When the Hoyas began their stretch to this weekend’s 65th homecoming -notwithstanding a couple of football-free decades – the Georgetown universe was a little different.

The university was home to a dental school, Hoya football was in the midst of a 9-1 season and, reported THE HOYA, the homecoming festivities lasted “until 12, as it was impossible to allow dancing to continue until Sunday.”

But certain trends – a distinguished defensive line, among others – were only just beginning on Nov. 7, 1925, as Georgetown drubbed Lehigh 40-0 on the muddy downtown field of 35,000-seat Griffith Stadium.

The 1925 campaign was undeniably a watershed season in the history of Hoya football. The year before, Luigi Piccolo, better known in the Georgetown record books as “Lou Little,” had spent his first season at Georgetown coaching the Hoyas to a 4-4 finish.

It was Little’s second year at the helm that made school history. In their first six games of the season, the Hoyas recorded four shutouts. Save for a 19-13 squeaker over Mount St. ary’s, the team’s one blemish – a 3-2 loss to Bucknell – accounted for the only three points Georgetown allowed all season.

And so there was confidence in the Hoyas’ corner as they took to the field against Lehigh, on a playing surface described by THE HOYA as “slippery to the point of treachery.” The slickness, one would hope, was among the culprits of a whopping eight fumbles recorded between the two teams.

The stars of the game were, for the most part, the stars of the season. Carl Waite, who played six positions, intercepted a pass and ran 45 yards for a touchdown. Fullback Tony Plansky ran the same distance on a fumble recovery and kicked the extra points for both of his touchdowns.

And Jack Hagerty, the Hoyas’ star halfback and captain, completed a stellar run across the field in which he twice reversed direction to avoid Lehigh tackles. Though no player could stop him, nature could: He downed himself near the end zone as he slipped and fell onto the muddy field.

By the end of the day, Georgetown gained 196 yards rushing to Lehigh’s 54, and the Engineers’ offensive production was limited to a solitary first down.

Yet homecoming was hardly the highlight of 1925 Hoya football. That came two weeks later in the Bronx against none other than the rival of all rivals, Fordham University.

This was the game Georgetown was supposed to lose, as the undefeated Rams were considered to be among the top teams in the country. It was perhaps the first time all season that Georgetown was a sure underdog, and as the team stood before 40,000 fans at the Polo Grounds on Nov. 21, few believed the team would even be competitive.

Hagerty must not have known. At the start of the first quarter, he tore to the right side of the field and worked his way past both the Rams and the goal line. Two quarters later, he ran a Fordham kickoff back 40 yards before shooting through open space on the way to another touchdown.

It was Plansky who made the Hoyas’ blooper-reel contribution of the day. In the second quarter, he ran a remarkable 77 yards to the end zone – and was then called back to the Fordham 32 for stepping out of bounds along the way.

By the end of the game, though, it was the Rams who were embarrassed. They found themselves the surprise victims of yet another Georgetown shutout – and a final tally of 27-0.

“It was a glorious victory for Georgetown,” wrote the Newark (N.J.) Evening News, “one that will live long in the annals of the Washington university as one of the greatest triumphs over its ancient enemy that it has ever achieved.”

The New York Sun waxed poetic: “Fordham was forced to dip her colors to a machine that on Saturday would probably have defeated any team in this country.”

Over the next three years, Little’s squad cumulatively outscored the Rams 104-0, and his 1927 team gave up only two more points over the rest of the season. Through it all, tackle Harry “Babe” Connaughton, at 6-foot-2 and 275 pounds, emerged as a hero and became Georgetown’s first all-American.

Since then, Fordham hasn’t been so easy. After football was discontinued at Georgetown during World War II and the span from 1950 to 1964, the Rams have emerged victorious 19 of 25 times. They haven’t lost, in fact, since 1983.

Yet the rivalry has survived, as Georgetown’s and Fordham’s attendance records have both been set by matches between the two teams. 9,002 fans squeezed into Kehoe Field in 1965, and 13,568 crammed Coffey Field in 1970.

The latter turnout was understandable, as the Hoyas and Rams played in a classic on Kehoe Field the year before. Georgetown’s 14-7 win received such rave reviews that The New York Times covered and published a story on it – with a large photo of the Hoyas’ go-ahead touchdown amid a mud-spattered mound of players.

Thirty-six years later, Georgetown hopes to make some more history on homecoming, and to break Fordham’s modern-series stranglehold in the process. There may not be any 77-yard touchdowns (or a muddy playing surface) this time around, but when it comes to their historically formidable rival, the Hoyas will be sure to watch their step.