Maryland Railroad Lantern

The Maryland Railroad Lantern is an authentic metal railroad lantern with four lenses made by the Adlake company of Chicago circa 1907 and used as a trophy that is awarded to the winner of each college football game between Division III schools McDaniel College and Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins University football team is currently in possession of the trophy.

It is one of the youngest rivalry trophies, yet one of the oldest rivalry games in American college football dating back to 1894. The McDaniel Hopkins game has been played annually, since 1947, with the game being the last game of the regular season for both schools. Since Western Maryland College changed its name to McDaniel, in July 2002, the Green Terror have not beaten Hopkins.^[1]

This trend of honoring long-time rivals with newly created trophies can be seen in another famous rivalry. Many historians and the NCAA state that the oldest rivalry with a trophy is between what is now Arizona and Arizona State, the Territorial Cup did not start changing hands until 2001, as it was a one-time award after their first series in 1899.^[2]

History

The Maryland Railroad Lantern rivalry trophy was created after McDaniel graduate school alumnus Vincent Chesney wanted to honor the long-standing rivalry between McDaniel College and Johns Hopkins University. When Vincent's brother, Bobby Chesney, became Hopkins' defensive coordinator and eventually the associate head coach, Vincent was even more inclined to honor the rivalry between the two schools. The lantern was natural choice to symbolize railroads with McDaniel College former name, Western Maryland College, being named after the Western Maryland Railway that connected Westminster and Baltimore as well as both school's mottos reference to giving light.

McDaniel College takes its motto from the biblical verse spoken by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John verse 12:46 and preached on by Paul the Apostle in verse 4:6 of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and by Saint Peter in his First Epistle of Peter verse 2:9, "E Tenebris in Lucem Voco" (Latin: I call you out of darkness into light). Johns Hopkins University also speaks to truth as light from verse 8:32 of the Gospel of John, Veritas vos Liberabit (Latin: The truth will set you free). In this regard, the lantern serves not only as a sports trophy but also commemorates the pursuit of scholarship.

1947 kidnapping game

The night before the 1947 game a couple of Western Maryland Army Veterans came up with idea of abducting two Johns Hopkins freshmen. They had two Western Maryland College girls trick two 18 years old Hopkins freshmen into thinking they were going to a party at Goucher where there would be "women and beer." When the girls lead the Hopkins boys to the car they were tied up by some Western Maryland students. Then the two captured freshmen were brought out to a WMC pep rally where their heads were shaved and they were "properly humiliated." Then they were brought to a dorm room where they were tied to a bed and were given as much beer & burgers as they wanted. The next day, during the game's halftime, WMC brought out the Hopkins freshmen to midfield, where some Hopkins players took them back to the sidelines. The game ended in a 14-14 tie. It was reported that Hopkins freshmen were good sports about it. Western Maryland College had the same thing done to them by their old arch rival University of Maryland College Park about 10 years earlier.^[3]

Lantern games

2009 Game

On November 14, 2009 Johns Hopkins traveled to Westminster, Maryland home of McDaniel College for the 88th meeting between the two schools in a rivalry that dates back to 1894. The game was also the 1,000 game in McDaniel football history.^[4] The game also was the first time two coaches in the state of Maryland played against each other with 100 victories at their respective schools. McDaniel's Tim Keating had 103 wins at McDaniel and Hopkin's Jim Margraff had 126 victories at the start of the game.^[4] Johns Hopkins also secured the Centennial Conference title with the 38-14 victory.

2010 Game

On November 13, 2010 Johns Hopkins hosted McDaniel in Baltimore, Maryland for the 89th meeting between the two schools. The game marked held a series of records. The game marked the 1,001 game in Johns Hopkins football history,^[5] interesting because when these teams played in the previous season the game was McDaniel's thousandth on record. This year's game, a 34-10 Johns Hopkins win also marked the tenth consecutive victory over McDaniel and secured a share in the conference title to Hopkins.^[5]

2011 Game

On November 12, 2011, McDaniel College hosted the undefeated #12 ranked Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in Westminster, Maryland for the 90th time. McDaniel in 2011, was having a bad year going 2-8, despite having some of the best players in program history. Hopkins on the other hand was having their best season, as they were on pace to have their first undefeated season and highest ranking in school history. Given this Hopkins should have been expected to beat McDaniel handily, although D3football.com editor Ryan Tipps predicted it could be close^[6] McDaniel started off playing one of its best games of the season, as entering the half, the game was deadlocked at 21-all in a true to form McDaniel-Hopkins rivalry game. The Green Terror created a season-high six turnovers, led by All-American^[7] defensive linemen Sam Cox (Sr), who had eight tackles, two forced fumbles, and his program-record 25th career sack. However, Hopkins super star^[8][9] and all time Centennial Conference leading quarterback^[10] Hewitt Tomlin (Sr) made sure that his Blue Jays would have their first undefeated season, throwing for 484 yards. In the end McDaniel narrowly missed upsetting their rival Blue Jays 28–24.^[11]

2014 Game

On November 15, 2014, the schools met for the 93rd time in 120 years of competition (1894-2014), the 67th time in which the game marked the end of the regular season. ^[12] Undefeated #7 ranked Johns Hopkins head coach Jim Margraff entered the game as the winningest coach in school and Maryland state history with 176 wins, surpassing legendary Morgan State University head coach Edward P. Hurt, who won 174 games from 1929-59. ^[13]

References