In the latest issue of Columbia College Today (Fall 2025), Charles Butler writes an amazing story about a recent “you-gotta-be-kidding” coincidence in Columbia football history. Last year, junior Jack Smiechowski helped Columbia win the Ivy League Championship (tied with Harvard and Dartmouth) and this year, as a senior, he is one of the co-captains. The only other time that Columbia had a share of the Ivy League title was back in 1961. That Lions team included Thomas O’Connor, a versatile junior, who went on to serve as a team captain in 1962. How are these two teams connected? Jack Smiechowski CC 2026 is the grandson of Tom O’Connor CC 1963.

The 1961 Lions are usually described as the epitome of “team,” with all of the players contributing to an unforgettable season. The Columbia Lions and the Harvard Crimson finished the season with the same record in the League, 6-1. The only Columbia loss was to the Princeton Tigers, 20-30. In the Ivy League, Columbia’s three running backs, Tom Haggerty, Russ Warren, and Tom O’ Connor, finished 1-2-3 both in scoring and in rushing. O’Connor was a junior on a team with 18 seniors. The  6’1” 195-pound fullback scored four touchdowns. He gained over 400 yards rushing in nine games and led his team with an average of more than 5 yards per carry. He also handled the place-kicking duties and kicked nine conversions and three field goals. Unsurprisingly, he was named to the All-Ivy team by the Associated Press. 

In the Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education records, there is an oversize black-and-white photograph featuring O’Connor (#30), Captain Bill Campbell (#67), and Anthony Day (#60) on the field at the 1961 game against Harvard. In fact, in 2019, we featured this photograph in our exhibition on Columbia football. Well, it turns out that this poster-sized print actually came from O’Connor himself. On the back of the photo, O’Connor wrote a note that says it all: “We tied for Ivy League Champs w/ Harvard (Both 6 and 1) but we beat them head to head in Harvard!” Yes, Columbia did beat Harvard, 26-14, in that magical season.

On his graduation, Thomas Edward O’Connor, Jr., captain of Columbia’s 1962 football team, received the President’s Midshipman Award as the “midshipman of the graduating class who has contributed most” to Columbia. In his presentation, President Grayson Kirk noted that “Midshipman O’Connor has demonstrated outstanding leadership, unquestioned loyalty and devotion to his Alma Mater, and citizenship potential of the highest order. O’Connor has been Captain of the Varsity Football Team; recipient of the Van Am Prize Medal; member of the Advisory Committee on Athletics; member of the Senior Society of Nacoms, and has received appointment to the Naval Nuclear Power Program. Midshipman 0’Connor’s achievements and contributions are in keeping with the best traditions of Columbia.”

The 1961 Football team was inducted into the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.