Spiders

Montana came into the 2008 NCAA Division I FCS final as the defending champion, and Richmond took it apart anyway, 24–7, under head coach Mike London. It was the only national title the University of Richmond had won in any sport.

The program traces back to 1881, when the team took the field for the first time. It played more than a decade as the "Colts" before a reporter, describing a pitcher's long limbs, likened him to a spider — the name stuck from 1894 onward, and some students said they had already been calling themselves that after the spiders nesting on the campus buildings.

Richmond has stacked up seventeen conference championships since, spread across five different leagues as the program moved through them — Virginia, Southern, Yankee, Atlantic 10, and seven in the Colonial Athletic Association, the most recent pair coming in 2023 and 2024. From 2025 the Spiders move again, into the Patriot League.

E. Claiborne Robins Stadium, seating 8,217, has been the home ground since 2010, after eight decades at City Stadium down the road.

The rivalry that matters most predates the nickname itself: the game against William & Mary for the Capital Cup goes back to 1898 and is billed as the South's oldest.

Of everyone who has come through the program, Bruce Allen is the one whose name travelled furthest from the field itself. He punted for the Spiders in the mid-1970s, then went on to run front offices in the NFL, serving as general manager in Tampa Bay and later in Washington.