Military Classic of the South

The original "Military Classic of the South" was a football game played on Thanksgiving Day between Virginia Tech (VPI) and the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) beginning in 1913 and lasting until 1985.^[2][3] Unfortunately, as Virginia Tech continued to expand its student body, the game quickly became unmatched and VMI left the series in 1985.

Military Classic of the South

The Citadel Bulldogs VMI Keydets
Sport	Football
First meeting	October 16, 1920 VMI, 35–0
Latest meeting	October 19, 2024 The Citadel, 13–10
Next meeting	2025 at Charleston, SC
Trophy	Silver Shako
Statistics
Meetings total	80[1]
All-time series	The Citadel leads, 45–33–2
Trophy series	The Citadel leads, 31–13–1
Largest victory	The Citadel, 50–0 (1992)
Longest win streak	The Citadel, 12 (2003–2018)
Current win streak	The Citadel, 1 (2024–present)

300km
200miles

VMI

The Citadel

  

Locations of The Citadel and VMI

Today, the current Military Classic of the South is an American college football rivalry game played between the civilian students and cadet students from The Citadel and the cadets from Virginia Military Institute.^[4] The first game between VMI and The Citadel was in 1920. The game has been played nearly continuously since World War II; since then, only five seasons have seen the game not played. Currently, The Citadel is expanding its student body to become a larger comprehensive college and bringing in transfer graduate student athletes, while VMI remains all-military. Thus, the future of this series may be uncertain.^[5]

Current History

VMI and The Citadel first played each other in 1920. The trophy that is currently awarded, the Silver Shako, was introduced in 1976.^[6][7]

The game has been played nearly continuously since World War II, with no matchup in 1956, 2004, and 2008–2010. The Citadel had won the past twelve meetings before VMI's victory in 2019. The Citadel leads the series 45–33–2. At one point in 1967, the Keydets led the series 18–8–1. The Military Classic is the thirteenth oldest still-played rivalry in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of the NCAA. Both teams were members of the Southern Conference (SoCon) from 1936 until 2003, when VMI left for the Big South Conference and were reunited in the SoCon when VMI returned in 2014.^[8][9]

Game results

The Citadel victories

VMI victories

Tie games

No. Date Location Winner Score 1 October 16, 1920 Lynchburg, VA VMI 35–0 2 October 12, 1929 Lexington, VA VMI 12–7 3 October 11, 1930 Charleston, SC The Citadel 7–6 4 October 10, 1931 Lexington, VA Tie 13–13 5 October 8, 1932 Charleston, SC The Citadel 12–6 6 November 13, 1937 Lexington, VA VMI 27–0 7 November 16, 1946 Lexington, VA VMI 21–6 8 November 15, 1947 Charleston, SC The Citadel 7–6 9 November 13, 1948 Lexington, VA VMI 34–6 10 November 12, 1949 Charleston, SC The Citadel 19–14 11 November 18, 1950 Lexington, VA VMI 13–7 12 November 17, 1951 Charleston, SC VMI 27–21 13 November 15, 1952 Lexington, VA VMI 20–19 14 October 10, 1953 Charleston, SC VMI 14–0 15 November 13, 1954 Lexington, VA VMI 42–0 16 November 12, 1955 Charleston, SC VMI 14–7 17 November 16, 1957 Lexington, VA VMI 33–7 18 November 15, 1958 Charleston, SC The Citadel 14–6 19 November 14, 1959 Lexington, VA VMI 32–8 20 November 12, 1960 Charleston, SC VMI 20–6 21 November 4, 1961 Lexington, VA The Citadel 14–8 22 November 3, 1962 Charleston, SC VMI 16–7 23 November 16, 1963 Lexington, VA VMI 33–8 24 November 14, 1964 Charleston, SC The Citadel 17–0 25 November 13, 1965 Lexington, VA VMI 21–7 26 November 12, 1966 Charleston, SC The Citadel 30–14 27 October 14, 1967 Roanoke, VA VMI 22–11 28 October 19, 1968 Charleston, SC The Citadel 13–8 29 October 18, 1969 Lexington, VA The Citadel 28–2 30 October 24, 1970 Charleston, SC The Citadel 56–9 31 October 9, 1971 Lexington, VA The Citadel 25–24 32 October 7, 1972 Charleston, SC The Citadel 42–3 33 October 6, 1973 Lexington, VA VMI 23–6 34 October 12, 1974 Charleston, SC VMI 20–9 35 October 25, 1975 Lexington, VA The Citadel 6–3 36 November 6, 1976 Charleston, SC VMI 30–14 37 October 15, 1977 Lexington, VA VMI 19–3 38 September 23, 1978 Charleston, SC The Citadel 14–3 39 October 20, 1979 Lexington, VA The Citadel 37–6 40 October 4, 1980 Charleston, SC The Citadel 28–0 41 October 10, 1981 Norfolk, VA VMI 14–0 No. Date Location Winner Score 42 October 9, 1982 Charleston, SC The Citadel 21–7 43 October 6, 1983 Lexington, VA The Citadel 27–16 44 November 3, 1984 Charleston, SC The Citadel 27–24 45 October 5, 1985 Lexington, VA Tie 14–14 46 October 11, 1986 Charleston, SC VMI 47–30 47 October 10, 1987 Charleston, SC VMI 7–3 48 November 12, 1988 Norfolk, VA The Citadel 31–20 49 November 11, 1989 Lexington, VA VMI 20–10 50 November 3, 1990 Charleston, SC The Citadel 23–3 51 October 26, 1991 Norfolk, VA The Citadel 17–14 52 November 14, 1992 Charleston, SC The Citadel 50–0 53 November 13, 1993 Charleston, SC The Citadel 34–33 54 November 12, 1994 Norfolk, VA The Citadel 58–14 55 November 11, 1995 Charleston, SC VMI 34–7 56 November 16, 1996 Lexington, VA VMI 34–27 57 November 15, 1997 Charleston, SC The Citadel 28–6 58 November 14, 1998 Lexington, VA The Citadel 36–10 59 November 13, 1999 Charleston, SC The Citadel 14–7 60 November 11, 2000 Lexington, VA VMI 41–21 61 November 10, 2001 Charleston, SC The Citadel 49–7 62 November 23, 2002 Charlotte, NC VMI 23–21 63 November 15, 2003 Charlotte, NC The Citadel 27–23 64 November 19, 2005 Lexington, VA The Citadel 22–14 65 November 11, 2006 Charleston, SC The Citadel 48–21 66 November 17, 2007 Lexington, VA The Citadel 70–28 67 October 29, 2011 Charleston, SC The Citadel 41–14 68 November 10, 2012 Lexington, VA The Citadel 27–24 69 November 16, 2013 Charleston, SC The Citadel 31–10 70 November 22, 2014 Lexington, VA The Citadel 45–25 71 November 7, 2015 Charleston, SC The Citadel 35–14 72 November 12, 2016 Lexington, VA The Citadel 30–20 73 October 28, 2017 Charleston, SC The Citadel 21–3 74 October 20, 2018 Lexington, VA The Citadel 34–32 75 October 5, 2019 Charleston, SC VMI 34–21 76 April 17, 2021 Lexington, VA VMI 31–17 77 October 2, 2021 Charleston, SC The Citadel 35–24 78 November 19, 2022 Lexington, VA The Citadel 26–22 79 October 14, 2023 Charleston, SC VMI 17–13 80 October 19, 2024 Lexington, VA The Citadel 13–10 Series: The Citadel leads 45–33–2

Other varsity sports

Sport	Last Matchup					All-Time Series
	Date	Location	Winner	Score	Attendance	Leader	Record
Baseball	April 15, 2022	Gray–Minor Stadium • Lexington, Virginia	VMI	5–2	1,814	The Citadel	85–39[10][11]
	April 16, 2022	Gray–Minor Stadium • Lexington, Virginia	VMI	3–2	132
	April 17, 2022	Gray–Minor Stadium • Lexington, Virginia	The Citadel	22–5(7)	154
Basketball	January 15, 2022	McAlister Field House • Charleston, SC	VMI	90–85	1,256	The Citadel	60–58[12][13]
	February 12, 2022	Cameron Hall • Lexington, VA	The Citadel	83–79	3,745
Women's Soccer	October 23, 2022	WLI Field • Charleston, SC	The Citadel	5–1	203	The Citadel	10–7[14][15]
	October 25, 2022[a]	WLI Field • Charleston, SC	The Citadel	3–0	176
Wrestling	February 20, 2022	McAlister Field House • Charleston, SC	The Citadel	32–5	N/A	VMI	43–25[16][17]

1. SoCon Tournament

See also

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games

References

1. "Football History vs the Citadel".
2. "Back in the day Tech VMI was the game".
3. "A History of the Corps of Cadets".
4. "SoCon Football Week 10: A Historical Sketch of the 'Battle For The Silver Shako'". Medium.com. November 3, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
5. Hartsell, Jeff. "VMI and The Citadel: The same, but different".
6. Kara, Klein. "Virginia Military Institute (VMI) vs The Citadel football – The Citadel – Charleston, SC". www.citadel.edu.
7. "Silver Shako".
8. "CSTV Adds VMI-Citadel "Military Classic of the South" To Fall Football Line-Up". Big South Conference. July 11, 2007. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
9. "VMI, Citadel play their 'Classic'". USA Today. November 15, 2002. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
10. 2020 Baseball Record Book (PDF). The Citadel Bulldogs. p. 147. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
11. 2020 Baseball Record Book (PDF). VMI Keydets. p. 4. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
12. 2019–20 Basketball Record Book (PDF). The Citadel Bulldogs. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
13. "2020–21 Basketball Game Notes: At Citadel" (PDF). VMI Keydets. February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
14. 2020 Women's Soccer Record Book (PDF). The Citadel Bulldogs. p. 65. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
15. VMI Women's Soccer Record Book (PDF). VMI Keydets. p. 7. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
16. 2020 Wrestling Record Book (PDF). The Citadel Bulldogs. p. 2. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
17. 2019–20 Wrestling Record Book (PDF). VMI Keydets. p. 8–9. Retrieved February 26, 2021.