Lafayette retains the belt after a 4–4 tie with Cornell.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Lafayette came in 357 days into reign #14, which began with a win over Pennsylvania, with 11 defenses already behind it; this was its 12th defense. It was the last defense: Pennsylvania took the belt in the very next belt game, on October 23, 1897.
For Cornell this was its 6th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. A tie leaves the belt with the holder, so it went home empty-handed.
This is the only time Cornell and Lafayette have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Lafayette visited Cornell on October 16, 1897, in a week 6 regular season matchup that ended in a 4-4 tie. Under the site's tie rule, the belt holder retains possession on a tie, so Lafayette successfully defended the belt.
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 1954) · This game in the downloadable dataset