F&M Football Milestones

1886 - Franklin & Marshall joins Penn, Lehigh, Lafayette, Swarthmore and Haverford in founding the Inter-State Athletic Association.

1887 - Franklin & Marshall plays its first season of football with two games against the York Y.M.C.A. The first game played is a 9-0 loss on October 10. The team traveled to York via Conestoga Wagon.

1888 - Though 12 games were scheduled, none were played to allow for a better focus on that fall's Presidential Election. Incumbent President Grover Cleveland received the greatest number of popular votes, but Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison's 233 electoral votes topped Cleveland's 168 to win the election.

1889 - F&M returns to the gridiron and picks up the program's first win, a 60-0 drubbing of crosstown rival, Millersville. F&M went 5-1-1 with victories over Bucknell, Swarthmore, Dickinson, and Fordham. The meeting with Dickinson starts the what is now the Centennial Conference's longest standing rivalry.

1914 - The Diplomats defeat Penn 10-0 at Franklin Field on October 3. The win was the first step to recognition as a dominating force in college football. The F&M Weekly reported, “The bloody carnage now taking place in Europe could not be compared to the awful havoc by the wearers of the Blue and White upon the sons of Ol’ Penn within the very walls of the City of Brotherly Love…it is the greatest football win in F&M’s history.”

1916 - A pep rally bonfire lit by fans to help build widespread enthusiasm about the Nevonians (as all F&M teams were known until 1935) became uncontrollable and burned down the grandstands at the football stadium.

1935 - Franklin & Marshall nearly upset national powerhouse Fordham University (with the Seven Blocks of Granite), which stands as one the highlights in the College’s sports history. Not given a chance against Fordham—which was considered one of the best teams in the country and featured future NFL Hall of Famers Vince Lombardi and Alex Wojciechowicz—the Franklin & Marshall squad led 7-0 entering the final period at the Polo Grounds, before succumbing 14-7.

In addition to boosting the program’s reputation, the game held further significance. Legend has it that the team name “Diplomats” was born after the Fordham game. Reports credit a different New York writer—Arthur Daley of the New York Times—with coining the name when he wrote about the notorious penalty: “The Diplomats’ downfall could be traced indirectly to their penchant for oratory, conference, or just plain gas in the clubhouse, a failing customary in the diplomatic services of both hemispheres.”

1940 - The 1940 football team outscored their opposition 142-69 en route to a 7-2 record with four shutouts. The team posted what is arguably the greatest victory in the program’s history with a 23-21 win at Dartmouth on October 5.

The 1940 yearbook posited, “The win over Dartmouth has replaced the famous Penn victory as the culmination of Diplomat football tradition.”

Mayser, coach of the 1914 football squad that handled Penn, offered the following remarks to the crowd of 3,000 that greeted F&M at the train station, “This is the greatest victory in all time.”

1945 - The squad posts a 4-0-1 record, marking the first season in program history without a loss.

1950 - The Diplomats post a 9-0 record to become the first unbeaten, untied team in F&M history. As a team, the Diplomats were unstoppable, downing opponents by an average of 21.22 points per game and winning the Hershey Chocolate Bowl game over Lebanon Valley 13-7 to begin the season. The squad set a program record with six shutouts, downing Johns Hopkins (20-14), Dickinson (7-0), McDaniel (25-0), Albright (14-0), Swarthmore (41-0), Ursinus (39-0), Washington & Jefferson (34-0) and Gettysburg (39-0) to earn a chance at a bowl game.

1960 - Franklin & Marshall begins play in the Middle Atlantic Conference. John Tomasko earns League MVP honors.

1964 - Led by league MVP, Seiki Murono, the Diplomats go 8-0 in winning the MAC South Championship. The first conference championship in the program's history.

1971 - The Diplomats win the first of four consecutive MAC championships.

1972 - Under the direction of coach Bob Curtis, the 1972 Franklin and Marshall Diplomats posted a 9-0 regular season record in winning the second of four consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference South Championships.  The Diplomats earned the Division III Lambert Trophy that season, the era’s most coveted football award, keeping Franklin & Marshall in the company of Penn State and Delaware as the top teams of the East.

Coach Curtis and his captains, Craig Marks, Bob Olender, and Dan Truskey accepted the trophy from Mr. Henry Lambert in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Commodore on Park Avenue and 42nd Street.  The F&M contingent shared the dais with Joe Paterno and his Nittany Lions captains, as well as Harold “Tubby” Raymond and the captains of the Fighting Blue Hens.  The 1972 Diplomats smashed records in their time, and their names and accomplishments still pepper the record books.

1973-1974 - The 1973 team continued the streak, while the 1974 squad went unblemished at 9-0.

1975 - Tom Gilburg takes ver the program, beginning an unprecedented and unrivaled 28-year run as head coach at F&M.

1979 - Franklin & Marshall's game with Lebanon Valey is televised on ABC.

1983 - F&M is a charter member of the Centennial Football Conference (now the Centennial Conference).

1986 - The 8-2 Diplomats win the Centennial Conference and make the program's first-ever postseason appearance. F&M falls 40-28 to Wagner on November 22.

1992 - Franklin & Marshall becomes the fourth NCAA DIII team to win 500 games with an October 24th win over Western Maryland College (now McDaniel).

1999 - Franklin & Marshall plays its first overtime game against Ursinus on September 18. The Diplomats fall 27-20.

2002 - Franklin & Marshall becomes the first Non-Division I program to play 1,000 games when the Diplomats faced Muhlenberg on September 28 in Allentown.

2007 - Franklin & Marshall's October 13 home game with Moravian is webcasted on B2 Networks - the first webcasted football game in the Centennial Conference.

2009 - The Diplomats post a 9-2 record and cap the season with a come-from-behind victory over Wilkes in the ECAC South Atlantic Bowl. Three Diplomats, George Eager, Barry Lovett, and Clarke Miller, appear in postseason all-star games, while the Centennial Conference Coach of the Year and Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Finalist, John Troxell, is tapped as offensive coordinator for the South Team at the D3 Senior Classic. Sophomore quarterback, John Harrison, topples nearly every single season passing mark, as well as numerous career marks.