On This Date Presented by
Belmont Realty
With the 2020 fall sports season canceled by the COVID-19 outbreak, we at Fordham have decided to dig back through our archives and provide our fans with content on some of the outstanding teams and student-athletes who have graced Rose Hill over the years.
Box Score
October 18, 2003 – (Bronx, N.Y.) – Coming off a Patriot League title in 2002, the Fordham football squad returned most of its offensive pieces in 2003 and they were all on display today in a 41-7 win over New Haven.
Running back
Kirwin Watson tied a Fordham record with five rushing touchdowns. He finished with 143 yards on 29 carries for the Rams, matching the school mark of five rushing touchdowns by Chip Kron against Georgetown in 1985.
Javarus Dudley
Wide receiver Javarus Dudley also inked his name in a record book, this one from the Patriot League. He caught six passes for 51 yards to become the Patriot League career receiving yards leader with 3,450, and he also brought his all-purpose yards total to 5,998 yards, also a league mark. Dudley surpassed the former records of Bucknell's Rich Lemon of Bucknell who had 5,952 al-purpose yards from 1993-96 while Corey Hill of Colgate set the old receiving mark of 3,434 from 1995-98.
Watson scored his first touchdown from one-yard out in the first quarter to knot the game at seven. He then found the end zone twice in the second quarter (from two and six yards) to give the Rams a 21-7 halftime lead.
Watson scored twice more in the third (from six and 33 yards) to tie the school mark.
October 18, 2014 – (Cambridge, Mass.) - After last year's crew won gold at the Head of the Charles, this year's version of the women's club 4 knew they had a tough act to follow. But they managed to outshine last year's boat, not only winning gold but setting a course record in the process.
The Fordham club 4 of
Ashleigh Aitchison (stroke),
Tecla Di Francesco,
Fiona Murtagh and
Ashley Hawkesworth, with
Caitlin Sershon at coxswain, beat 59 other crews to claim gold for the second straight year. The winning time of 18:19.19 was more than 26 seconds better than runnerup TBC Racing and well ahead of the next collegiate boat, third place finishing Wisconsin. It also easily beat the course record of 18:35.004 set by the Riverside Boat Club in 2008.
It was the second straight win at Head of the Charles for Aitchison, Murtagh and Hawkesworth, who were all in the 2013 gold medal-winning club 4.
October 18, 1982 – (Bronx, N.Y.) - Before the largest crowd of the season on Edwards Parade, the Fordham Soccer Rams tied Long Island University, 1-1. The Blackbirds, ranked first among all Division I teams in the country, needed a late goal by Norman Murray to salvage the tie.
"We've never had this opportunity to play the top team in the nation," said Ram coach Frank Schnur, "And we showed that we can play with anyone."
The Rams entered the game coming off a nine-day layoff while LIU had played last Friday, tying Penn State, for the only blemish on their 11-0-1 record. The extra preparation aided the Rams.
"The layoff was a big help," said sophomore Keith Loeffler. "It was almost like preseason all over again."
Both LIU and Fordham had early scoring opportunities that were thwarted. Ram goalkeeper Ernie Winhoffer, who was superb all day long, stopped a shot by LIU's Albert Nah in the opening minute. Then, several minutes later, Blackbird goalkeeper Sakou Gomez stopped Jack Shannon's shot after Shannon had snuck in behind the LIU defense.
LIU's patient offense created several more excellent opportunities in the first half but it was the Rams who got the first goal. At the 32:10 mark of the first half, hustling sophomore forward Mehrdad Yaghoubi put a header past Gomez. Senior sweeper Mark Lugris had the initial throw-in which sophomore forward Otto Constantiui headed toward Yaghoubi.
"We had worked on beating them in the middle," said Schnur of the goal, "and that's what happened." The awakened LIU and only an alert defender save by John Rollins on a shot that had beaten Winhoffer enabled the Rams to preserve a 1-0 lead at halftime.
As the second half got underway, the Blackbirds (whose roster includes only one U.S. born player) used their quickness to mount relentless pressure on the Rams. Only some acrobatic saves by Winhoffer and superb Ram defense stymied them. However, it was only a temporary reprieve.
"We kind of sat back on the lead," commented Schnur and with six minutes remaining in regulation play, LIU's Murray took the rebound of a Winhoffer save and booted it home. There were several more opportunities for LIU in the closing minutes of regulation but the score remained 1-1 and headed into overtime. In the first overtime, Fordham created several scoring chances as did LIU but neither team scored during the first 10-minute session. It was the same story in the second overtime as both teams survived scares but neither scored.
"We had several chances in overtime," noted Schnur. "But the luck wasn't with us to get the difference maker."
The 1982 Rams would finish the year with one of their best records at 11-2-4, capturing both the MAAC and Tri-State Conference Championships.
