A Football Rivalry No More, Appalachian State-ETSU

In other sports, sure. But this game is a reminder of the hole former administrators Paul Stanton and David Mullins put the Bucs in.

Is Boston College-Holy Cross still a football rivalry?

Once upon a time it was one of the better rivalries in college football. Fans would pack Fenway Park or Braves Field to watch the annual season ending game between the two schools.

Frank Leahy’s last game as Boston College head coach was a 19–13 Sugar Bowl victory against Tennessee. But to Eagles fans of the era a 7–0 victory against pesky Holy Cross, the closest regular season victory BC enjoyed in that undefeated 1940 season, meant just as much.

Two years later, when the Crusaders upset Boston College, it saved lives. A scheduled post-game party for the Eagles at a popular nightclub, The Cocoanut Grove, was canceled.

An inferno decimated the nightclub that evening, killing almost 500 people. It is the deadliest nightclub fire in American history.

The horrible aftermath of the Cocoanut Grove fire. What would the death toll have been if Boston College’s football team and fans had been there?

But last season was the first time since 1986 the Boston College-Holy Cross game was played. Holy Cross hasn’t beaten the Eagles on the gridiron since 1978. The Crusaders are now a mid-major, once didn’t even give out football scholarships, and Boston College has gone on to the Atlantic Coast Conference.