Twelve miles of Cleveland separate Berea from University Heights. Baldwin Wallace and John Carroll have been playing football against each other since 1921, and for 36 straight years they have played for a trophy with a rock shaped like a football mounted on it.
On October 19, 2024, they played the 36th edition. Then John Carroll left the Ohio Athletic Conference for the NCAC, and the annual date that made this rivalry a certainty went with it.
A Trophy Built by the Other Side
The Gold Bowl exists because a Baldwin Wallace alumni director wanted it to. In 1989, Ted Theodore proposed a trophy for the winner of the annual meeting. The timing was not an accident. John Carroll had just been accepted into the OAC for the 1989 to 1990 academic year, which turned a series played on and off since 1921 into a guaranteed yearly event.
The trophy carries the flags of both schools and a medallion for each winner, and it stays with the winner until the next kickoff.
The Series
John Carroll leads all time, 34 wins to 26 with 4 ties. In the Gold Bowl era since 1989, the Blue Streaks lead 23 to 13, and they have won every meeting since 2012.
The margins tell a different story than the record does. Eighteen of a recent 26 meetings were decided by ten points or fewer. Two went to overtime, in 1997 and 2007. In 2021, John Carroll won 29 to 28 after scoring 18 in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wallace has its own entries: 32 to 28 in 2012, 45 to 37 in 2011, a 36 to 0 shutout in 2003.
During the 1930s and 1940s, these teams drew enormous crowds to Cleveland Municipal Stadium and League Park as part of the city’s Big Four era.
The Last One in the OAC
The finale fit the series. Baldwin Wallace led 10 to 0 at halftime behind a 40 yard touchdown from Charlie Bubonics to Harley Barmen, the freshman’s first career score. John Carroll answered with 14 in the third.
Then Baldwin Wallace put together a 19 play, 80 yard drive that ate nearly eight minutes and ended with a 13 yard touchdown from Bubonics to Tim Conwell, retaking the lead at 16 to 14 with 2:25 to play. John Carroll needed 6 plays and 62 yards, and Nick Semptimphelter found Kenny Rawls from 10 yards out with 52 seconds left. John Carroll 20, Baldwin Wallace 16.
Bubonics finished 32 of 42 for 277 yards. Baldwin Wallace held the ball for 36 minutes and 46 seconds and still lost by four, which is the Gold Bowl in one line.
Where They Go Now
John Carroll took the move well. The Blue Streaks won the NCAC in their first season, then reached the national semifinals, beating Mount Union 10 to 7 in double overtime along the way. This is the same program that ended Mount Union’s 112 game regular season winning streak in 2016.
Baldwin Wallace stays in the OAC, a nine school league that is the third oldest conference in the country and still measures itself against Mount Union every fall.
Two strong programs, twelve miles apart, in different conferences for the first time since 1989. Nonconference scheduling is the only thing standing between this trophy and a display case.
Rivalries Run on Fans. Fuel Yours.
In Division III there is no television money and there are no athletic scholarships. The quarterback who threw for 277 yards in that finale did it for a student section, a pep band and a trophy with a rock on it.
RallyFuel is a direct way to back these athletes. Through verified, compliant NIL deals, 90 percent of every dollar goes straight to the athlete, and Division III athletes can earn from their name, image and likeness just like everyone else.
- Back the Yellow Jackets on the Baldwin Wallace page or the Blue Streaks on the John Carroll page, or browse football athletes more widely.
- Compare the two programs side by side with the School Rivalry tool.
- Browse every athlete in the OAC and the NCAC.
