HAIL, COLUMBIA? : Lions-Turned-Lambs of Ivy League Hope Texan Can End the Endless Losing

In its 232 years of business, there have been worse catastrophes at Columbia University than a football team that can’t win a game. It’s just that at the moment, no one can recall one.

The Columbia Lions have a 31-game losing streak, and are closing in on the all-time NCAA record for major college losers: 34 straight, held by Northwestern. The Lions, who compete in the Ivy League, have not won a game since a 21-18 victory over Yale on Oct. 15, 1983.

Columbia opens its season Saturday, playing host to Harvard. The last time the Lions beat the Crimson at home was in 1970. If the Lions lose, and the safe bet says they will, the dreary record-watch will undoubtedly continue.

But there is optimism stirring at Columbia, because of an assist from an unlikely source: Southern Methodist University. When SMU’s football program received the “death penalty” earlier this year from the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., there were Mustangs migrating to many of the nation’s major football schools.

But John Robinson, a reserve defensive end at SMU who was raised in Texas, surprised recruiters by choosing Columbia. And his presence here has started talk of winning.

To get to practice, the Columbia football team boards a bus at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue and rides 100 blocks through Spanish Harlem to Washington Heights, on the northern tip of Manhattan, across the Harlem River from the Bronx.

There the Lions have new, $15-million Wien Stadium, replacing their 55-year-old wooden stadium at Baker Field. The old structure was more likely to catch fire than the football program.

And with Robinson, the Lions are thinking big. At 6-3 and 240, Robinson is a giant among his Ivy League peers. Size and breeding were enough for Columbia, which recruited him sight (and game films) unseen.

“He’s big, he’s quick, he’s strong and he’s smart,” said Lion assistant coach Doug Jackson, who convinced Robinson to come to Columbia.

Robinson has one year of eligibility left, and the Lions hope he will have an immediate impact in this lesser-skilled league.

What will be the biggest change for Robinson?

“Players in the Ivy League ask questions that players at SMU wouldn’t even dream of thinking about,” Jackson said.

The soft-spoken Robinson didn’t even know Columbia was in the Ivy League; he just knew he wanted to get the best education he could. He spent the summer in New York City, working on Wall Street.

On the team’s annual Skit Night--which serves as both social bond and open season on coaches and players--Robinson’s teammates poked fun at his SMU past and welcomed him to the Ivy League with a skit that opened, “Oh, he can read?”

“Nobody pulled the wool over my eyes about the program here,” Robinson said before a practice last week. “They are trying to build a program here and I would like to be a part of it. Everyone told me how bad it was here, my friends at SMU made some jokes. But it’s not that bad.

“The players work hard here. The players in the Southwest Conference--a lot of them are bigger and a lot of them are faster. But I don’t think the fact that they are playing football means more to them than it does to these guys. I want to help this team as much as I can. It’s a matter of everyone rededicating themselves to football.”

Northwestern’s streak ran from 1979 to 1982. In that time, the Wildcats came to be known as the “Mildcats.” After a crushing 61-14 loss to Michigan State, which broke the previous losing streak of 28 (held by Kansas State from 1945-48, and tied by Virginia from 1958-60), Northwestern fans tore down the goalposts in mock celebration.

During the streak’s salad days, there was much public derision. Someone altered a highway sign near Chicago--Interstate 94, Northwestern 0.

The team went 0-10-1 in 1978, and, but for a 27-22 win over Wyoming in 1979, the streak would have reached 46 games. It was a painful time for the Northwestern program.

Fans suffer, too. In a heady moment last season when Columbia held a 28-14 lead over Villanova at halftime, Lion fans began a chant: “We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1.”

Thus buoyed, Columbia opened the third quarter with three fumbles. Villanova answered with three touchdowns.

As the losing streak gained momentum, everyone seemed to get in on it. A New York City classical music station even began playing Chopin’s “Funeral March” after losses.

There was a time when Columbia had a football team to be feared. Of course, back then there was only Princeton and Rutgers to play against. The Lions were in the first Ivy League game, losing to Yale, 3-0, in 1872.

Before many of the nation’s universities had competitive football programs, schools had to play each other several times a season.

The 1915 Columbia team went undefeated in five games. And, since 1900, there have been five Columbia teams that lost only once in a season.

Old-timers here turn misty when talk turns to the 1934 Rose Bowl. There, the Lions met the Ivy League West, Stanford, and Columbia won, 7-0.

Today, Columbia supporters weep for a different reason. The Lions have had 15 consecutive losing seasons since 1971, and haven’t won more than one game per season since 1978, when they went 3-5-1.

In the last eight seasons, the team is 5-71-2.

Columbia brought in Larry McElreavy from the University of New Haven as coach last season, but like his predecessor, Jim Garrett, McElreavy guided his team to an 0-10 record

This season, he has his two quarterbacks returning, but they completed fewer than half of their passes last season. None of the returning running backs rushed for more than 125 yards. The Lions totaled 793 rushing yards in 1986; Oklahoma once gained 758 yards in a single game.

Columbia fantasy: Leading those fancy-pants at Harvard by three touchdowns.

Columbia nightmare: Blowing a three-touchdown lead to Harvard and watching the spoiled preppies score 49 unanswered points.

Columbia reality: This actually happened.

It was that infamous collapse during the first game of the 1985 season that prompted then-coach Garrett to describe his team as “drug-addicted losers.” Garrett was dismissed after the season.

A record-breaking loss for Columbia could come on Oct. 10 at Princeton’s Palmer Stadium. The last time the Lions beat the Tigers at Princeton was in 1945.

Interestingly, Columbia transfers will probably start at quarterback, fullback and wide receiver for Princeton that afternoon. Garrett’s three sons transferred to Princeton after he was fired at Columbia.

McElreavy has had all kinds of advice on how to improve his team. Last season he got a call each Saturday from a man claiming to be a Buddhist monk, asking McElreavy to chant along with him. “I did it,” McElreavy said. “I try to oblige people.”

One alumnus sent a play diagram with only nine players. He wrote that while the other team was busy looking for the missing two players, Columbia could use the element of surprise and turn it into a touchdown.

“Columbia is like any other college, it prides itself in its programs,” Athletic Director Al Paul said. “Personally, it bothers me, it concerns me. The publicity directed to the losing streak is not the publicity you want to draw. We have successful programs.”

McElreavy has adopted a philosophical view.

“With some programs, you talk of rebuilding,” McElreavy said. “Here, I’m building one. It takes a special person to want to be a part of that, a mentally tough player. That’s why they’re here. They come here because they want the challenge of building a football program.”