The Lions are the football team of Columbia University in New York City, New York. They compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of the NCAA and play in the Ivy League.
📜 Columbia Lions Football History
Columbia boasts one of the oldest college football programs in the United States, following Rutgers and Princeton to establish a team when the sport of American football was still extremely new. Columbia participated in the 4th ever college football game in November 1870, losing 3-6 to Rutgers in New Jersey.
Following a slow start, the Lions found success in the 20th century, going undefeated in the 1915 season. In 1933, Columbia won the Rose Bowl by beating Stanford 7-0.
The 1980s were a particularly difficult decade for Columbia, with the team losing 44 games in a row between 1983 and 1988. This streak became so embarrassing for the Lions that the Columbia band began to play the Mickey Mouse Club theme song to introduce the team.
The Lions have won 1 conference championship in the Ivy League, sharing the title with Harvard in 1961.
