Delaware–Lehigh football rivalry
The Delaware–Lehigh football rivalry was an American college football rivalry between the Fightin' Blue Hens of the University of Delaware and the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh University. Though the rivalry has been largely dormant since the 1990s, it was contested annually in the 1950s and 1960s, when both universities were members of the Middle Atlantic Conference, and was a marquee small-college fixture in the mid-1970s, when Delaware and Lehigh were two of the top-ranked teams in NCAA Division II. Competitive rivalry Delaware and Lehigh are in different conferences today – the Colonial Athletic Association and Patriot League, respectively – but Lehigh was Delaware's most-played opponent of the 20th century, and decades after the rivalry's heyday, fan interest in their matchups remained strong. For Lehigh, the Delaware game could not match the tradition of The Rivalry, its annual season-ending matchup with Lafayette, but those who experienced the height of the Delaware–Lehigh battle in the 1970s and 1980s looked forward to contests against the larger university. In 2005, former Delaware coach Tubby Raymond said he believes Lehigh cherished its wins over Delaware, a stronger program, more than those against Lafayette. John Whitehead, who coached at Lehigh from 1976 to 1985, agreed with