UConn–UMass rivalry
Sport | Football |
---|---|
First meeting | November 6, 1897[1] UMass 36, Connecticut 0 |
Latest meeting | October 9, 2021 UMass 27, Connecticut 13 |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 75 |
All-time series | UMass leads, 38–35–2 (.520)[2] |
Largest victory | Connecticut, 71–6 (1956) |
Longest win streak | UMass, 8 (1897–1922) |
Current win streak | UMass, 1 (2021–present) |
The UConn–UMass football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the UConn Huskies football team of the University of Connecticut and the UMass Minutemen football team of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[3]
The rivalry was dormant from the 2000 season, when UConn moved to FBS, until 2012, when UMass traveled to Rentschler Field to play the Huskies in the season opener.[4]
History
The first game played between the two schools took place on November 6, 1897, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Massachusetts won 36–0. At the time, UMass was known as Massachusetts Agricultural College and Connecticut was officially Storrs Agricultural College. They had formed a loose association with other public colleges in New England such as present day New Hampshire and Rhode Island for the purpose of scheduling football matchups between the schools.[5]
The colleges continued to schedule matches intermittently until after World War I, when they began to play on an almost-yearly basis through the mid-1920s. The series was discontinued until 1932, when the schools again met each year until World War II saw both universities disband their football teams. The schools would not match up again on the gridiron until UConn joined Massachusetts in the Yankee Conference in 1952. UConn and UMass played every season from that point on until UConn began their transition to what was then Division I-A in 2000.[5]
UMass leads the all-time series 37-35–2. Massachusetts dominated the rivalry early, winning the first eight and 13 of the first 15 meetings between the two universities. Connecticut went on a streak of their own after that, winning 14 of the next 16 games. The 1960s again belonged to the then-Redmen of Massachusetts, as they lost only two games that decade. In the remaining years of the rivalry, the series was much more even, with neither team able to put together a winning streak of more than four games.[5]
In April 2011, UMass announced plans to join the Mid-American Conference and move up to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football in the country. Prior to this decision, the two schools had scheduled a game for August 30, 2012. UMass later became a FBS Independent school starting in 2016. In 2015, the two schools announced that the Minutemen will visit Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in 2018 and 2020, and the Huskies will visit Amherst in 2019 and 2021.[6]
Game results
Connecticut victories | Massachusetts victories | Tie games |
|
See also
References
- ^ "Football Chronology – University of Massachusetts Official Athletic Site".
- ^ a b "Winsipedia - UConn Huskies vs. UMass Minutemen football series history". Winsipedia.
- ^ "Time to Worry About UMass-UConn Football Rivalry? | NBC Connecticut".
- ^ "UConn beats UMass 37-0 in renewal of rivalry". sports.yahoo.com.
- ^ a b c http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/conn/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2015-16/misc_non_event/part5-15.pdf
- ^ Kidwai, Aman (December 10, 2015). "UConn and UMass Schedule Four-Game Series". The UConn Blog.