Reliving Columbia’s Previous Appearances on Main ESPN

Columbia and Harvard’s Friday night clash received an unexpected boost when ESPN promoted it from ESPNU to ESPN2. This makes the third straight year that the Ivy League will have a Friday night game on ESPN2. The results of the previous two years have been significant. The league saw its highest ratings since its original ESPN contract in 1988-1990.

While Harvard and Cornell played in the ESPN2 games the previous two years, Columbia will make its first appearance on either ESPN or ESPN2 since 1990. Given that normally hapless Columbia has just two Ivy League titles, one since 1961, it is not a stretch to say this is one of the biggest moments in the program’s last 70 years.

Columbia previously appeared on ESPN during the Ivy League’s previous contract with ESPN from 1988-1990. That deal promised five games on ESPN each year and paid the conference $175,000 per year, $424,813.15 when adjusted for today’s inflation.

Columbia’s first ESPN appearance came with the school deep in the throes of a 43-game losing streak. ESPN broadcast the Lions’ road game against Penn in 1988. The television audience saw a spirited running back duel between Columbia’s Greg Abbruzzee and Penn’s Bryan Keys.

Keys and Penn got the better of Abbruzzee and Columbia. Keys ran for 143 yards, while Abbruzzee ran for 126 as the Quakers won 24-10. Columbia’s losing streak reached 44-games, but would end the next week when Columbia beat Princeton 16-13. On the other hand, Penn won the Ivy League with a 9-1 overall record and 6-1 conference record.

The following year, in 1989, Columbia again faced Penn on ESPN, this time hosting the Quakers. The Lions nearly pulled off an upset for the ages. The defending Ivy League champions needed a one-yard touchdown on 4th-and-goal from Bryan Keys with 1:38 left to escape with a 24-21 win. Keys once again carried Penn to victory with 31 carries for 147 yards.

Columbia’s ESPN opponent finally changed in 1990 when the network aired the Lions’ game against Lafayette. Once again, the Lions delivered a thrilling near-upset. Columbia nearly overcame a 31-3 deficit in a 41-34 loss to the Leopards. This time, the quarterbacks dueled. Columbia’s Bruce Mayhew threw for 327 yards and four touchdowns, while Lafayette’s Tom Kirchoff threw for 310 yards and a pair of scores.

So much is at stake in Friday's clash between Harvard and Columbia. The Crimson enters as the FCS Playoff Committee's ninth-ranked team and hopes to strengthen its case for a seed or, at worst, an at-large bid. Pride was originally the only thing the Lions were playing for, but now the Lions can do something the program has never done and waited over three decades to accomplish.