The Fordham–St. John's rivalry is an inter-conference rivalry between the Fordham Rams and the St. John's Red Storm who are both located in New York City: Fordham playing in The Bronx and St. John's playing in Queens. Conference-wise, the Rams play in the Atlantic 10 Conference (Patriot League for football), while the Red Storm play in the Big East Conference.
The rivalry is most prevalent in men's basketball, where the sides have met 91 times over the last century. The Red Storm have been dominant over that time, boasting a 72–19 record over the Rams. Included, a 23-game winning streak which lasted from 1972 through 1991, although Fordham has managed a few upsets since. St. John's also dominates Fordham in women's basketball, boasting a 19–5 record overall although Fordham has split the last 6 contests. In other sports, the two teams generally meet less frequently, but there's still a buzz amongst students for such showdowns. Fordham had an advantage over St. John's in football, winning nearly two-thirds (9–6 record) of the head-to-head matches although the bulk of those affairs came with little pageantry as most came when the two schools were fielding D-III teams. The teams haven't played since 1988 and the series will remain dormant since St. John's disbanded its football team in 2002, thus allowing St. John's to spend more resources on basketball while Fordham continues to support a D-1 football program. Fordham's football rivalry is now with its Jesuit sister schools Georgetown and College of the Holy Cross, all three playing in the Patriot League. The Bleacher Report states the major rival to St. John's in the Big East is Seton Hall. Georgetown is also a rival.
To a certain extent a contention between the schools goes beyond sports. As the two largest Catholic universities in the region, containing the two largest green campuses in New York City, the institutions can be considered similar in look.
The friendly friction is said to have started in the 19th century when both schools were known as St. John's College. Fordham was founded as the third oldest university in New York City by coadjutor bishop (later archbishop) of the Diocese of New York, John Hughes and named after Saint John the Baptist in 1841 as a seminary that was run by diocesan clerics. When Hughes wished to expand and open a men's college, the clerics did not wish to pursue that avenue for the Provincial who saw having the seminarians teaching in the college as a distraction to the young men studying for the priesthood. Wishing to staff the seminary and a college, Hughes removed the Vincentian priests and invited the Jesuits to open the men's college. The school, located in the Fordham section of The Bronx was deeded over to the Jesuits in 1847. In 1868, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bishop John Loughlin invited the Vincentian Fathers to found a separate seminary for the young Brooklyn Diocese as well as St. John's College, both named after Saint John the Baptist. The Vincentians accepted. In 1907 the Jesuit school was charted to be a university and the St. John's College name was dropped to use the town where it was located in the name, a practice common to Jesuit schools. Thus the Vincentian school (chartered as a full university in 1933) became the area's only "St. John's." The university moved to the Hillcrest section of Queens in 1956. Although the university is run by the Vincentians, a Dominican priest, Brian Shanley became the President in 2021. Fordham, although run by the Jesuits since 1841, now has a lay president Tania Tetlow starting in 2022.
History
Up until the CCNY point-shaving scandal, New York City was home to seven (St. John's, NYU, LIU, CCNY, Columbia, Fordham, Manhattan) major basketball programs. That transgression, referred to as "The City Dump Scandal" as well as an even bigger disgrace a decade later, simply known as the 1961 point-shaving scandal, greatly diminished New York City's standing as the epicenter of college hoops. Added to that, NYU's financial woes which had it scrap its basketball program after the 1971 season.
By the early 1980s only St. John's remained on the national stage as each of the other six schools had already transitioned to smaller D-I status or were relegated into the D-III ranks. Fordham, having qualified into 8 NIT and 1 NCAA tournament during the 1980s and early '90s, was the strongest of the six and the only to meet St. John's regularly throughout the 20th century. In fact the Rams met the Red Storm into the early 2000s until a brief hiatus following the 2003 season. The series resumed in 2009 and became heated when in 2013, St. John's sophomore, Chris Obekpa, made headlines for remarks on Fordham. He described Fordham is a place for New York City basketball players to go that are not accepted by St. John's. Obekpa said he played with several of the Fordham players in high school and that "they are mad that they are not here. Playing us is their opportunity to prove a point". The next day, St. John's would go on to defeat Fordham 104–58, making it the most lopsided result in the series history. Fordham draws some solace in that it has always ranked higher academically (in 2022 U.S. News & World Report ranked Fordham at 66th, St.John's at 172nd) and its football team won more games; continuing its football program while St. John's discontinued theirs. As such the rivalry is centered on basketball.
St. John's won in another blowout the following year but when Fordham turned the tables in 2015, drama spewed between the two men's basketball coaches. St. John's reaffirmed its position as top team with a 28-point win in 2016. The sides haven't met on the court since but the rivalry continues in smaller non-revenue sports, particularly softball where the schools have consistently battled since the 2009 season.
College comparison Category Fordham St. John's Type Private Private Affiliation Catholic (Jesuit) Catholic (Vincentian) Location The Bronx Queens Students 15,582 21,087 Endowment $1.1 billion (2021) $719.7 million (2020) School Colors Maroon & White Red, White, & Blue Nickname Rams Red Storm Basketball Arena Rose Hill Gymnasium Carnesecca Arena Baseball Diamond Houlihan Park Jack Kaiser Stadium Soccer Field Jack Coffey Field Belson Stadium Softball Field Bahoshy Field Red Storm Field
All-time results Summary Sport All-time series recordSources: fordhamsports.com and redstormsports.com Last result Next meeting Baseball St. John's leads 56–25 St. John's won 8–2 on March 25, 2024 TBDMen's Basketball St. John's leads 71–19 St. John's won 92–60 on November 4, 2024 TBDWomen's Basketball St. John's leads 19–6 Fordham won 67–64 (OT) on December 12, 2017 TBD Football Fordham leads 9–6–1 Fordham won 46–15 on October 30, 1988 Men's Soccer St. John's leads 9–8–1 St. John's won 1–0 on September 6, 2021 TBDWomen's Soccer St. John's leads 9–2–4 St. John's won 5–0 on August 25, 2013 TBDSoftball St. John's leads 17–12 Fordham won 4–1 on March 26, 2025 March 18, 2026
Series led and games won by Fordham are shaded ██ maroon. Series led and games won by St. John's shaded ██ red.
Baseball
Basketball Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Football
Fordham, originally known as St. John's College of Rose Hill, began their football program in 1882. Playing at a small school level, early opposition came from local athletic clubs, military and naval units, YMCA groups and even its own reserve team. When up against other colleges, Fordham's main rivals were Xavier (a school which later dropped its college division but still exists as a high school and to this day is a rival of Fordham Prep), CCNY, Saint Peter's and Seton Hall. The school officially changed its name to Fordham University before the 1908 season and by then they had already sprinkled in a few more established teams, like NYU, Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Cornell and Syracuse, to their schedule. For the most however, Fordham still played a small school schedule until the 1920s. Early in that decade they made a slight move up to what today would best be called the D-II level while mostly scheduling other elite Catholic schools like Boston College, Holy Cross, Villanova and Georgetown. By decade's end they made another and far more drastic jump into what we today call the D-I/FBS level.
From 1929 to 1942 the Rams reeled off 14 straight winning seasons while often playing in front of near capacity crowds at the 55,000 seat Polo Grounds. During that era only Alabama had a higher winning percentage in all of major level college football. National college polls began after the 1935 season where Fordham finished with a Top-20 ranking. They followed that with six straight additional Top-20 rankings from 1936 to 1941. Only Duke also finished in the Top-20 in each of those first seven years of post-season polls. Also included during Fordham's run was the formation of the famed "Seven Blocks of Granite" during the 1936 and 1937 seasons, participating in the first ever televised football game in 1939, a Cotton Bowl appearance in 1940 and a Sugar Bowl win in 1941.
Like many other schools, Fordham put their program on hiatus while the country fought WWII. Rams football returned in 1946 but on a deemphasized basis. Still in the FBS level, Fordham replaced their national schedule with a more regional one. Despite leading the country in passing in 1949, and again in 1952, and almost landing a spot into the 1950 Gator Bowl, results were mixed at best during the post-war years. Attendance declined drastically, perhaps the result of not only an inferior product on the field but also white-flight and the rise of television. After a horrific 1-7-1 season in 1954, where Fordham only drew about 12,000 per game, the program was scrapped.
The sport remained absent from campus life until 1964 when students formed a club team. Decent success at the game's lowest level, including a club football national championship in 1968, allowed the university to bring football back to varsity status for the 1970 season. There they played at what would become the D-III level where in 1987 the Rams landed a spot in the D-III playoffs. That success propelled the school to jump to the I-AA (now known as FCS) level in 1989. The promotion into the Division I subdivision proved unsuccessful for over a decade as it took until 2001 for Fordham to finish with a winning record. Since then things have changed dramatically as the Rams qualified into the 2002, 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2015 playoffs. Despite never winning an FCS national championship, Fordham has finished in the Top-20 in each of those seasons as well.
St. John's, originally known as St. John's College of Brooklyn, began their football program in 1895. Located inside two buildings within the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and lacking a green campus, St. John's staged their home games on makeshift fields at the Prospect Park Parade Grounds. Playing at the absolute smallest of levels, most competition came local athletic clubs and even local high schools. This included Fordham Prep which went 2–0 against St. John's during their early football years. Simply fielding a team itself proved somewhat difficult as St. John's spent those early years sporadically dropping and restarting their program.