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.

[1] 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.

Delaware and Lehigh, both football independents and members of the Middle Atlantic Conference in other sports, began playing an annual gridiron matchup in 1950.

The rest of the 1950s was harder fought, reflecting Delaware's growth as a football program, and leading to a nine-year rivalry win streak in the 1960s.

[6] The Blue Hens–Engineers rivalry became a league game in 1958, when the MAC formally organized two football conferences, one of them a "University Division" including Delaware and Lehigh.

During this era, the matchup continued on their independent schedules, again pitting national powerhouse teams against each other, as Lehigh qualified for the postseason in 1979 and 1980, and Delaware participated in the Division I-AA playoffs in 1981 and 1982.

[8] Mike Schoenwolf, a quarterback and punter for the late 1970s Blue Hens, said his teams had a similar motivation: "The big thing at that time was, you don't lose to anybody in your backyard," he said.

Delaware, playing in a league with other state universities, continued to compete at a high level in Division I-AA, making the playoffs several times in the late 1980s and the 1990s.