Fordham–St. John's rivalry
American college sports rivalry / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Fordham–St. John's rivalry is an inter-conference rivalry between the Fordham Rams and the St. John's Red Storm who are both located in New York City: Fordham playing in The Bronx and St. John's playing in Queens. Conference-wise, the Rams play in the Atlantic 10 Conference (Patriot League for football), while the Red Storm play in the Big East Conference.
Sport | Multi-sport |
---|---|
First meeting | 1909; 115 years ago (1909) (men's basketball) St. John's 21, Fordham 13 |
Latest meeting | 2021 (Women’s basketball) St. John's 64 Fordham 67 |
The rivalry is most prevalent in men's basketball, where the sides have met 88 times over the last century. The Red Storm have been dominant over that time, boasting a 69–19 record over the Rams. Included, a 23-game winning streak which lasted from 1972 through 1991, although Fordham has managed a few upsets since.[1] St. John's also dominates Fordham in women's basketball, boasting a 19–5 record overall although Fordham has split the last 6 contests. In other sports, the two teams generally meet less frequently, but there's still a buzz amongst students for such showdowns. Fordham had an advantage over St. John's in football, winning nearly two-thirds (9–6 record) of the head-to-head matches although the bulk of those affairs came with little pageantry as most came when the two schools were fielding D-III teams. The teams haven't played since 1988 and the series will remain dormant since St. John's disbanded its football team in 2002, thus allowing St. John's to spend more resources on basketball while Fordham continues to support a D-1 football program. Fordham's football rivalry is now with its Jesuit sister schools Georgetown and College of the Holy Cross, all three playing in the Patriot League. The Bleacher Report states the major rival to St. John's in the Big East is Seton Hall.
To a certain extent a contention between the schools goes beyond sports. As the two largest Catholic universities in the region, containing the two largest green campuses in New York City, the institutions can be considered similar in look.
The friendly friction is said to have started in the 19th century when both schools were known as St. John's College. Fordham was founded as the third oldest university in New York City by coadjutor bishop (later archbishop) of the Diocese of New York, John Hughes and named after Saint John the Baptist in 1841 as a seminary that was run by the Vincentians. When Hughes wished to expand and open a men's college, the Vincentians did not wish to pursue that avenue for the Provincial who saw having the seminarians teaching in the college as a distraction to the young men studying for the priesthood. Wishing to staff the seminary and a college, Hughes removed the Vincentians priest and invited the Jesuits to open the men's college. The school, located in the Fordham section of The Bronx was deeded over to the Jesuits in 1847. In 1868, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bishop John Loughlin invited the Vincentian Fathers to found a separate seminary for the young Brooklyn Diocese as well as St. John's College, both named after Saint John the Baptist. The Vincentians accepted. In 1907 the Jesuit school was charted to be a university and the St. John's College name was dropped to use the town where it was located in the name, a practice common to Jesuit schools. Thus the Vincentian school (chartered as a full university in 1933) became the area's only "St. John's." The university moved to the Hillcrest section of Queens in 1956. Although the university is run by the Vincentians, a Dominican priest, Brian Shanley became the President in 2021. Fordham, although run by the Jesuits since 1841, now has a lay president Tania Tetlow starting in 2022.