The Hood Trophy is a friendly competition between local rivals Haverford College and Swarthmore College. The Fords and Garnet have battled for the trophy with head to head contests in varsity sports since the 1941-42 academic year.
"The trophy contest was first staged in memory of Albert L. Hood, Jr., (Swarthmore '31) by his friends at both colleges in recognition of his efforts to improve the spirit of athletic competition between the two (institutions)," wrote then-Haverford Sports Information Director Robert Katz in a 1983 press release. He added that, "primarily because of a family relationship (his older sister, a Swarthmore student, married Merle Miller '26, a Haverford football captain), Hood had close ties with the Haverford community. When the athletic rivalry was discontinued after the 1925 season, Hood, who served on the Phoenix, the Swarthmore student paper, promoted the revival of the important relationship."
Originally the two schools, coed Swarthmore and men-only Haverford, competed in the mutually-sponsored sports of football, soccer, cross country, basketball, wrestling, fencing, baseball, track & field, tennis and golf. That list was trimmed and expanded through the years, then more than doubled with the addition of women's sports at Haverford in the 1980s. Eighteen sports are now counted toward the season-ending total.
Scoring:
The two schools compete for one point each in shared Centennial Conference-sponsored sports. Half-points are awarded for each competition in which the teams meet twice within a season (basketball, baseball and softball) and the cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field points are determined by the higher-placing finish at the conference meet. Tie scores in a contest result in each institution receiving a half point.
View the 2017-18 Haverford vs. Swarthmore Schedule, Results and Running Points Total