TheCornell Big Red is the informal name of the sports and other competitive teams that representCornell University inIthaca, New York. The university sponsors 37 varsity sports, and severalintramural and club teams. Cornell participates inNCAA Division I as part of theIvy League.
Cornell's teams did not have an official name until after 1905, when a recent graduate,Romeyn Berry '04, wrote lyrics for a new football song. The lyrics included the words "the big, red team," and the nickname stuck.[2]
Cornell does not have an official mascot; however, thebear has long been a symbol of Cornell Athletics. In 1915, a live bear namedTouchdown first appeared at football games to represent Cornell. The current version, which appears at many of Cornell's sporting events, is a brown bear costume, which replaced the live bear in 1939, that is worn by anundergraduate student; it is referred to as the "Big Red Bear" or by its nickname, "Touchdown." "Red man," a person dressed in a tight red suit, has been seen running up and down the field of men's soccer games.
Cornell's colors, carnelian red and white, date back to the university's Inauguration Day on October 7, 1868.[3]
Many of Cornell's athletic directors have made substantial contributions to collegiate athletics in general, includingRomeyn Berry,James Lynah, andRobert Kane.
A number offight songs are associated with Cornell sports teams, such as "The Big Red Team", "Fight for Cornell", and "New Cornell Fight Song",[5] but the one with the longest use and tradition is "Give My Regards to Davy", a song written by three Cornellians in 1904. The song is sung to the tune ofGeorge M. Cohan's "Give My Regards to Broadway".
† – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor.
Thesprint football team has won the CSFL title six times. The men'sice hockey team has been NCAA champion twice, ECAC champion 14 times and Ivy League champion 26 times and recorded the only undefeated season in NCAA Division I Hockey history in 1970. The men'slacrosse team has been NCAA champion four times and Ivy League champion 33 times. The men's lightweightrowing team varsity 8+ has won the IRA regatta eight times since 1992 (1992, 2006–08, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019). The women'spolo team has won the National Women's Polo Championship 15 times, and the women's hockey team has been Ivy League champion 16 times.
The football, lacrosse, and sprint football teams play inSchoellkopf Field, which has a capacity of 25,597. Theice hockey teams play inLynah Rink, which has a capacity of 4,267. The Cornell men's wrestling team competes at the Friedman Wrestling Center with a capacity of 1,100. Cornell soccer teams play onCharles F. Berman Field on the southeast side of campus. In August 2000, the bleachers and lights were completed, with a capacity of over 1,000.[48] Field hockey plays on Marsha Dodson Field. The Cornell Men's and Women's Track and Field Teams compete inBarton Hall, a converted military hangar, for indoor track, and the Robert J. Kane sports complex for outdoor track. There are also facilities about 2 miles east of campus that has multiple uses, but it is mainly used by the Cornell men's soccer team for practice. Other campus facilities include aRobert Trent Jones (a Cornell alumnus) designedgolf course, baseball'sHoy Field, the Niemand•Robison Softball Field, the Oxley Equestrian Center, and numerous fields and gymnasiums. Some of the athletic playing fields along Tower Road are known as the "Alumni Fields" because the Cornell Alumni Association funded the grading and development of these fields in exchange for a promise that they would remain in perpetuity. A subsequent land swap resulted in giving the Agriculture College building sites at the east end of the fields in exchange for the site of what became Schoellkopf Field and Hoy Field.[49] The Alumni Fields became the site of an undergroundSynchrotron Laboratory.[50]
Since the 1970s, several of the fields were used as sites for new biology buildings and were replaced by new fields along Jessup Road. Today, facilities are spread around campus with tennis courts and basketball courts located near a number of dormitories. In addition, the athletics department operates Helen Newman Hall (formerly the women's athletics building) and Noyes Center as remote fitness facilities.[51]
The men's and women's crew programs are housed in the John Collyer Class of 1917 Boathouse and Doris B. Robison Boathouse on Cayuga Inlet. Both boathouses underwent an $8 million renovation in 2011.[52]
Cornell maintains informal athleticrivalries with other collegiate institutions. Cornell's principal rival isHarvard. Themen's ice hockey team has a historicrivalry withHarvard, which dates back to 1910 and includes many championship meetings. The Cornell-Harvard ice hockey rivalry was highlighted in the 1970 novelLove Story and itsfilm adaptation. Following tradition, when Harvard plays the men's ice hockey team at Cornell'sLynah Rink, some Big Red fans throw fish on the ice.[53] A historic rivalry withBoston University, dating back to when Cornell and Boston University played inECAC Hockey before the creation ofHockey East, is maintained by biennial games atMadison Square Garden inManhattan, dubbed "Red Hot Hockey," on Thanksgiving weekend.
Cornell and theUniversity of Pennsylvania are long-time rivals in football, having played each other in 130 games since their first meeting in 1893, representing one of the most-played rivalries incollege football.[54][55] Cornell's football series against both Pennsylvania andDartmouth are tied for second longest uninterrupted college football match-ups in history, both dating back to 1919.[56] Cornell and Penn play for the Trustees Cup. They are only surpassed by theLehigh-Lafayette series, which is uninterrupted since 1897.
Formen's lacrosse, Cornell andPrinceton University have historically been the perennial favorites in the Ivy League and the Princeton game is usually the most anticipated Ivy-game. Fellow upstate schoolsSyracuse University andHobart are also considered Cornell's lacrosse rivals.
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