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{
"plugins": {
"posthtml-include": {
"root": "./src"
},
"posthtml-expressions": {
"root": "./src/partials",
"locals": {
"top": [],
"body": [
{
"type": "text",
"value": "Before football won the Ivy League championship on Nov. 23, the last time the Lions topped the Ivy League charts was over half a century ago in 1961. Following their historic 2024 season, Spectator looked back on those 63 years and why it took Columbia so long to find success in the league."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "The 1961 season title win came five years after the opening year of the modern Ivy League football season and was overseen by head coach Aldo “Buff” Donelli. Favored from the beginning of the year, the Lions lived up to expectations at the end of the season with a 50-0 win against Brown. The Light Blue ended its 1961 campaign with a 6-1 Ivy League record, 6-3 overall. Their only losses came against Lehigh University, Rutgers University, and Princeton, and the team finished the season first in the Ivy League, tying with Harvard."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "However, Columbia’s success dried up the following two seasons, with the 1962 campaign ending with a 4-3 conference record and the 1963 season ending with a 3-4-1 record. The 1964 season continued on this downward trend as the Lions’ only conference win came against Penn."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "This downward spiral followed through the 1960s, with Columbia seeing no more than two wins per season. In 1967, the Lions’ head coach Aldo Donelli retired after 11 seasons with the team and was replaced by Frank Navarro in 1968. Despite the coaching switch, the Lions’ luck did not improve, earning only a 1-6 record in 1969."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "Navarro was soon replaced by Bill Campbell in 1974. Campbell had his own history with the Lions, as a player who had starred on the 1961 championship team and was named to the All-Ivy League team that same year. Despite this, his tenure as a coach did not get off to a strong start, going winless in his first Ivy League season at the helm."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "Bob Naso replaced Navarro as head coach in 1979 and continued for five years before leaving in 1984. During his tenure, Columbia saw a winless season in 1984 for the first time since 1946. Continuing the winless streak was Jim Garrett, a former coach from Susquehanna University. Garett only lasted a year, adding 10 games to the losing streak before a new coach was brought in with the hope of turning things around."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "The next head coach, Larry McElreavy, shepherded the team through a 23-game losing streak before finally earning a hard fought win against Princeton on Oct. 3, 1988—a full 1,815 days since the team’s last win against Yale. The period of 44 winless games—“the streak”—became an NCAA football record that was eventually overtaken by Prairie View A&M University from 1989 to 1998."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "This win also marked the Lions’ first win at Wien Stadium, which opened in 1984. Despite breaking the winless streak, the Lions still failed to improve significantly, going 1 and 6 in each of the following three years."
},
{
"type": "graphic",
"value": {
"asset": "scrolly.html"
}
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "In 1996, the Lions earned a winning conference season for the first time since 1971 with a 5-2 record. The 1996 team earned second in the league, only falling to Dartmouth. That season under the helm of head coach Ray Tellier would be the team’s last winning season for 24 years."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "The Lions’ stagnation continued through the early 21st century, going winless in 2007 and then again with a 23-game, two-year winless streak in 2013 and 2014. Their next big break came in 2017 with head coach Al Bagnoli’s third season with the Light Blue. Columbia finished with a winning record—8-2 overall and 5-2 in the Ivy League—for the first time in 24 years. The Lions, however, fell back into stagnation within the League after this campaign, consistently finishing in the middle of the table until Bagnoli’s departure in 2022."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "Last year saw interim coach Mark Fabish take charge, and the Lions finished at the bottom of the Ivy League table with a 3-7 overall record. Columbia’s single Ivy League win came against Cornell in the last game of the season. Heading into the 2024 season, the Lions were picked last in the preseason Ivy League Poll."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "This year, new head coach Jon Poppe returned to Columbia from a brief stint as the head coach of Union College in 2023, having previously served as an assistant coach under Bagnoli. Under his leadership, the Lions earned their second title after 63 years, ending the longest title drought in the Ivy League. The Light Blue split the title with Harvard and Dartmouth. Wins against teams like No. 16 Lafayette and last year’s Ivy League champion Yale contributed to the Lions’ 7-3 overall record, and the championship garnered national media attention as the renowned losing team ended its titleless drought."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "The seven wins were also the most of any rookie Lions’ head coach since 1899 and the highest in the Ivy League since 2015. As Poppe looked back on his historic championship, he focused on the players. “We can enjoy this moment tonight, but after that, these guys that are coming back can’t ride on this anymore, because all these guys are gone, it’s time to move on for the next one,” Poppe said."
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<i>Deputy Sports Editor Arielle Rieder can be contacted at </i><a href=\"mailto:[email protected]\"><i>[email protected]</i></a><i>. Follow her on X </i><a href=\"https://x.com/ArielleRieder\"><i>@ArielleRieder</i></a><i>.</i>"
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<i>Deputy Graphics Editor Molly Durawa can be contacted at </i><a href=\"mailto:[email protected]\"><i>[email protected]</i></a><i>. Follow Spectator on X </i><a href=\"https://twitter.com/columbiaspec?lang=en\"><i>@ColumbiaSpec</i></a><i>.</i>"
},
{
"type": "text",
"value": "<b><i>Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our </i></b><a href=\"https://columbiaspectator.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a3d2eeb1ae5560ca04f82f042&id=e51c51d62d\"><b><i>email newsletter </i></b></a><b><i>and like Spectator on </i></b><a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/columbiaspectator\"><b><i>Facebook</i></b></a><b><i>. </i></b>"
}
],
"headline": "1961 to 2024: How Columbia football roared back to the top",
"dek": "Spectator looked back on 63 years of football coaching history—and the rookie coach who brought the Lions their first league title since 1961.",
"date": "December 4, 2024",
"byline": "By <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/contributors/arielle-rieder/\">Arielle Rieder</a>",
"byline2": "Graphic by <a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/contributors/molly-durawa/\">Molly Durawa</a>",
"cover_asset": "https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/spectator/PAY42FTTZNC2RLZW4NMJVH3TPU.jpeg",
"cover_caption": "<a href=\"https://www.columbiaspectator.com/contributors/heather-chen/\">Heather Chen</a> / Columbia Daily Spectator",
"USE_NEWS_NAV": true,
"USE_EYE_NAV": false,
"USE_COVER_HED": true,
"IS_EMBED": false,
"DOC_URL": "https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OOPdVioZNuH7A4I_9ru2nXneYNZ35AVoMC70CDBa7A0/edit?usp=sharing"
}
}
}
}