Jon Gruden got a care package from Lehigh Football, and his unboxing video turned into a tribute to Mountain Hawks football, Bethlehem, and the Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry.
The former NFL coach shared the care package on video, and right away he knew exactly what he had in front of him: “a box here from Lehigh, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.” From there, Gruden was off, bouncing from Lehigh football history to Patriot League pride to Bethlehem Steel to the Christmas City, with the kind of football-guy enthusiasm that makes even stationery feel like game film.
“Bethlehem, yeah, it’s a freaking awesome town, man,” Gruden said in the video. “Bethlehem Steel. You ever heard of that? Of course you have. Christmas City. It’s a very famous city, man, during the Christmas time.”
But the real fun came when Gruden started talking about The Rivalry. Lehigh and Lafayette first played football in 1884, and the matchup is widely known as the most-played rivalry in college football. Gruden had a personal reason to smile through the whole thing too. His son went to Lafayette, which made Lehigh’s gift box feel just a little bit spicy.
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The Mountain Hawks knew that, of course. The note in the package even nodded to his “connections to the school at Easton,” before reminding him that Bethlehem has plenty of football tradition of its own. Gruden appreciated the jab.
“That is cold-blooded, man,” he said.
The package included Lehigh gear tied to running back Luke Yoder, who put up a monster performance against Lafayette with 234 rushing yards and four touchdowns in Lehigh’s 42-32 win, a victory that gave the Mountain Hawks another Patriot League title.
Gruden also connected the dots to his own career. He remembered the Philadelphia Eagles holding training camp at Lehigh when he was offensive coordinator, and he shouted out the campus, the facilities, Goodman Stadium, the engineering school, and the program’s tradition.
“I know this because I sat in the stands and I watched Lehigh play football live with my own two eyes,” he said.
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