Sports History
The Backyard Brawl
By Anne Madarasz

Separated by just 70 miles, feelings run strong in the football rivalry between the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University. December 1st of this year marked the 100th time the two programs clashed in what fans now affectionately refer to as the "Backyard Brawl." Both teams sport blue and gold as their school colors - that, and an abiding dislike for the other, may be all they share. Pitt's football program began in 1889 and WVU's in 1891; the two first played in 1895. West Virginia won that contest, 8-0 and took the next two games, in 1898 and 1900, as well. But Pitt has the lead in wins in the match up with a record of 59-37-3.

Evenly matched in the beginning years of the contest, the teams traded wins. The first major run for either team came in the period 1910 through 1921, when Pitt won all six games played. By 1915, legendary coach Glenn "Pop" Warner was in command of the Panthers. He led the team to three national championships in 1915, 1916 and 1918. West Virginia ended his streak of wins in 1922, with a close 9-6 win over Pitt, and then added another WVU win the following year. The advent of Jock Sutherland's coaching career at Pitt in 1924 turned the tide to the Panthers again, they won four straight with increasing margins of victory - the score in 1927 was 40-0 in favor of Pitt. West Virginia won in 1928, but would not be victorious again until 1946. Pittsburgh won all 15 games in that period, taking a commanding lead in the series 30-8-1. In that same period, in 1937, Pitt claimed another national championship for their program.

The teams traded wins in the 1950s and 60s, with their highest scoring match up coming on October 2, 1965. The game that day went to West Virginia 63-48. John Majors' national championship team in 1976 initiated another run of wins for the Panthers. The team took seven straight, the biggest margin of victory being Pitt's 52-7 trouncing of the Mountaineers in 1978. West Virginia's biggest streak, a run of five wins, began in 1992 when they beat Pitt on the Panthers home field 44-6. Pitt turned that trend around in dramatic fashion in 1997 - winning 41-38 in triple overtime to qualify for a Liberty Bowl invite. Payback came in 2003, when West Virginia ran up 52 points over the No. 16 ranked Pitt team to win 52-31.

Perhaps the most stunning Brawl in recent memory came on this past Dec. 1, when the No. 2 ranked Mountaineers hosted a 4-7 Pitt team. WVU needed only to earn a victory over the struggling Panthers-a team they had owned for the last two years-in order to gain a spot in the BCS National Championship game. Pitt, however, had apparently decided that they would not be a pushover, and the Panthers stunned the second-ranked Mountaineers 13-9 in Morgantown. WVU was knocked out of the title game, and coach Rich Rodriguez called the game "a flat-out nightmare" before resigning to take the coaching job at Michigan.

This rivalry, the 14th oldest in the country, has provided over a century of excitement, as the teams battle for backyard bragging rights.

Anne Madarasz is the Director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, which features the story of college football.