Lafayette-Lehigh Football Game
Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
First played in 1884 at Lafayette College, it is recognized by the NCAA as college football's most played rivalry. The teams have met more than 150 times. The game has been covered in national publications such as Sports Illustrated and the New York Times and featured on ESPN.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
First contested in 1884 on the Lafayette College campus in Easton, the football game between Lafayette and Lehigh grew into a fierce cross-valley tradition. The two schools have met more than 150 times, and the NCAA recognizes their series as the most-played rivalry in college football. The matchup has drawn coverage from Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and ESPN.
Why it matters
As college football's oldest and most frequently played rivalry, the game marks the deep roots of American collegiate sport and its power to bind communities across generations.
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Related events
- · First Lafayette-Lehigh game, 1884
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lafayette College Founding
Easton, PA · est. 2007
On December 27, 1824, citizens of Easton gathered at White's Hotel to found a new college, naming it for the Marquis de Lafayette. The timing was no accident: the aging French general was then in the midst of his triumphant 1824–25 tour of the United States, a journey that rekindled patriotic memories of the Revolution he had helped win. Local leader James Madison Porter, who had recently met Lafayette, helped rally support for the school that became one of the nation's foremost tributes to the statesman.
Easton
Easton, PA · est. 1947
Set where the Lehigh joins the Delaware, Easton grew at the ancient Forks of the Delaware, long a meeting ground before Europeans arrived. Surveyor William Parsons laid out the town in 1752 for the Penn family, and its councils drew colonial officials and Native delegations to negotiate the uneasy terms of frontier life. In the following century it became home to Lafayette College, cementing its place as a hub of travel, trade, and learning.
Whitefield House
Nazareth, PA · est. 1966
The Whitefield House was begun in 1740 at the urging of the famed revivalist preacher George Whitefield, who envisioned it as a school for Black children. When his plans faltered, the Moravians completed the building in 1743 and put it to communal use—most memorably as a shared home for 32 newly married German couples brought to Pennsylvania in 1744. Its stout walls have watched over Nazareth ever since.
Whitefield House - PLAQUE
Nazareth, PA · est. 1931
The Whitefield House traces its origins to 1740, when the famed revivalist George Whitefield acquired land in the Pennsylvania backcountry with the intention of founding a school for Black children. Moravian Brethren began the sturdy stone building, and after the Moravians purchased the tract in 1741 it served in turn as a family dwelling, a girls' boarding school, and a nursery for missionaries' children. Since the 19th century it has housed the Moravian Historical Society and Museum, preserving the memory of these early ventures.