

Benner will succeed John Pettenati, FCRH ’81, the FUAA’s founding advisory board chair, who congratulated her on her new role. He said although he didn’t know her when they were students, he knew she was a member of Mimes and Mummers, the theater group at Rose Hill, “and I know how passionate she was about that organization: She’s going to bring that passion to the FUAA.”

Benner’s fellow Mimes and Mummers alumni also reunited on Saturday morning, enjoying coffee and catching up outside Hughes Hall before visiting Collins Auditorium, where they reminisced about their old college shows and marveled at the building’s new elevator and display of show posters framed by light bulbs.

Under the Tent

The Homecoming tent, however, was the main attraction. Alumni, students, families, and friends gathered there for pre-boxed lunches and drinks, played Jenga and other games, enjoyed each other’s company, and shared their favorite Fordham memories with friends and loved ones. (After the day was over, the alumni relations office donated 500 meals to Bessie Green Community Inc., a nonprofit organization that has been serving the underprivileged in Newark, New Jersey, since 1978.)

For Ruddy Castillo, a 1998 Fordham College at Rose Hill graduate, and his wife, Gloria, Homecoming was the first time they had the chance to share the campus experience with their daughters, Emma and Victoria.

“I’ve never done it before—there’s so much change, and it’s great to actually see all the changes and to see people again,” Castillo said. “It’s even better [with my daughters], to share in the memories and show them around the campus that I came to school at, and get them exposed to this type of event.”

Several attendees took the opportunity to meet Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s English Department, who signed copies of her novel Lizzie & Dante (Random House, 2021), which was recently selected as the inaugural selection of the Fordham Alumni Book Club.

It’s the first novel she’s published under her real name, but she’s well-known in the romance genre for the more than 7 million books she’s sold under her pseudonym, Eloisa James.

The book club will meet via Zoom for two, one-hour sessions on Wednesday, October 20, and Wednesday, November 10. The first session will be moderated by Fordham English Professor Stuart Sherman, Ph.D., and the second session will be moderated by Phillip Cicione, Ed.D., FCRH ’87, one of the alumni who stopped by the tent to pick up a copy of Lizzie & Dante.

Cicione, an English teacher in New York’s Commack school district, met Bly through a former student who recently graduated from Fordham. “[Mary and I] had lunch right before [the COVID-19] shutdown, and she was asking me for ideas of how to get English alumni more involved with Fordham and, specifically, the English department,” Cicione said.

They stayed in touch, and eventually he was asked to serve as a moderator for the Fordham Alumni Book Club. “It’s a perfect fit, as an educator, to be moderating,” he said. “Every day in my classroom is a book club.”

Game Time—or a Walk in the Botanical Garden

As the 1 p.m. kickoff approached, the Fordham cheerleaders and dance team helped get the crowd hyped up before the big game, while the Fordham band played the University’s fight song. But not everyone made their way to Coffey Field.

Several attendees decided to tour the New York Botanical Garden at a discounted Fordham rate, a new option offered at Homecoming this year. The Ciciones each chose their favorite, with Phillip heading to the game and Jackie opting for the garden.

She cited her love of the botanical garden and the ease of touring it solo as reasons why she trekked across the street instead of going into the stands.

Fran Phair, PCS ’05, said that while she’s attended the Homecoming game in the past, this year she felt the garden would be more fun than football. “There’s a great exhibit going on right now. That’s why we made this decision.”

But for Fordham football and their fans, the scene at Jack Coffey Field was fun too.

Senior quarterback Tim DeMorat put on a show for the Ram faithful, throwing for four touchdowns and 339 yards in the first half, as he led the Fordham to a 56–7 victory over Wagner in front of an excited home crowd.

At the end of the first quarter, the 1971 crew team was honored on the 50th anniversary of an exceptional season. Despite the challenges of losing varsity status and having to find a new coach that year, the team won first place in the Deering Cup, beat eight of nine competitors in the Grimaldi Cup, and won first place in the Hudson River Presidents Cup.

The team’s coach, Ed Witman, GSAS ’77, was pursuing a doctorate at Fordham when he found a torn piece of loose-leaf on the windshield of his Volkswagen prior to the 1971 season. “Interested in coaching crew?” it asked.

It was a difficult time for the team, whose members had embraced the “cultural revolution,” Witman said, with their long hair and beards. They didn’t have a lot of support.

“And then we lost the boat,” he said. “So we had to row in borrowed shells. If these guys had not persevered and hung in there, though, I think the crew at Fordham would have vanished.”

Team member John J. Fischer Jr., FCRH ’72, said the team has remained close. “We’ve been good friends and we get together every year, almost, to celebrate our team and go out on a row—we used to go out on rows. We’re now in our 70s.”

The Rams put on most of their show in the first half, going up 42–7, thanks to DeMorat; senior wide receiver Fotis Kokosioulis, who had 101 yards and two scores; and first-year linebacker James Conway, who held Wagner’s offense in check by completing a game-high 12 tackles and forcing a fumble.

The weekend concluded with a Homecoming Mass in the University Church.

Chris Walchuk, FCRH ’84, GSE ’87, who attended Homecoming in 2019, said that she loved getting to share the experience of the day with her daughter Katarina, a first-year student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

“It’s the people,” she said. “It’s so nice. I was thinking about that as we were sitting inside the tent. This is just like the previous one, [in 2019]. It’s so nice to be back.”

—Taylor Ha, Nicole LaRosa, Sierra McCleary-Harris, and Tom Stoelker contributed reporting to this story.

From Oct. 1 to 4, hundreds of alumni, family, and friends—from as far as Germany—tuned in for an expanded series of virtual events that drew on some of the best-loved Homecoming traditions, like the 5K Ram Run and tailgate parties, and included a “pub” trivia competition, updates on academic and student life amid COVID-19, and a tribute to the 50th anniversary of a Fordham football milestone.

In addition to joining panels and discussions sponsored by the Office of Alumni Relations, Fordham graduates took to social media, where thousands viewed Homecoming Instagram stories and tweets shared via the @fordhamalumni accounts, and others used the #FordhamHomecoming20 hashtag to post their own messages, including pictures of pets and kids decked out in Fordham gear.

A Forum for FCLC

Things kicked off on Thursday evening with a panel discussion featuring two relative newcomers to the Fordham College at Lincoln Center community: Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., who became dean of the college in August 2019, and Tracyann Williams, Ph.D., who joined FCLC as assistant dean for student support and success last February.

Fordham University Alumni Association Advisory Board member Samara Finn Holland, FCLC ’03, moderated the discussion, during which the deans shared their observations about FCLC students.

“They are an amazing bunch of people,” Auricchio said. “These are students who are not only intelligent and motivated, but they’re really just decent, kind, wonderful human beings.” She recalled several instances of students greeting her when they saw her around the city.

Auricchio noted that political science, economics, and psychology are the three most popular majors among current FCLC students, and the fashion studies minor is growing particularly quickly. She said her office is focused on four areas: connecting to neighbors, enriching courses, enhancing research, and globalizing the curriculum.

Both she and Williams addressed the unique challenges faculty and students face during the pandemic, and Williams noted that part of her job is to help students acknowledge their feelings of disappointment that it’s not a typical academic year, and doing what she can to assist them.

“I am very much interested in always asking students what their needs are and not deciding for them,” she said.

Having worked at other New York City universities before arriving at FCLC, both Auricchio and Williams shared what they think makes Fordham so special.

“I feel as though it’s a unique place where students can come be part of a deeply caring, close-knit community that will support them and help them as they branch out into the city,” Auricchio said. “And to me, it’s just the best of both worlds.”

Pub Trivia at Home

Alumnus Tim Tubridy, FCRH ’99, and his brother, James Tubridy, co-owners of DJs @ Work, hosted a virtual pub trivia session on Friday night. Attendees were invited to answer 10 Fordham-themed questions, either individually or as teams.

The first question of the night delved into a bit of the University’s architectural history: “For what church were the stained-glass windows in the University church intended?” Father McShane delivered both the question and answer (St. Patrick’s Cathedral, when it was located on Mulberry Street), joking that he’d been imagining Jeopardy! theme music playing as he gave contestants time to respond.

Other fun facts unearthed during the Q&A included how many books are housed in the Fordham libraries (more than 2 million), how many acres the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses encompass (8 and 85, respectively), and how many live ram mascots have lived on campus (28).

At the end of the hour-long session, three teams were tied for first place with a whopping 20,000 points each.

A Virtual 5K Ram Run

While the 5K Ram Run is usually held at Rose Hill during Homecoming weekend, this year, alumni were invited to run, jog, or walk a five-kilometer trek of their own and to share photos on social media. Runners were also encouraged to share their finishing times by taking screenshots of their running apps, and the Office of Alumni Relations will be sending prizes to those who submitted their times.

Justin LaCoursiere, FCRH ’12, posted a photo from Central Park and said, “Fordham Homecoming looks a little different this year, but I’m still taking part in some fun [virtual]activities, like the Annual 5K Ram Run.”

Academic and Student Life Amid the Pandemic

On Saturday morning, a panel of Fordham administrators and faculty discussed the continued uncertainty of COVID-19, its impact on current and prospective Fordham students, and how they’re working to build and strengthen a sense of community under the circumstances. The conversation was moderated by Michael Griffin, associate vice president for alumni relations.

J. Patrick Hornbeck, professor of theology, secretary of the Faculty Senate, and special faculty advisor to the provost for strategic planning, said that soon after Fordham canceled in-person classes and shifted to a virtual format this past March, faculty began planning to avoid such abrupt disruptions for the fall semester. That’s how Fordham developed its flexible hybrid model, which mixes online and in-person learning.

“We would provide opportunities for students to learn and for faculty to teach in several different modalities,” he said. “The idea was, we did not know how things were going to go week-by-week and month-by-month. How could we deliver [a Fordham education]regardless of the way the pandemic would play out?”

During the panel, Patricia Peek, Ph.D., dean of undergraduate admission, said that some of the changes implemented this year, such as virtual guided tours and information sessions, could become permanent to help make Fordham more accessible in the long term.

“I think, even when we’re fully on the ground, we will now always have virtual events because they’re providing so many opportunities and access for students,” she said.

Clint Ramos, head of design and production for Fordham Theatre, noted that the shift “was especially challenging for theatre because our education … is really experiential and a lot of our pedagogy is founded on the ability to gather.” But he said the program has met these challenges head-on, pointing to opportunities for creativity, like a collaborative effort he initiated with theater programs at Princeton, Georgetown, SUNY Purchase, and UMass Amherst. The One Flea Spare Project allows students to virtually attend classes at other universities and collaborate with each other on projects on multiple platforms based on themes in One Flea Spare, a 1995 play by Naomi Wallace set in a plague-ravaged London during the 17th century.

Juan Carlos Matos, assistant vice president for student affairs for diversity and inclusion, spoke about creative ways in which students have tried to maintain a sense of community, whether or not they’re studying on campus. This has included hosting socially distanced outdoor events, such as a “silent disco” on the plaza at Lincoln Center or a musical performance from the Coffey Field bleachers at Rose Hill, for an online audience and a limited number of students in person.

He also said that the pandemic has sharpened students’ focus on social justice, in particular the calls for racial equality that were revitalized this summer.

“Energy that usually is exhausted on other things was nailed into Black Lives Matter in a way where folks who have privilege are just realizing, ‘Hey, these things are happening,’ whereas folks on the margins have always experienced these things.”

Matos said this has spurred action at the University, including an anti-racism plan from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. And he said the offices of student and multicultural affairs are continuing to offer a variety of programming to keep students engaged. One of the benefits of having virtual or hybrid events is that more students can attend.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for someone to have to choose one campus or the other or we may be offering something on one campus and not the other,” he said. “But virtually, now people can attend in any capacity.”

Shakespeare and Pop Culture

Shakespearean scholar Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of Fordham’s English department, led a mini-class titled “Pop Romeo & Juliet” on Saturday afternoon. Attendees were encouraged to watch Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film, Romeo + Juliet, prior to the class, during which Bly delved into the afterlife of the teen duo and their famous star-crossed love.

“Sociologists have made a pretty reasonable case for the argument that Romeo and Juliet actually changed the way we think about love in the Western world, which is very interesting,” Bly said.

Joined by English professor Shoshana Enelow, Bly discussed the idea of cultural capital, looking at how the characters of Romeo and Juliet have survived and how they’ve been transformed in modern adaptations, other films, music, and advertisements. She and Enelow drew parallels to West Side Story, the Beatles, and even a Taylor Swift music video, inviting attendees to write in impressions and examples of their own using Zoom’s Q&A feature.

An Afternoon with Athletics

Fordham sports fans attended two athletics-focused virtual events on Saturday afternoon, including a conversation between Ed Kull, interim director of athletics, and Head Football Coach Joe Conlin.

While the football season, along with those of other fall sports, has been pushed back to spring 2021, winter sports like basketball are planning to get started in late November. Kull highlighted some of the work that has been done to facilities during the pandemic, noting that not having students around for games has allowed several projects to be completed earlier than expected. Among the upgrades that players, coaches, and fans will now find are a new floor for the Frank McLaughlin Family Basketball Court in Rose Hill Gym, renovations to the strength and conditioning and team medicine spaces, and new offices for football staff.

As his team prepares to play in the spring, Conlin discussed the changes to workouts and practices they’ve had to adopt in the time of COVID-19, including health monitoring, socially distanced weight training, and wearing masks under their helmets during practice. Although he and his staff are not allowed to recruit high school players in person this year, they have been talking to recruits over Zoom and reviewing videos to assess their strength and athleticism.

“It’s been challenging at times, but it’s also been a lot of fun,” he said of this new way of doing things on and off the field. “We’ll continue to make it work for as long as we have to.”

Kull noted that out of the 44 seniors across spring sports whose final season was interrupted by cancellations last spring, 19 have decided to come back for a fifth year of eligibility.

Later that afternoon, the Tubridy brothers returned to host a virtual tailgate party that featured a welcome from Father McShane, trivia, performances by the Fordham band from the Coffey Field bleachers, and video updates from departments and groups like the Fordham University Alumni Association, the Center for Community Engaged Learning, and the Mimes and Mummers Alumni Association.

Kull and Conlin also returned for a pre-recorded video from the gravesite of Fordham graduate and NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, an appropriate lead-in to the tailgate’s final portion: a roundtable discussion with nine players from Fordham’s 1970 football team, which defeated Georgetown 50 years ago during that year’s homecoming game, just weeks after Lombardi’s death.

Moderated by WFUV’s Emmanuel Berbari, a Fordham College at Rose Hill senior, the players recalled the dominant ground game displayed by the Rams in their 39-17 win over the Hoyas, led by Eric Dadd’s 235 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Kevin Sherry, GABELLI ’70, who played offensive tackle, noted that Georgetown had beaten Fordham the previous year, and the Rams were looking for revenge.

Perhaps an even greater motivation for the team was the emotional pregame scene, when Lombardi’s widow, Marie, his brother Joseph, and the remaining members of Fordham’s “Seven Blocks of Granite” offensive line from Lombardi’s playing days honored the Fordham and NFL legend, who had died of colon cancer on September 3. The 1970 season also marked the return of varsity football to Fordham.

Peter “Pino” Carlesimo, FCRH ’71, the team’s starting quarterback, was among the panelists. “I think the importance of the game can be summed up very easily when I when I looked at that film and I saw my uncle Pete [Carlesimo, FCRH ’40, Fordham’s athletic director at the time] escorting Mrs. Lombardi off the field and tears coming down her eyes,” he said. “It was probably the biggest game I played in my career.”

Closing with Centeredness and Prayer

On Sunday morning, Carol Gibney, associate director of campus ministry for spiritual and pastoral ministries and director of spiritual life, leadership, and service, led a session focusing on “integrating Ignatian spirituality with the practice of yoga.” During the 45-minute practice, Gibney used breathwork to break down the word “grace,” infusing the ideas of gratitude, reflection, affirmation, centeredness, and enthusiasm and excitement into the yoga flow.

The virtual—but still communal—Homecoming weekend came to a close with a livestream of Mass from University Church, concelebrated by Father McShane and Damian O’Connell, S.J., alumni chaplain.

—Additional reporting by Kelly Kultys and Sierra McCleary-Harris

Programming includes campus-specific events for Lincoln Center and Rose Hill, a trivia night, the ninth annual (and first-ever virtual) 5K Ram Run, and a virtual tailgate celebration.

To help attendees get in the Fordham spirit, the alumni relations team is providing a Homecoming toolkit that includes printable pennants, cutouts, and games, as well as graphics for social media, Instagram story templates, Zoom and desktop backgrounds, Ram Run bibs, and coloring pages for kids of all ages.

The events kick off Thursday evening with a Fordham College at Lincoln Center forum led by Dean Laura Auricchio, Ph.D., and Friday night offers both a Road to Reunion Gathering, where alumni can learn more about plans for Jubilee 2021 and how to get involved as a reunion committee volunteer, and a virtual Fordham pub trivia competition hosted by Tim Tubridy, FCRH ’99, and his brother James Tubridy, co-owners of the entertainment company DJs @ Work.

On Saturday morning, alumni, friends, and family are encouraged to take part in a virtual 5K Ram Run by running, jogging, or walking wherever they are and sharing photos of themselves wearing their Fordham gear. Those who wish to be considered for prizes can track their times via running apps and share them, as well.

Later that day, alumni can attend an athletics sideline chat featuring Fordham football head coach Joe Conlin and Ed Kull, interim director of athletics; “Pop Romeo & Juliet,” a talk about Shakespeare’s famous lovers—in music, ads, and film—by Mary Bly, Ph.D., chair of the English department; and, from 4:30 to 6, a virtual tailgate and celebration emceed by DJs @ Work.

Homecoming weekend concludes on Sunday with a morning Ignatian yoga session led by Fordham campus minister and Ignatian yoga teacher Carol Gibney, followed by a Mass livestreamed from the Univeristy Church and concelebrated by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, and Damian O’Connell, S.J., the University’s alumni chaplain.

To see a full weekend schedule, register for events, access toolkit materials, view photos from Homecoming 2019, or to make a donation, visit the Virtual Homecoming 2020 page on Forever Fordham.

The teams’ 57th meeting is set for Saturday, Nov. 16, when for the second time in three years they will play at Rose Hill as part of Fordham’s annual Homecoming celebration.

As students, alumni, parents, and friends prepare to flock to Jack Coffey Field for the festivities—including the eighth annual 5K Ram Run, Homecoming tent celebrations, and postgame Mass—here’s a brief look back at a few of the memorable milestones in a good-natured sports rivalry between two Jesuit institutions.

A Salute to the ‘Iron Major’ 

The teams met regularly during the first four decades of the 20th century, trading wins back and forth after Fordham captured its first series victory in 1907. 

In 1927, Frank W. Cavanaugh, a World War I veteran and celebrated college football coach, took charge of the Rams. Known as “The Iron Major,” he had coached briefly at Holy Cross before the war. At Rose Hill, he helped usher in one of the most successful eras in Fordham football, including an undefeated record in 1929. 

Cavanaugh retired after the 1932 season and died less than a year later, but the Rams continued to be one of the most formidable teams in the country. Thanks in large part to the “Seven Blocks of Granite”—the nickname for Fordham’s fearsome linemen, including the legendary Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37—Fordham was consistently ranked among the top 20 teams in the nation until the University discontinued its football program during World War II.

Fordham restarted its program in 1946, but the Rams wouldn’t face Holy Cross again until 1951. It was then that William P. Walsh, LAW ’57, a Holy Cross undergrad at the time, helped give the rivalry a boost. 

Walsh, who was from Long Island, was working at a summer camp run by Fordham football head coach Ed Danowski, FCRH ’34, when he heard that the two Jesuit rivals were restarting their series.

He thought an official title and a trophy—the Ram-Crusader Cup—would be a nice way to celebrate the rivalry. He also suggested that the annual game be played in honor of Cavanaugh, who had been the subject of a major motion picture—The Iron Major (1943)—that was filmed in part at both Fordham and Holy Cross.

The cup went to Holy Cross four times in a row, from 1951 to 1954. After the 1954 season, Fordham stopped its football program again, this time due to cost concerns.

Beginning of a New Era

A group of Fordham students helped restart the football program at a club level in the 1960s, and it was reinstated as a varsity program at the Division III level in 1970. 

Twenty years later, in 1990, the football program moved up to Division 1-AA, now called the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and joined the Patriot League. That was where Holy Cross had been competing since the mid-1980s.

The two teams resumed their rivalry—this time with an international flair. The 1992 game was played at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds in Ireland, where Holy Cross defeated Fordham, 24-19.

The Rams captured the cup for the first time in 1995, with a 17-10 victory in Hamilton, Bermuda. Since then, the series has been relatively evenly matched. Holy Cross has a slight edge in the cup battles, at 17-16, and has won the past two. Fordham had previously taken five straight Ram-Crusader cups games. 

And while most of the games have been played either at Fordham or Holy Cross, the 2016 edition was a notable exception—for the first time since 1923, Fordham and Holy Cross faced off at Yankee Stadium.  

A Legendary Field for a Legendary Game

Drew Casey, FCRH ’17, had the opportunity to call that game on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, for WFUV 90.7 FM. It’s an experience he said he won’t forget anytime soon.

“As a sports broadcaster, you work a lot of games and many tend to blend together,” Casey said. “This one was a little bit different—Fordham, Holy Cross, Yankee Stadium—I think I had that circled two, three years out.”

Casey remembers having to take a second in the middle of his routine pregame interview with Andrew Breiner, Fordham’s head coach at the time.

“We were sitting on a bench where third base at Yankees Stadium would have been,” Casey recalled. “This was certainly special. It was just really cool to think about Yankee Stadium.”

Fordham defeated Holy Cross, 54-14, in front of a crowd of more than 20,000 fans, thanks in large part to a four-touchdown day from running back Chase Edmonds, FCRH ’17. (Edmonds, now a running back on the Arizona Cardinals, recently had another big performance close to home, running for 126 yards and three touchdowns against the New York Giants.)

“I think what makes this Ram-Crusader Cup in general interesting is the schools really care about it,” Casey said. “They care about winning that trophy.”

Alumni of both schools care about the game too, not least because of the schools’ shared Jesuit heritage.  

Edward Winkler, FCRH ’67, LAW ’72, is one of many Fordham alumni with ties to both schools. He attended the historic matchup at Yankee Stadium and returned to Rose Hill in 2017 with his daughter Alexandra Polefko, a 2003 Holy Cross graduate.

“I sent my daughter and some tuition money to Holy Cross, but most of my time, effort, and treasure goes to Fordham,” he told Fordham News, laughing, during the 2017 Homecoming game. “But you know, with Holy Cross being another Jesuit school, it’s like a sibling rivalry rather than a real fight.”

Go to the Homecoming 2019 site for the complete schedule of events and to purchase game tickets.