Lafayette College and Lehigh University are known for their intense, long-lasting rivalry, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t allowed to share. Several Lafayette faculty and staff have a history with brown and white colors.
“When I first started over there, it certainly took some getting used to wearing Earth tones,” said head baseball coach A.J. Miller ‘11. “It’s not a very complimentary color scheme.”
Miller has bounced back and forth between the two schools: he received his bachelor’s at Lafayette and his graduate degree at Lehigh, coached hitting at the latter and returned as head coach to Lafayette.
He said that a job at Lehigh is better than no job at all.
“There’s only 300 Division I schools, and so there’s only 300 hitting coaches, so when there’s an opportunity you kind of have to jump on it,” Miller said.
Miller appreciates his time at Lehigh, the school that tested his coaching and color-coordinating abilities.
“Grateful for the opportunity over there, but I’m even more grateful that I’m back here,” he said. “I’m home at the place that made me into who I am today.”
At the Academic Resource Hub, director Marty Sullivan received her master’s at Lehigh and hasn’t missed the rivalry game in 30 years. She said she chooses to divide her support between both schools.
“One half, root for Lehigh, the next half, root for Lafayette,” Sullivan said.
English professor Peter Newman ‘73 would rather talk about his four years of learning or his 17 years of teaching at Lafayette than any of his time at Lehigh.
Newman called his time at graduate school at Lehigh an “embarrassing part of my past” or an “unfortunate part of my life.” However, he said he still believes that Lehigh was the best option to get his graduate degree, as he was teaching simultaneously.
“There was enough stupidity to go around,” he said, describing early rivalry traditions, including freshmen forming an “L” on the football field, or students attempting to take down the goal post (which made a comeback last year).
Sustainability Outreach and Engagement Manager Samantha Comas spent a full five years as a Mountain Hawk for her undergraduate and graduate degrees.
A Lehigh pendant hangs above her desk, strategically placed.
“It is placed in a way in which you can only see it if you’ve come around to my desk and are talking to me,” Comas explained. “It’s almost, like, in a safe space.”
Comas said she still roots for her alma mater, claiming that her years at Lehigh override her three and a half years at Lafayette.
“Maybe if I hit that five-year anniversary, we’re going to have to have another discussion,” she said.
Comas still supports both schools despite the pressure to choose one or the other.
“I often wear both colors,” she said. “And nobody likes that.”
