Columbia defends the belt, 27–6, at home over Rutgers.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Columbia came in 336 days into reign #96, which began with a win over Army, with 4 defenses already behind it; this was its 5th defense. It was the last defense: Harvard took the belt in the very next belt game, on October 2, 1948.
For Rutgers this was its 17th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Columbia and Rutgers have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Columbia hosted Rutgers on September 25, 1948, in a regular season matchup. Columbia won 27-6, successfully defending the belt against the visiting Rutgers team.
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 28289) · This game in the downloadable dataset