GETTYSBURG, Pa. – An age-old rivalry will get a new twist this weekend when Gettysburg College hosts Franklin & Marshall College for the 100th meeting between the two institutions on the football field.
 
The Gettysburg-F&M football rivalry isn't the most played in the nation, safely trailing Lafayette College and Lehigh University by 45 games, but there is no closer rivalry to be found. After 99 games, the series is dead even at 46-46-7.
 
The winner of the 100th game will not only take the lead in the series. For the first time, a special trophy, called the "Lincoln Football Trophy," will be handed out to the winner of the Gettysburg-Franklin & Marshall football game.
 
This is not just a simple creation of wood and metal; the Lincoln Trophy has been molded and carved from the remains of two trees that bore witness to President Abraham Lincoln's visit to Gettysburg following the great battle 151 years ago. The trophy will be unveiled for the first time during Saturday's game.
 
The rivalry with F&M goes all the way back to Gettysburg's first season as a varsity program in 1890 and it pre-dates each school's mascot by over three decades. The series stands as the longest for the Bullets and the second-longest for the Diplomats.
 
For four decades, the game was a Thanksgiving Day feature with the opposing sides often battling for the Eastern Pennsylvania Football Conference title. By the early 1980s, the contest would serve as the deciding game for Centennial Conference supremacy.
 
The series took a 16-year hiatus when the Bullets went to the Middle Atlantic Conference University Division and the Diplomats went to the College Division in 1959. It picked back up in 1976 and after five consecutive games in the month of September the rivalry resumed its November showdown in 1981 in front of a national television audience as ABC's feature game of the week.
 
Gettysburg head football coach Barry Streeter has taken part in every contest against the Diplomats since 1976, serving the first two years as an assistant coach before assuming head duties in 1978. Most of those meetings involved F&M counterpart Tom Gilburg, who coached the Diplomats from 1975 to 2002. Streeter claimed his 100th career victory with a 52-20 win over F&M in 1994, while Gilburg's final win was a 20-14 decision over the Bullets in 2002.
 
After a three-game winning streak by the Bullets, the Diplomats won last season's contest 36-26 in Lancaster. Gettysburg has not lost to F&M at Shirk Field since 2004.
 
Saturday's opening kick-off is set for 1 p.m. Following the game, the winning team will be presented the Lincoln Football Trophy for the first time.