Lafayette defends the belt, 18–0, at home over Dickinson.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Lafayette came in 7 days into reign #14, which began with a win over Pennsylvania, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Lafayette went on to defend it 11 more times before Pennsylvania took it on October 23, 1897, 364 days after the reign began.
For Dickinson this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 4 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Dickinson and Lafayette have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Lafayette defeated Dickinson 18-0 on October 31, 1896, in week 8 of the regular season. As the belt's defending holder, Lafayette retained the lineal championship with the victory.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 1808) · This game in the downloadable dataset