The day began with 75 hardy souls taking part in the annual Ram Run, which sent runners on a 5K loop around the campus.

While they passed beneath the boughs of stately elm trees lining the campus, other revelers passed beneath the arches of Rose Hill’s Southern Boulevard entrance, heading to the parking lot where they set up for tailgate parties. The lot drew fans of both Fordham and the College of the Holy Cross, whose Crusaders ultimately won the Homecoming matchup 49 to 27.

Joe Jordan, GABELLI ’74, a Fordham Football Hall of Fame inductee who received the 2019 Mara Family Award, joined former teammate John Lumelleau, FCRH ’74 at the lot. Jordan was a freshman when football was reinstated as a Division I varsity program in 1970, after it was stopped in 1954 and revived as a club in the 1960s and then a Division III team in the NCAA.

“They brought back varsity on a shoestring, really,” said Lumelleau, who is also a member of the Fordham University Board of Trustees. Still, there was excitement on campus for the program, particularly a game their freshman year against Georgetown, soon after legendary coach Vince Lombardi, FCRH ’37, passed away.

“At halftime, they had the six surviving Seven Blocks of Granite,” Jordan recalled, citing the nickname given to Fordham’s fearsome linemen, including Lombardi. Wellington Mara “[current co-owner of the New York Giants]. was there, Marie Lombardi was there. There was no Lombardi Center—that’s when they dedicated it.”

The pair and many of their teammates still get together every year as a part of the “Rams of the ’70s” group that Lumelleau, a 2015 Walsh Family Award winner, helped start.

Reuniting Under the Big Tent

In the center of campus, beside the field where the Holy Cross Crusaders would face off with the Fordham Rams for the 57th time, several thousand alumni, students, families, and friends flocked to massive tents on Edwards Parade for burgers, pulled chicken, and libations. Several tables offered information about various alumni affinity groups, while the Fordham University Alumni Association (FUAA) collected four boxes of goods that attendees donated for POTS, a nonprofit that helps individuals facing poverty in the Bronx.

Outside the tent, Giant Jenga games lured guests on the west side of the parade, while face painting, a bouncy castle, wall climbing, and corn hole enticed families by the steps of Keating Hall.

Elsewhere on campus, members of the Mimes and Mummers Alumni Association celebrated their annual “Collins-coming” at Collins Auditorium, and former Fordham Law School Assistant Dean Robert J. Reilly, FCRH ’72, LAW ’75, guided a group of 30 on a walking tour of the campus titled Hidden in Plain Sight: Discover the Jesuit Presence at Rose Hill. Among the tidbits he shared was the fact that the statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola next to Hughes Hall was commissioned by Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, who requested that the founder of the Jesuits be depicted facing directly up at the heavens.

“If you Google St. Ignatius of Loyola, you will not find that except for one place. This is a very, very unusual statue,” he said.

A Welcoming Community

Seated at one of the blue tables in the tent reserved for Marymount College alumnae was Teresita Abay-Krueger, MC ’80, who studied biology and chemistry and went on to work at IBM. For several years, she served on the Marymount alumnae board.

“Fordham has been a very welcoming community to the Marymount alumnae … You’ve really been cheerleaders for [our]  legacy in many respects. And we not only appreciate it, but we respect that,” she said.

“It’s just been a natural melding of the two communities. And what better place to have it than Homecoming, where we get to celebrate a nice football game on a beautiful campus with plenty to eat and drink?”

A Bond Among Jesuit Schools

The event also drew families for whom loyalties between the Rams and the Crusaders were split. Bob and Rose Shea, natives of West Hartford, Connecticut, who graduated from the College of Holy Cross in 1985 and 1986, respectively, were sporting dark purple garb, while their daughter Fiona Shea, FCRH ’19, wore a hat that said simply, “Bronx.” Rose said they love the camaraderie between alumni of Jesuit schools. She’s also confessed to being obsessed with New York Botanical Garden, and noted that they became members during Fiona’s freshman year. Arthur Avenue is a must-stop for them every time they visit.

“Being from Connecticut, we’re more familiar with Boston, and of course we’re familiar with New York, but having Fiona here, it opened a whole new world to us,” she said.

A Time for Families

Multiple generations of Rams took part in the day’s festivities. Lynn and Ryan Flaherty, both FCRH ’00, watched their children Nolan, 9, Reagan, 7, and Ainsley, 5, take their turns on the bouncy castles; they said there was never a question that they’d make the drive from Amityville, New York, for the day.

“We love bringing the kids here, and showing them where mom and dad went to school,” said Lynn. “They really do try to do something for the kids. Ryan’s parents join us, so we make it a big family thing.”

Jerry Breslin, FCRH ’59, likewise said he treasured the memories of his time on campus. He started returning after his son, John, graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1991. When he was an undergraduate, he said, he befriended the priest who was then the dean of men, and the priest officiated at Breslin’s wedding. Most of his former classmates had good friends who were Jesuits, he said.

“In the springtime, after dinner we’d come out and play softball. There’d be a hundred Jesuits standing around, watching the game. You’d make an error or something, and they’d yell, ‘Breslin, you’re just as bad at softball as you are in the classroom,’” he said, laughing.

Chris Healy, on the other hand, never graduated from Fordham, but nonetheless feels at home at Rose Hill. He’s been coming here since he was seven, when his father, Richard Healy, FCRH ’50 and uncle, Stan Bloomer, FCRH, ’50, brought him to his first homecoming.

“My family has such a history here,” said Healy, wearing a Fordham jacket more than three decades old. “To me, it’s tradition and history that embellishes this University.”

His daughter, Brittany Healy, GABELLI ’17, was celebrating in the main tent, too. Growing up, she and her two older brothers frequently watched football games at the Rose Hill campus. Years later, she majored in business administration and marketing at Fordham—just like her grandfather.

“My friends and I always talk about how Fordham is really like no other place on the planet,” said Healy, who is now an account executive at a public relations agency. “The community feel and the love that we have at this college is just different than anywhere else.”

For self-proclaimed “Fordham fanatic” Maggie Wimmer, FCRH ’16, this year’s homecoming had extra resonance.

“I love coming to homecoming. Whenever I get the chance to come back, I really enjoy it. And now that he’s in the program, it’s even more of a reason,” she said, motioning to her boyfriend, Matthew Glaser, a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Fordham.

“I haven’t even been to my undergraduate homecoming before, so this is a new experience for me,” said Glaser, who lives near Arthur Avenue.

Wimmer said she loves running into people she knew at Fordham, even if they were just acquaintances at the time.

“When you see them, it’s so exciting to relive those memories. It’s like you all have something to come back to,” said Wimmer, who majored in psychology at Fordham and now works in public health outreach at Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

“When we were graduating and Father McShane said, ‘This is your home, stay long and visit often’—you just connect with that, because when you walk on campus, it feels like home, like a breath of fresh air.”

View more photos from Homecoming.

Taylor Ha, Kelly Kultys, and Nicole LaRosa contributed reporting.

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.

Fordham’s Homecoming celebration kicked off with the sixth annual 5K Ram Run around campus and continued on Edwards Parade, where a main tent, family tent, and a loyal donor tent were teeming with activity.

All told, more than 5,000 alumni, students, family, and friends joined the fun inside the tents and outside on the lawn in front of Keating Hall for face painting, tossing a football, and a turn inside the bouncy castles.

The shared Jesuit heritage of the College of the Holy Cross and Fordham meant there were good-natured rivalries, as many families counted among them alumni from both schools.

Edward Winkler, FCRH ’67, LAW, 72, was one of them. He attended last year’s historic matchup between the two schools at Yankee Stadium, and was back again this year 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 said, laughing. “But you know, with Holy Cross being another Jesuit school, it’s like a sibling rivalry rather than a real fight.”

Megan Hughes, FCRH ’93, who was lounging on the Terrace of Presidents in front of Keating Hall, met her husband Chris, a 1990 Holy Cross graduate, in San Francisco, where they both worked for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. For Chris, the dual connection had always been there, as one of his younger brothers also attended Holy Cross, and another attended Fordham. The couple had attended games before, but hadn’t been to homecoming in a while. They brought their eight-year-old daughter Bridget to the festivities.

“The rivalry’s fun. We can dig each other and make fun of each other,” said Megan, who fondly recalled traveling into Manhattan to attend Broadway plays during her time at Rose Hill.

The day also drew attendees from further afield. The oversized cardboard Instagram frame in front of Keating Hall beckoned to Yue Zhang and three of her fellow classmates in the master’s in accounting program at the Gabelli School. Hailing from China’s Hubei Province, Zhang, a first-year graduate student, had never attended a homecoming or even a football game before. She was enjoying the festive atmosphere.

“Most of the time we’re just down at Lincoln Center, so it’s a fresh new experience for me to see such a beautiful campus. I met a lot of new friends here,” she said.

Ayanna Jones, a junior in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, drove to the Rose Hill campus from Cypress Hills, Brooklyn with her husband Chris and their 8-year-old daughter Saniya. Jones, who was watching approvingly as Saniya scaled a pyramid-shaped climbing wall, said she rarely sets foot at Rose Hill because her classes are on the Lincoln Center campus.

“I really love attending Fordham. I love the community, I love all my teachers, and I wanted to participate in some more of the school activities,” she said.

“I’ve wanted to come to homecoming for a few years now, but in previous years I was working. This was the first weekend I was off, and I said this would be great for Saniya to see. I want her to see what I’m doing, where I go to school, and what could possibly be in her future.”

 [doptg id=”97″] ]]> 79874 https://now.fordham.edu/athletics/rams-rout-crusaders-at-yankee-stadium/ Mon, 14 Nov 2016 20:16:16 +0000 http://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=58874 Photos by Chris TaggartThey came from Bellingham, Washington and Dallas, Texas; from the suburbs of Boston and downtown Chicago. Among them were African-American sorority sisters, philanthropists, fellow athletes, social workers, lawyers, veterans, and more than a few Irish families.

More than 21,000 descended on Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Nov. 12 to cheer on their teams from Holy Cross and Fordham, as they fought for the Ram-Crusader Cup. The Rams made the most of their once-in-lifetime chance to play at the world famous venue, taking the cup after defeating the Crusaders, 54-14.

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, called the Ram-Crusader competition a “friendly rivalry,” and fans taking the subway to the stadium proved him right. On the uptown No. 4 train, groups of purple-clad Crusaders jovially jousted with maroon-clad Rams, as Bronx locals characteristically paid little attention to the commotion.

Father McShane said the last time Fordham Rams played Yankee Stadium was in 1946—and they lost. However, the team had won previously at the stadium during the University’s centennial year in 1941.

“And for us to be going at it with Holy Cross, a Jesuit sister school, is just great,” he said.

Philip Borough, S.J., president of Holy Cross, agreed. “Yankee Stadium! Every little boy and girl in America dreams of being here,” he said.

The two school presidents met before the game in the Steinbrenner Suite. Father McShane noted that Holy Cross would be celebrating its 175^th anniversary in two years, and proposed a rematch at the stadium in two years’ time. Father Borough said that with nearly 10,000 tickets sold to Holy Cross fans “that might be a good point.”

At a pregame celebration of nearly 300 Fordham alumni, unofficial reunions took place among small groups, over plates of hot dogs and hamburgers. Brian Quinn, FCRH ’01, who traveled from Dallas with his family, recalled his years on the football team, which he admitted “weren’t very good.” As he surveyed the stadium he joked, “This is a big upgrade since then.”

Nearby, Maureen Bateman, LAW ’68, and Warren Gregory, FCRH ’66, talked about the ties that bind Fordham’s schools.

“It comes from the philosophy classes,” Bateman said, adding that her son Daniel who majored in physics at Fordham College at Lincoln Center “still has the Fordham spirit.”

“It is Jesuit, and their philosophy is serving others,” said Gregory.

The Jesuit philosophy was on display in the stadium as well. Colleagues of Sheena De Loache, a student at the Graduate School of Social Service, donated their tickets so that she could take a group special needs adults to the game.

“They had a blast of a time,” De Loache said.

Elsewhere in the stands, John Hanley, LAW ’00, wore a jersey half purple and half maroon, with logos of both teams. His son John graduated from Holy Cross last spring and his son Thomas is a sophomore at the Gabelli School of Business. But as a Fordham alumnus, he wore maroon socks to “tip the balance a little bit.”

But in the end, it was about more than the game.

“To see these young men to play at Yankee Stadium is a big deal,” said Bob Daleo, chairman of Fordham’s board of trustees. “We’ve had players go on to the NFL, but most of these kids are here for an education that will change their lives. This experience is just icing on the cake.”

[doptg id=”64″]

TOUCHDOWN! Fourth quarter, 47-14, Rams winning #RCCup #GoRams #fordhamfootball

A photo posted by Fordham University (@fordhamuniversity) on Nov 12, 2016 at 2:39pm PST

Baisley, 83, remembers how, after moving from New York to Chicago in the late 60s, he’d even try to win over Midwesterners by mentioning that he knew Vince Lombardi, FCRH ‘37, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach (who during his time at Fordham tried unsuccessfully to convince Jim’s brother, a basketball player, to join the football team).

But when Fordham takes on Holy Cross for the Ram-Crusader Cup in a highly anticipated game at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 12, Baisley won’t be pulling for either team.

That’s because Baisley will have a grandson on both squads: Charlie, a sophomore offensive lineman at Fordham, and Jimmy, a senior offensive lineman at Holy Cross.

“Oh, it’s going to be absolutely wonderful,” says Baisley, who retired as general counsel for W.W. Grainger in 2000. “We used to go to all the Yankee baseball games. And so to have your grandkids playing in the game, it’s rewarding. You work hard and you try to educate your kids, and give them an opportunity to be good people. And I think they’re all good people.”

Baisley says he’s seen his grandsons, who were teammates in high school in Illinois, play against each other just once: Fordham’s 47-41 overtime win over Holy Cross last season. But he says it’s a thrill to see them suit up for opposing schools, especially since Charlie and Jimmy are both on their team’s offensive units.

“It might have been different if they were knocking heads against each other,” he says. “But that wasn’t happening.”

Baisley’s grandsons say they’re looking forward to the game as well.

“I’m really excited,” says Jimmy Murray. “This game has been on everyone in my family’s schedule for the last two years.” Indeed, Baisley says at least 50 family members will be on hand on Nov. 12.

Not surprisingly, his grandsons are trying to sway him to their schools’ side.

“I’ve been kind of leaving some Holy Cross gear around his house, and hoping that he picks up on the hints and is wearing more Holy Cross than Fordham,” says Jimmy Murray.

Charlie, meanwhile, plans to try and persuade his grandfather to pull for his alma mater. “I hope he ultimately roots for Fordham, but I’m sure he’s going to have a great time regardless of the score of the game,” he said.

But despite his family’s many Fordham connections—another grandson played golf at Fordham, and he has a granddaughter in high school who’s committed to play soccer for the Rams in 2017—Baisley says he’s not rooting for either team at Yankee Stadium.

To remain neutral on game day, he says “I may bring my Holy Cross hat and my Fordham hat, and wear them interchangeably.”

“I don’t care which team wins,” he says. “I think every kid on that field is a winner because they’re getting a Jesuit education.”

–Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06