Senior Hank Weiss pitches in the Bears season opener against Aurora. (Eran Fann | Photographer)

For nearly 102 years, WashU and Fontbonne University have been separated by just a few blocks. The two institutions consistently played one another in sports — including soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball — in a matchup that has been dubbed the annual “Wydown Showdown”. In 2024, Fontbonne announced that it would close, and that WashU would purchase its campus. Nearly a year later, on Feb. 26, 2025, the Fontbonne baseball team stepped up to the plate at WashU’s Kelly Field to take on WashU in their last-ever athletics contest.

When the final pitch was thrown in WashU’s 12-2 win, the Bears celebrated a relatively unremarkable mid-week early-season victory over a non-conference team.

However, the match-up was more significant than usual, as it was the last time WashU and Fontbonne will ever play in a NCAA-sponsored game. Since Fontbonne joined the NCAA in 1989, WashU and Fontbonne have contested a friendly rivalry, affectionately known as the “Wydown Showdown” for the boulevard that divides the two campuses.

The relationship between the two schools has historically extended past the playing field, according to WashU’s Athletic Director Anthony Azama. When Fontbonne’s field flooded at the end of the softball season last spring, Azama and WashU offered the Griffins their field to finish their last game of the season.

“We were able to have them here and be able to finish out those two and a half innings,” Azama said. “I think that’s cool sometimes. That’s not talked about as how unique D-III is that we’re willing to support each other, especially in times of great need.”

Azama also pointed to how often administrators at both athletic departments called each other to share insight and discuss changes in the world of Division III, as a marker of how close they were. 

“They are some of the nicest people in the industry, always willing to give you some insight,” he said. “Very rarely do you meet people in this business that don’t look at it as a transaction, where they’re really trying to do what’s in the best interest.”

According to WashU basketball fan and former WashU employee Jason Marquart, who goes by the name of “Hilltopper” on X, WashU’s rivalry with fellow D-III St. Louis school Webster University has always been a higher quality of play. However, it is the proximity of the two schools that makes the relationship special.

“Even if you know it’s not going to be a good game, it’s just fun to be able to just leave work and walk over to the gym to watch them play,” Marquart said.

While this rivalry has existed for years, and has tended to be a one-sided affair dominated by WashU, it did not come without upsets. In 2001, Fontbonne snapped the dominant WashU women’s basketball team’s 81-game win streak — tied for the longest in collegiate basketball at the time and still the longest streak in D-III history. The Griffins’ men’s basketball team beat the WashU squad just once in 25 years of competition, but Fontbonne’s lone victory came in the 1996-97 season, where WashU won a national championship. The men’s basketball team also met Fontbonne in the first round of the 2006-07 NCAA Tournament hosted by WashU, which the Bears won.

DeVaughn Rucker drives to the net against Fontbonne in 2018. The WashU basketball team has a storied history with Fontbonne. (Grace Bruton | Student Life)

According to former WashU men’s basketball head coach Mark Edwards, the dynamic between the two schools brought out a healthy competition — with Fontbonne often searching to upset the Bears.

Unlike WashU, where recruits come from all over the country and the world, Fontbonne recruits student-athletes primarily from the St. Louis area and competes in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC), a regional league consisting mostly of fellow D-III schools in the St. Louis area. Despite this, the Griffins proved constant competitors for WashU.

“They had to put their program together using all local kids and we had a nice healthy relationship with them when we played them for 24 years,” Edwards said. “We did play them one time in the NCAA tournament which was kind of strange because all they had to do was walk across the street to come to our gym and play.”

Unlike conference and post-season games, the “Wydown Showdown” has never held particular importance for the Bears’ post-season campaigns. The low-stakes series has often been played on weeknights early in the season.

Graduate student Jessica Brooks (center) goes for a rebound in the final “Wydown Showdown” game on Dec. 10, 2024. (Courtesy of Thurman Brooks)

While the “Wydown Showdown” permeates throughout all WashU sports, it was most prominent during basketball season. Beginning in 1995, WashU and Fontbonne played each other for 25 years straight with one four year interruption, according to Edwards.

“I know the coaches respected the coaches at each institution,” Edwards said about the rivalry. “They had legitimate coaches, their program wasn’t a joke. They had nice teams and nice programs.”

Even in Fontbonne’s waning years, as the schools financial woes increased and the Griffins’ future was uncertain, the quality of competition on the court did not decrease.

“They played really hard and the kids that they had on their team really went after it,” Edwards said. “WashU was a big target for them so they didn’t have any trouble getting up for it.”

With this rivalry over, Marquart hopes that WashU can schedule more exhibition matches outside of D-III — like the men’s basketball team’s 2022 match against Division I Mizzou. One upcoming opportunity for next year would be a 40th anniversary game honoring the last time WashU and St. Louis University faced off in a basketball game.

“[The rules] have been increasingly flexible, but it’ll be easier for a school like SLU or UMSL [University of Missouri–St. Louis] to schedule an exhibition with WashU,” Marquart said.

Fontbonne played its final basketball game on Feb. 26, falling to Webster 78-73 in the SLIAC tournament. Now that Fonbtonne athletics has entered its final chapter, Edwards hopes that the legacy of Fontbonne athletics will be remembered.

“I hope that there is some place somewhere where the story of Fontbonne athletics will be maintained — the trophy cases, the banners, all the things they achieved, the kids that got to play there over the years, and the coaches who got to coach there,” Edwards said. “I hope that some way they’re going to be remembered and their legacy won’t be lost.”