The field at halftime, 10/29/2011
Spring practice is into its second week and the team has
pretty much now experienced every kind of weather there is in the last 96
hours. There’s been 80 degree heat, 38 degree cold, high winds, clear skies,
powerful rain, the whole shebang.
Head Coach Pete Mangurian even Tweeted his approval of all the extra
weather experience the team is soaking in the last few days.
And that got me thinking of the most extreme weather games
the Lions have faced over the last 25 years.
Here are my Top 10:
10) The New Haven Wind
October 28, 2000
Yale 41 Columbia 0
Almost everywhere else in the tri-state area, this was a
pretty pleasant day. But inside the Yale Bowl for some reason, the wind was so
powerful and unpredictable that it really messed with the game time after time.
The Lions seemed to have no answers for the conditions and they appeared to
pack it in early.
9) Super Sick Soaker
October 24, 2009
Dartmouth 28 Columbia 6
A continuous downpour washed out this Homecoming game for
Dartmouth, and the incoming storm seemed to make a number of ailing Columbia
team members feel actually worse as gametime drew closer. An already injured QB M.A.
Olawale found his passes falling way short against the rain and wind, and
star running back Ray Rangel was
lost for the remainder of his career with a foot injury on the wet field.
8) Fisher Field Fiasco
October 8, 2005
Lafayette 14 Columbia 7
Anyone who wonders why Lafayette decided to renovate its
football field seven years ago didn’t go to this game in 2005. Water was not
only pouring out from the sky, but it was coming out of the granite walls that
ringed the old seating area. The field was so muddy, it was impossible to
really know the yard lines for much of the game.
7) Homecoming Hell
October 21, 1995
Columbia 21 Yale 7
The forecast had been warning for days that the 1995
Homecoming game at Wien Stadium was going to be a major storm. It was. The rain
was dripping right into the Homecoming hospitality tent all day and the play on
the field was slippery too. Luckily, Columbia got a great running game going and
the defense was stellar.
6) Providence Freeze
November 22, 2008
Brown 41 Columbia 10
The Lions finish every other season up north in Providence.
And you would think that many of those year-enders are super cold. But luckily,
that has almost never been the case. But the 2008 game was just brutally cold.
I couldn’t stand to see my co-broadcaster Jerry Recco suffering pre-game, so I
ran out and bought him a pair of gloves. In between plays, Jerry and I slid the
press box window shut to get some degree of warmth. On the field, the Bears laughed
at the cold as they clinched a share of the Ivy title. Nobody else was
laughing. As big a game as it was for Brown, the stands were mostly empty.
5) Goal Post Panic
October 25, 2008
Columbia 28 Dartmouth 13
The Lions have faced games with heavy rain. The Lions have
faced games with high winds. But rarely have they had to play when the rain AND
the wind were both so strong at the same time. At many times during the game,
it really looked like the goal posts would blow down. This was the game where M.A. Olawale came in in relief and
pushed Columbia to a big win on national TV no less.
4) Monsoon on the Hudson
October 19, 1996
Columbia 3 Lafayette 0
A very steady rain and wind marred Homecoming for the second
straight year, but the Lions found a way to win as they so often did in the
first half of 1996. The weather was so bad, I even got a prime parking spot
right next to the stadium even though it was Homecoming!
3) Towson Time Out
September 27, 2008
You knew 2008 was going to be a rough weather year when you
even had historically bad weather games in September! A massive downpour in the
Baltimore area began about an hour before game time and never really stopped. The
refs actually stopped play late in the second quarter and sent the teams back
to the locker rooms.
2) Big Red Washout
November 10, 1990
Cornell 41 Columbia 0
The 1990 Cornell team was the last Big Red squad to win any
part of an Ivy title. They didn’t need any help to beat Columbia that day, but
they got a big assist from an absolutely relentless rain storm. It was so bad
that I remember simply walking up to the sideline and watching the game from
there; none of the stadium security people were left around to stop me. I think
I am still wet from that game.
1 1) Snow Day
October 29, 2011
Yale 16 Columbia 13
Lots of people use the term, “freak storm,” a little too
much. But the late October Halloween “Snow-Easter” of 2011 was truly unexpected
and powerful. Columbia and Yale and the YES Network were all caught right in
the middle of it. It was a brutal game to sit through as the wind and the snow
just kept coming. The fact that the Lions came up just short made it even
worse. The only saving grace was that
Columbia was giving out free fan hand towels that day, so people had something
to hoard and use as a seat drier.