In 1895 George Halas, Babe Ruth, and Jack Demsey were all born. These three would make long lasting impacts in American football, baseball, and boxing. The first ever American car race was also held in 1895 and Frank Duryea would emurge victorious.
What would also be born in 1895 would be a rivalry that would stand the test of time and become one of college football’s greatest matchups the sport has ever seen.
A rivalry driven by passion and pride and only separated by 76 miles, this is where coal and steel have collided for the past 116 years.
The Backyard Brawl between the West Virginia Mountaineers and Pittsburgh Panthers all started on Oct. 26, 1895. What sparked this rivalry had nothing to do with geography but all about the score of the game.
The score of the first game would be written down as an 8-0 win by the Mountaineers but this was heavily disagreed by Pitt and WVU fans. Because of some shaky officiating some believe the game ended in an 10-0 score and others in an 4-0 score. Since this game years of bad mouthing and hatred would go on and both schools have not looked back since.
The Mountaineers hold an all time record of 40-61-3 in the Backyard Brawl. In this time frame, WVU would score a total of 1605 points and average 15.43 points a game. When playing Pitt at home, the Mountaineers hold a record of 17-19-3 and while playing games on the road it only gets worse with a 22-42 record.
Despite the bad away record, there have been some memorial moments. In 1998, WVU would beat the Panthers 52-14 which would be the largest win margin by WVU in the history of the rivalry.
In this game, WVU quarterback Marc Bulger would throw a total of 409 yards while passing for six touchdowns. Those six touchdowns would be distributed between five different receivers (Shawn Foreman, Khori Ivy, David Saunders, Anthony Becht, Mark Corman) and Foreman and Ivy would go on to have a combined 228 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
This year’s Backyard Brawl will be the first since the Mountaineers 21-20 win back in 2011, in which the Mountaineers won in comeback fashion.
Former USC teammates J.T. Daniels and Kedon Slovis will go head to head on Thursday night in front of a sold out crowd at Acrisure Stadium as the two teams prepare for another classic in the Backyard Brawl.
photo: archive.triblive.com
