Pomona-
Pitzer
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Pomona-Pitzer Football:
A Proud Tradition
Football has a long and proud tradition at Pomona
College and Pitzer College. Established in
1892—five years after the founding of Pomona
College—the football program has flourished
for over a century.
The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens are a founding member of
the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference (SCIAC). Conference members
include Redlands, Whittier, La Verne,
California Lutheran, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
and Occidental, and the conference champion
receives an automatic birth to the NCAA
Division III playoffs. The football program
boasts long-standing rivalries with several con-
ference opponents. For example, Pomona
College first met Whittier College in 1907,
Redlands in 1920 and La Verne in 1926. The
longest standing rivalry though is against
Occidental College which started in 1895, and
the yearly battle for The Drum between the
two colleges is now the oldest college football
rivalry west of the Mississippi and one of the
five oldest in the country.
Throughout their long history of football the Sagehens also
hold an impressive record of 6-5-1 versus
UCLA from games in the 1920’s. Pomona
College also met USC from 1897 until 1925,
including the 1923 Dedication Game of the Los
Angles Memorial Coliseum-site of the 1932
and 1984 Olympics and current home of USC.
Pomona College and Claremont Men’s College competed
as a single Claremont Colleges team from 1947
to 1958, after which two separate athletic
departments and intercollegiate programs
were established among The Claremont
Colleges. The two separate teams met initially
in the 1959 season to launch the cross-campus
rivalry for the Peace Pipe that packs a stadium
of students, faculty, and staff from all The
Claremont Colleges as well as local supporters.
Pitzer College opened its doors in 1964, and its
students eventually joined Pomona students to
form Pomona-Pitzer intercollegiate teams.
The squad currently plays on Merritt Field, a beautiful,
well-maintained natural turf surf