| While the Backyard Brawl may sound like a | | | | games. |
| professional wrestling pay per view event it is in | | | | The popularity of name Backyard Brawl has |
| actuality the name given to the annual football | | | | become so great in the area that it has more |
| game held every season between the West | | | | recently extended from the grid iron onto the |
| Virginia University (WVU) Mountaineers and the | | | | hardwood as the basketball programs have |
| University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Panthers. The | | | | adopted the moniker for their biannual Big East |
| historic rivalry between these two nearby college | | | | Conference meetings. After 102 football games |
| football programs has its roots in the first meeting | | | | between one another and 180 basketball games it |
| that occurred all the way back on October 26, | | | | is fair to say that the two schools are intimately |
| 1895. The inaugural game was played in Wheeling, | | | | familiar with one another. The regional rivalry that |
| West Virginia, a neutral site, and the final score on | | | | began simply as a football centric issue has |
| that day left the West Virginia Mountaineers | | | | evolved to concern every aspect that the two |
| victorious over the Pittsburgh Panthers by a | | | | respected institutions of higher learning can |
| score of 8-0 in what would prove to be the first | | | | compete in. |
| of over a hundred meetings between these two | | | | With specific regards to football the University of |
| college football programs. | | | | Pittsburgh leads the overall series by a fairly |
| The phrase Backyard Brawl is a hyperbole | | | | sizable margin. Through 2009 the count is 68 head |
| derived from the close physical proximity that the | | | | to head wins for Pitt and a mere 38 victories for |
| two campuses are from each other. The | | | | WVU (there have also been 3 ties along the way |
| University of Pittsburgh is not surprisingly located | | | | in 1909, 1985, and 1989). Even though the |
| in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and West Virginia | | | | University of Pittsburgh enjoys its current series |
| University is based in Morgantown, West Virginia. | | | | lead in part because of a dominant stretch of 15 |
| The two schools are separated by about 75 miles. | | | | consecutive victories from 1929 to 1946 the |
| The relatively short distance between the two Big | | | | competition has been very even over the last |
| East Conference schools makes the roughly one | | | | decade. In fact, over the last ten years the series |
| and a half hour drive along Interstate 79 from | | | | is split with five wins for each of the stories |
| one college to the other a breeze for students | | | | programs. |
| and alumni making the trek for away football | | | | |
