The progressive “co-ed” policies started at Genesee would find controversy at the new university in Syracuse, though. In the 1870s, colleges and universities admitted few female students and did so reluctantly. Dr. Erastus O. Haven, Syracuse chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, enrolled his daughter, Frances, at the school where she started in the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

The Syracuse Orange is the nickname used by Syracuse University’s athletic teams. The school is a member of the NCAA Division I and the Big East Conference. Their mascot is Otto the Orange. Until 2004, the teams were known as the Orangemen and Orangewomen, but were originally called the Saltine Warriors. The men’s basketball, football, lacrosse and women’s basketball teams all play in the Carrier Dome. Syracuse University played its first intercollegiate football game in 1889 and got its first success in the 1890s and 1900s. Then state-of-the-art Archbold Stadium was built in 1907 and the school achieved national prominence under the Hall of Fame coach Frank “Buck” O’Neill. The 1915 team got an invitation to the Rose Bowl, which the school declined because they already played on the West Coast that season. Syracuse got to its first National Championship after an undefeated season and a Cotton Bowl victory over Texas in 1959. The team included sophomore running back Ernie Davis, who was the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy in 1961. Davis was scheduled to play for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns in the same backfield as Jim Brown, but passed away of leukemia before getting the chance to play professionally.

Through the 1960s, Syracuse stayed competitive with a series of All American running backs, like Floyd Little and Larry Csonka. The program started to decline gradually in the 70s, though; the 1980 construction of the Carrier Dome helped turn it around, so did the success of future NFL stars Joe Morris and Art Monk. From 1988-2001, the football program had a lot of success under coach Dick MacPherson and his successor Paul Pasqualoni; they appeared in 11 bowl games and won 9. They also captured or shared 4 Big East football championships. Their rivalries changed in the 90s; Penn State finished it series with Syracuse and joined the Big Ten and Syracuse joined the newly former Big East football conference with their rivals University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University and national programs Boston College, Miami University and Virginia Tech. On September 15, 2007, Syracuse retired uniform number 88 in honor of tight end John Mackey. Mackey is considered one of the greatest tight ends to play football, was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1992, was named to the Pro Bowl 5 times as a Baltimore Colts member and played in 2 Super Bowls.