Lafayette defends the belt, 18–0, at home over Wesleyan (CT).
Where this game sits in the lineage
Lafayette came in 28 days into reign #14, which began with a win over Pennsylvania, with 4 defenses already behind it; this was its 5th defense. Lafayette went on to defend it 7 more times before Pennsylvania took it on October 23, 1897, 364 days after the reign began.
For Wesleyan (CT) this was its 21st shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 30 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Lafayette and Wesleyan (CT) have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
On November 21, 1896, Lafayette defeated visiting Wesleyan (CT) 18-0 in a regular season matchup. As the belt holder, Lafayette's victory allowed them to retain the lineal championship.
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 1861) · This game in the downloadable dataset