Battle of the Bridge: 113 Years, Two Teams, One Rivalry

By: Sean Brennan

Reggie Witherspoon was mingling with friends and well-wishers after his Canisius College Golden Griffins had just knocked off Iona College to complete a 2-0 weekend in New York City last weekend. There was a lot of congratulatory talk and some catching up with old friends when Witherspoon found his old friend, Michael Phillips, in the crowd.

"I've known him since the fourth grade," said Witherspoon, whose 7-1 Griffs lead the MAAC men's standings.

But the two didn't address the elephant in the room. Witherspoon, head coach at Canisius, and Phillips, who scored almost 1,400 points in his career at Niagara University, did not speak of this weekend. At least nothing more than a passing utterance by Phillips.

"I think he might have said, 'You got us this week,'" Witherspoon said. "I don't think there was anything more than that."

There was nothing more to be said. It's "Battle of the Bridge" week, after all, and even childhood friendships sometimes need to be put on a temporary hold.

On Saturday night, Niagara and Canisius will meet for the 182nd time in a series that dates back to the first meeting on Dec. 1, 1904 when Canisius held off the Purple Eagles to post a 2-0 victory. Yes, that's not a misprint. And as the points have grown over the years so, has the intensity of the rivalry. So much so that the Battle of the Bridge now encompasses all sports between the two Western New York schools, and culminates with the Canal Cup Trophy being awarded to the school which accumulates the most points over the course of the year.

The rivalry got its name from Grand Island Bridge, which each team must cross to reach the other's campus. The trophy is named after the Erie Canal, which separates Erie County, Canisius' home, from Niagara County, where the Purple Eagles roost.

And though the names and faces have changed constantly over the years, the intensity of the rivalry very much remains to this day.

Chris Casey, Niagara's men's basketball coach, knew about the rivalry from his days as an assistant coach at Saint Peter's University. But it wasn't until he took the job with the Purple Eagles that he fully understood what it meant to the two schools.

"I did know of the rivalry, but I hadn't experienced it because I was down there in Jersey City," Casey said. "But, I did know some of the history that was involved and it's just a great game. It's a different experience than just knowing about it. There are always guys in the stands yelling at you, but you take that in stride. That's part of the game, part of the rivalry. It's what makes the game fun. The crowd is what's going to fuel the rivalry more. If it's a dead gym it's not really a rivalry, and it's certainly not a dead gym when we play Canisius."

The two schools are so close - a mere 24 miles apart - that Casey said he barely has to worry about his local "road trip."

"The game is at 7 (p.m.) and I want us to be there by 5:30," Casey said. "So, if we get on the bus by 4:50 we'll probably even be early."

Canisius has won the Battle of the Bridge and the Canal Cup eight straight seasons, but Niagara holds a 99-82 lead in the all-time men's basketball series after sweeping the Griffs in 2016-17. And Purple Eagles' senior Matt Scott said Niagara is coming back for more this season.

"I think it's a pretty good rivalry. The games are always neck-and-neck, the crowds always come out, and we love the way they come at us and we come at them just as hard," said Scott, who is third in the MAAC in scoring at 20.6 points per game. "It's just a battle of wills in that game. We don't want to lose any game but this is a bigger game because the fans are out. This is the most attended game of our season and the crowd is really into it and the intensity is very high. So, you just love to come out with a win against these guys. I know they're going to be looking to kick our butts from the start so we just have to bring the intensity and be ready to play. I know they're looking for revenge."

Canisius' Isaiah Reese got his first taste of the rivalry last season as a freshman. But the memory of his first encounter in the "Bridge" series lingers to this day.

"Last year it was crazy and we weren't even one of the top teams in the conference," said Reese, who had 22 points at Manhattan and 21 at Iona last weekend for the Griffs. "This year we're both top four teams (Canisius is in first in the MAAC with a 7-1 record, Niagara in fourth at 6-3) so I'm definitely expecting a crazy atmosphere. We're all looking forward to it. Can't wait. The blood is going to be flowing and it's going to be a fun one."

Jermaine Crumpton grew up in Niagara Falls, attended Niagara Falls High School and, you would think, should have been a no-brainer recruit for Niagara. But…

"They didn't recruit me," Crumpton said. "It didn't bother me though. I knew how good I was and my friends and family knew how good I was and I made my mind up that I wanted to play Division I basketball. Then Canisius came calling. It was kind of a coincidence."

Saturday night will mark the final time Crumpton, a senior who is seventh in the conference with a 15.9 points per game average, plays Niagara at home. But during his time at Canisius, he had come to appreciate what the rivalry means.

"It's always crazy when these two teams get together but it's fun," Crumpton said. "This is something that I can tell my kids about when I get older down the road, that I played in the Canisius-Niagara rivalry. It's definitely good for the area, good for the fans and, if you're just a fan of basketball, it's good for that, too. There's just so much energy when two teams like us who are so close in the same area play each other. It's going to be a lot of fun."

Like Crumpton, Niagara red-shirt senior guard Kahlil Dukes realizes that whatever happens Saturday night, it's just another chapter in a long, ongoing basketball odyssey in Western New York.

"I think sometimes we forget how big a rivalry it is," said Dukes, second in the MAAC in scoring with a 20.8 average. "We're (the players) only spending so much time here. But this rivalry goes back way before us so I think sometimes we forget about that."

Witherspoon hasn't. Growing up in the area he said he always has had a healthy appreciation of the rivalry and the fans who return year after year to witness the latest chapters.

"I definitely knew about the rivalry being raised in Western New York, dating back to the glory years of it when (Canisius') Roger Brown was tasked with the assignment of guarding (Niagara's) Calvin Murphy for all four of his college years," Witherspoon said. "And there's historical buildup to the games. There are people who attended this game in the 60s and maybe some in the 50s. The fan bases at both schools, even when they don't come to other games, they come to this game. It's always been a well-attended game, even when it was played at bigger venues."

But the heat of the rivalry is not limited to just the men's game. The Canisius and Niagara women's teams are also knee-deep in the hoopla as well. And though the two women's head coaches have been involved in the rivalry for varying degrees of time - Canisius head coach Terry Zeh is currently in his 14th season, while Niagara's Jada Pierce is in her third - there is a healthy respect for the rivalry.

"Everybody feels a little different when it's Niagara, no question," said Zeh, whose Canisius team will host Niagara on Thursday, Feb. 1. "There's an intensity to it. You have a lot of people whose families have gone to Canisius and Niagara through the years who have enjoyed the rivalry up here. I think the kids on the teams, they know about it and respect it as well. It's a fun game, it really is. It's a nice rivalry in our little corner of the world. Maybe it's not on the major sports scene, it's not Duke-North Carolina. But for the people up here and the people who went to these schools, it's very similar and it's a lot of fun."

Pierce, like Casey, knew of the rivalry from a stint as an assistant coach at Marist College about a decade ago. But she never fully understood the depths of it until she took over at Niagara.

"I knew a little bit about it but not a lot of the history until I got the job here," Pierce said. "The teams are very competitive with each other and it never matters what the records are when they're playing. That kind of goes out the window when you're playing these games."

So, just how intense does Pierce view the Canisius-Niagara rivalry? Well, she compares it to perhaps the most intense one on the planet.

"I've been a part of some great rivalries and Army-Navy is probably the most intense rivalry I've ever been a part of as a coach," said Pierce, who spent two seasons as an assistant at West Point from 2010-2012. "But, this kind of compares with that as our players have a sense of pride that they're playing for. They know they're playing for the name on the front when they're playing this game and not the name on the back. There's always a different sense and a different feel when we play Canisius."

And sometimes those feelings are not pleasant ones.

"There's a little bit of chippiness," Pierce said. "As for me and the way our players approach it, there's no love lost. It's kind of like your neighbor down the street that you really don't like because they're just there all the time and you just want to beat them."

So, there you have it, the Battle of the Bridge series is not for the meek. And if you don't grasp the enormity of it and what it means to these two schools, well then, perhaps you'll just have to witness it sometime to get a clearer picture. But if you ever decide to go, call ahead. Tickets for these games seem to be harder to come by than ducats to "Hamilton."

"The building will be sold out and it will be loud Saturday night," Witherspoon said. "There was a time when the games were played in bigger venues and this is one of those times when there will probably be three or four thousand extra tickets that could have been sold."

So, it's the hottest ticket in town?

"Yeah, you could definitely say that," Witherspoon said.

Sean Brennan is a sports writer from New York City. He covers MAAC and Big East college basketball, the New York Knicks and Major League Baseball for the New York Daily News.

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Players Mentioned

#2 Jermaine Crumpton: F; 6' 6"; Senior

#13 Isaiah Reese: G; 6' 5"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#2 Jermaine Crumpton
: 6' 6"; Senior
: F

#13 Isaiah Reese
: 6' 5"; Sophomore
: G

Players Mentioned

#2 Jermaine Crumpton

#13 Isaiah Reese

Players Mentioned

#2 Jermaine Crumpton

#13 Isaiah Reese