In 1869, the first intramural football on the Cornell campus took place, although it did not resemble the modern sport and there were 40 players per side. In 1874, the university president and co-founder, Andrew Dickson White, disallowed a team of Cornell students from traveling to Cleveland to play Michigan. White said, "I refuse to let 40 of our boys travel 400 miles merely to agitate a bag of wind."[2]
On November 12, 1887, Cornell played its first intercollegiate game against Union College, losing 24–10. The following year, Cornell recorded their first win by beating Palmyra, 26–0, and went on to finish the season with a 4–2 record.[2] In 1889, Cornell played the University of Michigan Wolverines in Buffalo, New York, shutting out Michigan in a 66–0 victory.[3]
In 1892, Pop Warner first played the game, and the Cornellians finished the season with a 10–1 record under head coach Carl Johanson, often referred to as the "Father of Cornell football". Two years later, in 1894, Warner rose to become the team's captain. After college, Warner began his coaching career and returned to Cornell in 1897. That year, he led the team to a 5–3–1 record. The following season, Cornell compiled a 10–2 record. Warner then moved on to coach the Carlisle Indians football team.[2]
In 1901, under first-year coach Ray Starbuck, the Cornellians outscored their opponents 324–38 and won 11 games for the only time in school history. Pop Warner returned as head coach from 1904 to 1906, during which time his teams posted a 21–8 record.[2]
Cornell began playing Ivy League rival Penn in 1893. They have played 129 times since, in every year except 1918 and 2020, making this game the sixth-most played college football contest in the nation.
In 1915, Cornell won all nine of its games. They handed Harvard their first loss in 50 consecutive games, 10–0. Gil Dobie took over as head coach in 1920. In his first season, the Cornellians posted a 6–2 record, but in each of the subsequent three years they finished 8–0. Cornell was awarded the national championship for each of those three seasons by at least one selector. In those seasons, Cornell outscored its opponents, 1,051 points to 71.[2]
Cornell defeated Penn State, 21–6, in 1938 to begin a school record unbeaten streak of 16 games. The Big Red compiled an 8–0 record in 1939 for its fifth national championship. The possibility of a Rose Bowl invitation that season was rebuffed by the university administration. The unbeaten streak came to an end in 1940 with the infamous Fifth Down Game.[2] After the game, Cornell voluntarily forfeited to Dartmouth when review of film showed the Big Red had inadvertently used five downs.[4] The ESPN College Football Encyclopedia named the game, and Cornell's honorable concession, the second greatest moment in college football history.[5]
In 1951, Cornell beat defending Big Ten and Rose Bowl champion Michigan, 20–7. Between 1969 and 1971, running back Ed Marinaro broke numerous NCAA records with a career total of 1,881 yards and 24 touchdowns. His senior year, he finished as runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Pat Sullivan of Auburn. That same season, Cornell finished 6–1 to secure a share of the Ivy League conference championship for the first time. Following the 1981 season, the Ivy League was reclassified to Division I-AA, today known as the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Cornell moved to Division I-AA play with the rest of the league.[6] Cornell twice more attained the Ivy League title, shared in 1988 with Penn and shared with Dartmouth in 1990.[2] Beginning in 2018, Cornell has played New York State Ivy League rival, the Columbia Lions, in their final game. The victor is awarded the Empire Cup.
The Ivy League announced that no sports would be played in the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[7] The Big Red returned to Schoellkopf in September 2021 to play Virginia Military Institute, its first game after a 665-day hiatus.[8]
Cornell has won five (1915, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1939) national championships from NCAA-designated major selectors.[9][10]: 111–112 Cornell claims all five championships.[11][12][13]
Cornell's cheerleaders at the Cornell-Penn game at Franklin Field on November 19, 2019
Cornell has several rivalries in football, most significantly the Penn Quakers. The rivalry between the two schools is the sixth most played rivalry in college football history. They play for the Trustees' Cup. The series is led by Penn with a record of 77–47–5.
Numerous undrafted players have also played in the NFL.[15]Pete Gogolak became the first soccer-style kicker in pro football in 1964; the most recent is Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Bryan Walters.
Others
Arthur Fazzin was captain of the team during the early 1940s. He later became an actor and game show host under the stage name Art Fleming.
Television
Cornell football, as well as the rest of the Ivy League Conference, currently[when?] has a deal with ESPN in which ESPN agreed to a long-term relationship to showcase Ivy League events through a variety of ESPN platforms, including at least 24 events annually on ESPN’s linear networks and more than 1,100 annually on ESPN+, one of ESPN's earliest conference partners after launching ESPN+.[16]
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