[3] The points seem to represent goals as the game, even after Walter Camp's creation of a line of scrimmage and a system of downs, was very different during its early days.

Scheduling was also different as the bulk of Fordham's early opposition came from local athletic clubs, military and naval units, YMCA groups and even its own reserve team.

At around the turn of the century Fordham began occasionally mixing more established universities like NYU, Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Cornell, and Syracuse to their schedule but, for the most part, was still playing at a smaller level.

Aside from a budding rivalry with cross-borough NYU, by the 1920s the bulk of Fordham's opposition came from elite Catholic schools like Boston College, Holy Cross, Villanova, and Georgetown.

Toward the end of that decade Fordham made a drastic jump in moving up and playing within college football's major level.

Program changes included the hiring of Hall of Fame coach Frank Cavanaugh, more challenging, national schedule and a move from on-campus home games at Fordham Field (current site of the practice facility Murphy Field, softball diamond, and tennis courts) to the 55,000-seat Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan.

From 1929 until the program went on hiatus after 1942, the Rams reeled off fourteen consecutive winning seasons and often played in front of capacity or near-capacity crowds.

Rivals during this era included NYU, Saint Mary's (CA), Pittsburgh, Purdue, North Carolina, and West Virginia.

In a monsoon setting, a first-quarter blocked punt through the end zone gave the Rams a 2–0 lead that held until the game's waning moments.

Both games were aired locally by NBC on an experimental New York-based channel called W2XBS that was available to only about 1,000 sets [4][5] in the New York City area.Following the conclusion of World War II, Fordham football returned in 1946 but on a deemphasized basis.

Coincidentally, shortly after Gannon's departure from Rose Hill, Fordham jumped to a 4–0 record and was briefly nationally ranked before suffering a 35–0 loss to second-ranked Army.

Dubbed the "Donnybrook on the Hudson" [7] the game featured 23 unnecessary roughness penalties and several fistfights as, according to team captain Herb Seidell, "17 teeth came out of nine different mouths."

During a weak period for the Eastern region as a whole however, Fordham remained unranked and was passed over during the postseason despite getting consideration from both the Orange and Gator Bowls.

The team combined for an 11–14–1 mark over the next three years although, thanks to the QB platoon of Roger Franz and Vinnie Drake, did again lead the nation in passing in 1952.

Franz and Drake (one of the first African American quarterbacks in college football), who were both seniors continued to put up prolific numbers in 1953 despite another losing season.

The team finished the 1954 campaign at 1–7–1 and, with crowds averaging under 12,000 per game while inside the cavernous but deteriorating Polo Grounds, administrators decided to drop the program.

After over a decade of ups and downs the Rams qualified for the 1987 D-III playoffs and reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions, Wagner.

35 years after dropping big time football, Fordham finally regained Division I status (at the I-AA level, later renamed FCS) upon moving up in 1989.

Moving from need-based financial aid to full football scholarships however appeared to give the Rams a competitive advantage over the rest of the Patriot League.

Furthermore the school was ruled ineligible from any conference titles (and thus an automatic bid into the Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs) until 2014 when the rest of the league was also able to switch to mostly scholarship rosters.

The move to scholarships not only provided Fordham with a successful FCS run, but also allowed the Rams to add FBS (formerly I-A) programs to their schedule.

Higher profile contests against Cincinnati (2012), Navy (2016) and Nebraska (2021) were added and although those games resulted in lopsided losses, Fordham was capable of knocking off weaker FBS teams like Temple (2013), Army (2015) and Buffalo (2023).

Joe Moorhead was the architect of the first two FCS victories but despite steady modern era success, Fordham is still best known for their famous "Seven Blocks of Granite."

Additionally, Fordham is credited with inspiring the term "Ivy League" after New York Herald Tribune sportswriter Caswell Adams compared the Rams to Princeton and Yale, two powerhouses of the day.

[10] Since then the bell has been rung by senior football players directly after home wins or upon returning to campus following road victories.

[14] The Dickinson System, a math formula used at the time to rate college football teams, also gave the 1929 crown to Notre Dame.

Other later math systems including Sagarin-ELO, Boand, Poling and Billingsley all retroactively backed the real-time assessments, as did Helms, the College Football Researchers Association and the National Championship Foundation.

[16] The Rams finished as low as 48th according Sports-Reference [17] (also having Notre Dame at the top spot) but there is no denying that, on the field, Fordham has a lineal claim to the 1929 title.

Over 60 years after their last major bowl game, the Rams returned to the NCAA Division I postseason by knocking Northeastern out of the first round of the 2002 I-AA playoffs.

Decades later he spent six seasons at Fordham (1927–1932) where he compiled a 34–14–4 record and also elevated the program to college football's highest level.