The Virginia Cavaliers football (UVA) team represents the University of Virginia in the sport of American football. Established in 1888, UVA played an outsized role by quickly asserting itself as the South's first great program with 28 straight winning seasons from its first in 1888, Virginia football was the first program outside the Northeast to defeat perennial power (26-time national champions) Yale, on the first attempt in 1915. Virginia lost its mantle as the region's mark of success between World War I and World War II, but soon thereafter Art Guepe had Virginia winning big again. To avoid the trappings of "big-time football", university president Colgate Darden reduced scholarship and recruiting support, argued against joining the ACC, and declined an invite for Virginia to play unbeaten Georgia Tech in the 1952 Orange Bowl.