Boston College won 17 of the last 20 games of the series, and in 1986 won its second bowl game in three years. That same year, Holy Cross made a decision to de-emphasize its football program. The college joined the Division I-AA Patriot League in 1986, and eliminated football scholarships in 1989.

Produced by Holy Cross for what would become the final meeting of the Jesuit rivals, the 1986 football program featured a nostalgic cover (left) that might well have represented the series in its earliest years, with a Crusader riding into battle below a flying Eagle. As expected, Boston College overwhelmed the Holy Cross team. Two months later, Holy Cross notified Boston College that “the rivalry” it had featured on the program cover was at an end.

Though games against Miami and Notre Dame have since become reliable highlights (and lowlights) of the Boston College football season, neither competition carries the spirit that once imbued the BC-Holy Cross game. Nor is a similar rivalry for Boston College likely to surface in years ahead. Increasingly powerful leagues, and acute scheduling judgments by colleges that want to assure a bowl appearance, have made it impossible for many colleges to support or justify a rivalry that is no more than local and familial.