| Yank Townsend Trophy | |
| Team1logo: | Lehigh Athletics wordmark.png |
| Team2logo: | Yale Bulldogs script.svg |
| Team1: | Lehigh Mountain Hawks |
| Team2: | Yale Bulldogs |
| Sport: | Football |
| City Or Region: | Northeast United States |
| Stadiums: | Goodman Stadium Yale Bowl |
| Trophy: | Yank Townsend Trophy |
| Total: | 27 |
| Most Wins: | Yale |
| Alltimerecord: | 19-7 |
| Series: | 8-2 |
| Largestvictory: | Yale 34-0 |
| Longeststreak: | 3 (Yale) |
| Currentstreak: | 3 (Yale) |
| League: | Patriot League, Ivy League |
| Smallestvictory: | Yale 26-20 |
The Yank Townsend Trophy is an award created in 2006 and given to the winner of Lehigh-Yale Football games.
Both Yale, founded in 1701, and Lehigh, founded in 1865, where early adopters of Football with both schools running powerhouse teams through the 19th century. Both schools participate in the oldest rivalries in the sport, with Lehigh's rivalry with Lafayette and Yale's rivalry with Harvard being the most played, and third most played, rivalries in college football respectively.[1] The Yank Townsend Trophy was created in 2006 at the urging of Alumni from both schools to commemorate "the lifetime achievements of their graduates, and the generations of families that have attended both universities."[1] [2] The trophy is named after Charles "Yank" Townsend (1873–1963), the only resident of Connecticut in Lehigh's class of 1895 who operated an architecture and engineering firm Norton & Townsend which designed buildings across the east coast.[1] [3] After his graduation from Lehigh Townsend worked in New Haven where he was a prominent member of the local community, and a Freemason.[4] Townsend was a major Booster for both the Lehigh Engineers and Yale Bulldogs and was heavily involved in both schools athletic programs.[1] [5] [6] Yale would win the first game 26–20 in overtime.[4]
Described as "mirror images" of each other, Lehigh would comprehensibly defeat Yale 65–35 in the 2016 meeting between the two teams, just for the following season seeing Yale beat Lehigh 56–28.[7] In 2016, the 70 points scored by both teams at half was the most ever scored at the Yale Bowl.[8] Lehigh would throw for 524 yards and 6 passing touchdowns, with one of Yale's touchdowns being a punt return.[8] Lehigh's Quarterback Brad Mayes would set a school record for passing yards, surpassing the previous record of 480 set in 1998 by Scott Semptimphelter, and would tie for first in passing touchdowns.[9]
However, the next meeting between the two teams in 2017 would see Yale rout Lehigh. Lehigh had closed to within 28-21 56 seconds into the third quarter, however, Yale would score twice in six minutes to put the game away.[7] Yale's Quarterback Kurt Rawlings went 20-for-26 with 308 yards and threw for 4 Touchdowns, while Lehigh's Brad Mayes went 18-for-31 with 304 yards and threw for 3 Touchdowns.[10] [7] Yale would also capitalize on two Lehigh turnovers.[11] Lehigh's coach Andy Coen went on record saying "They looked like a whole different team out there... They weren't a very good football team last year."[7]
The overall record for the Yale-Lehigh series is 19–7 in Yale's favor, however, the trophy was only created in 2006, with games before then not counting for the rivalry's series.