There will be more than a football game that kicks off tomorrow afternoon in Easton.
It will also be the official kickoff of the Bicentennial Celebration of Lafayette College. You know how much TigerBlog loves history.
While it wasn't until 1829 that the school first admitted students — four of them — Lafayette College was founded in 1826 and named for the French Revolutionary War General. Imagine if the original board members had opted for his actual name.
If that had been the case, then tomorrow's football game would be between Princeton and Gilbert du Motier College, instead of Princeton-Lafayette.
The original Lafayette teams were simply called "the Maroon," after the uniform color. In the 1920s, the school decided to adopt a more ferocious nickname, something that might rival other schools who were competing with the more vicious mascots — such as the Princeton Tigers.
By the way, like Princeton five years earlier, Lafayette's first intercollegiate athletic event was a baseball game, this one in 1869, one month before Princeton and Rutgers met in the first football game. The final score of that Princeton-Rutgers game was 6-4 Rutgers; the final score of that first Lafayette baseball game was 45-45.
Any guesses on the opponent? Yes, Lehigh is correct. Who was the first non-Lehigh opponent any Lafayette team ever played? Yes, Princeton is correct, also in baseball, a game in 1874 that Princeton won 26-11.
For all of that, it could have been the Princeton Tigers at the du Motier Maroon tomorrow. Kickoff at 3:30.
Whatever the name and nickname, Lafayette presents a tough opponent for Princeton, who is now in Week 2. As you know, Princeton opened its season last week with a tough 42-35 loss to San Diego in a game in which the Tigers scored all 35 of their points in the first half.
What is this week's challenge?
Lafayette comes into the game at 3-1, with an opening loss at FBS opponent Bowling Green and then wins over Stonehill (42-26), Georgetown (42-37) and Columbia (38-14 last week). There's lots of Ivy League overlap with those scores. Stonehill lost to Penn last week 24-21, while Georgetown lost to Brown 46-0.
If you happened to glance a little further down the Lafayette schedule, you'll see this in the next few weeks: home games against Princeton, Fordham and Bucknell and then back-to-back road games at Oregon State and Holy Cross.
Oregon State? Yes. The Beavers, who had to piece together a schedule for this season when the Pac 12 fell apart and before it built itself back up, has a fascinating set of opponents. Ah, but TB digresses.
Lafayette's strength so far has been running the ball, with an average per game 224.5 yards per game on the ground. That number ranks seventh out of 126 FCS teams.
Kente Edwards leads the FCS with 559 rushing yards, and his 139.8 per game rank fourth. The junior has been the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week each of the last three weeks.
Princeton hopes that linebacker Marco Scarano makes himself very acquainted with Edwards tomorrow. Scarano made 18 tackles last week, 10 of which were solo tackles. Both of those numbers rank No. 1 in the FCS.
Princeton has another player who is leading the FCS in an individual category. That would be punter Brady Clark, who averaged 53.8 yards per attempt last week.
Kai Colon and Blaine Hipa split the quarterback position last week and between them threw for nearly 300 yards, with completions to 10 different receivers. Charley Rossi, one of those receivers, averaged 39.5 yards per reception, which puts him second in the FCS.
What will this week bring? Teams traditionally make a huge jump from Week 1 to Week 2. Week 3 for Princeton will bring the Ivy opener, against Columbia a week from tonight (that's a Friday ESPNU game).
First, though, there is the short trip to Easton, where the opponent is a good one. And where the locals are starting a more-than-year-long celebration of their founding.
By the way, who is the greatest Lafayette alum of all time? That would be a member of the Class of 1952. Perhaps you've heard of him?
Went by the name of Pete Carril.
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