The Cornell Big Red is the informal name of the sports and other competitive teams that represent

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

. The university sponsors 37 varsity sports, and several

intramural Intramural sports are recreational sports organized within a particular institution, usually an educational institution, for the purpose of fun and exercise. The term, which is chiefly North American, derives from the Latin words ''intra muros'' m ...

and club teams. Cornell participates in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

as part of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

. The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in the ECAC Hockey League. Additionally, teams compete in the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association, the Collegiate Sprint Football League, the

Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is a college athletic conference of fifteen men's college rowing crews. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members Fifteen colleges and universities are membe ...

(EARC), the

Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen women's college rowing crew teams. The conference is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members :See footnot ...

(EAWRC), the

Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) is one of the seven conferences affiliated with the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions. MAISA organiz ...

, and the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA).

History

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. Cornell does not have an official mascot; however, the

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

has long been a symbol of Cornell Athletics. In 1915, a live bear named

Touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

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 an undergraduate 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. Many of Cornell's athletic directors have made substantial contributions to collegiate athletics in general, including Romeyn Berry, James Lynah, and Robert Kane. Big Red sports are covered in the two campus publications, '' The Cornell Daily Sun'' and '' The Cornell Review'', and various blogs.

Fight songs

A number of

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand, these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

s are associated with Cornell sports teams, such as "The Big Red Team", "Fight for Cornell", and "New Cornell Fight Song", 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 of George M. Cohan's " Give My Regards to Broadway".

Athletics

The

sprint football Sprint football is a varsity sport played by United States colleges and universities, under standard American football rules. Since the 2022 season, the sport has been governed by the Collegiate Sprint Football League and the Midwest Sprint Footba ...

team has won the CSFL title six times. The men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

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's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

team has been NCAA champion four times and Ivy League champion 33 times. The men's lightweight

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

team varsity 8+ has won the IRA regatta eight times since 1992 (1992, 2006–08, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019). The women's

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

team has won the National Women's Polo Championship 15 times, and the women's hockey team has been Ivy League champion 16 times.

Championship teams

;Baseball *Ivy 1972, 1977, 1979, 1982, 2012 *EIBL 1939, 1940, 1952, 1972, 1977 ;Men's basketball *Ivy 1988, 2008, 2009, 2010 ;Women's basketball *Ivy 2008 ;Men's cross country *Heptagonal Champions 1939, 1940, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1961, 1963, 1993 *Ivy Champions 1957, 1961, 1963, 1992, 1993 ;Women's cross country *Heptagonal Champions 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 2011, 2012 ;Women's fencing * National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) Champions 1967, 1968, and 1969"Sports,"
''Town Topics'', June 14, 2006.Robert K. Durkee (2022)
''The New Princeton Companion''
p. 199, Princeton University Press. ;Football *National 1915, 1921, 1922, 1939 *Ivy 1971, 1988, 1990 ;Sprint football * CSFL 1975(Co-Champs), 1978, 1982, 1984(Tri-Champs), 1986(Tri-Champs), 2006 ;Field Hockey *Ivy 1991 ;Men's ice hockey *NCAA 1967, 1970 *ECAC (14) 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1980, 1986, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2024, 2025 *Ivy (26) 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1983*, 1984*, 1985*, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004*, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024 (*shared title) * Ned Harkness Cup 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013 ;Women's ice hockey * NCAA Frozen Four 2010, 2011, 2012, 2019, 2025 *ECAC 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2025 *Ivy 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1996, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2024, 2025 ;Men's lacrosse *NCAA 1971, 1976, 1977, 2025 *Ivy (33) 1966, 1968, 1969*, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980*, 1981, 1982, 1983*, 1987, 2003*, 2004*, 2005, 2006*, 2007, 2008*, 2009*, 2010*, 2011, 2013, 2014*, 2015*, 2022*, 2023, 2024, 2025 (*shared title) *Ivy League Tournament Champions 2011, 2018, 2025 ;Women's lacrosse *Ivy 2006*, 2017* (* shared) ;Men's polo *National 1937, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1992, 2005, 2024 (''Div. II'') ;Women's polo *National 1979, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2011, 2015, 2016 ;Men's heavyweight crew *Cornell's Crews have won more RAAC (12 of 21)(1871–1894) and IRA National Championships (26) than any other university, most recently: *IRA National 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1977, 1981, 1982 *Eastern Sprints 1956, 1957, 1960, 1963 ;Men's lightweight crew *IRA National 1992, 2006, 2007 2008 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 * Eastern Sprints 1949, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1992, 2006, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017 *Ivy League 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1992, 2006, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017 ;Women's crew * IRA National 1989 ;Men's soccer *Ivy 1975, 1977, 1995, 2012 ;Women's soccer *Ivy 1987, 1991, 1992 ;Softball *Ivy 1999, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2010 ;Men's swimming *Ivy 1984 (co-champions) ;Men's tennis *Ivy 2011, 2017* (* shared title) ;Men's track *Indoor Heptagonal Champions 1953, 1955, 1958, 1977, 1978, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014 *Outdoor Heptagonal Champions 1939, 1951, 1955, 1958, 1978, 1985, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 2014, 2016 ;Women's track *Indoor Heptagonal Champions 1991, 1995, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 *Outdoor Heptagonal Champions 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 ;Volleyball *Ivy 1991, 1992, 1993, 2004, 2005, 2006 ;Men's wrestling *EIWA champions 1910, 1912–1917, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1930, 1958, 1992, 1993, 2007-2017, 2022, 2023, 2024 *Ivy League champions (44) 1957–1960, 1962–1966, 1973, 1974, 1983, 1984, 1987–1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003–2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 *NCAA Runner-up 2010, 2011, 2024 *Ivy League tournament champions 2025

Other teams

* Equestrian * Gymnastics * Men's Golf Men's Squash * Men's Swimming and Diving * Women's Fencing * Women's Squash * Women's Swimming and Diving

Club teams

* Alpine Skiing * Cornell University Men's Fencing Club *Women's Club Ultimate Team *Cornell University Figure Skating Club * Men's Club Volleyball Team * Men's Club Ultimate Team * Cornell University Rowing Club * Cornell University Rugby Football Club (men's) * Cornell Women's Rugby Football Club * Cornell Men's Club Swim Team * Cornell Women's Club Swim Team

Facilities

The football, lacrosse, and sprint football teams play in

Schoellkopf Field Schoellkopf Field is a 21,500-capacity stadium at Cornell University's Ithaca campus that opened in 1915 and is used for the Cornell Big Red football, sprint football and lacrosse teams. It is located just north of Cascadilla Creek on the sout ...

, which has a capacity of 25,597. The

teams play in Lynah 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 on Charles 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. Field hockey plays on Marsha Dodson Field. The Cornell Men's and Women's Track and Field Teams compete in Barton 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 a Robert Trent Jones (a Cornell alumnus) designed

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

, baseball's Hoy 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. The Alumni Fields became the site of an underground Synchrotron Laboratory. 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. 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.

Rivalries

Cornell University vs Princeton Lacrosse 1987

Cornell maintains informal athletic

rivalries A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

with other collegiate institutions. Cornell's principal rival is

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. The men's ice hockey team has a historic

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

with

, which dates back to 1910 and includes many championship meetings. The Cornell-Harvard ice hockey rivalry was highlighted in the 1970 novel '' Love Story'' and its

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

. Following tradition, when Harvard plays the men's ice hockey team at Cornell's Lynah Rink, some Big Red fans throw fish on the ice. A historic rivalry with

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, dating back to when Cornell and Boston University played in

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

before the creation of

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

, is maintained by biennial games at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, dubbed "Red Hot Hockey," on Thanksgiving weekend. Cornell and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

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 in

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

. Cornell's football series against both Pennsylvania and Dartmouth are tied for second longest uninterrupted college football match-ups in history, both dating back to 1919. Cornell and Penn play for the Trustees Cup. They are only surpassed by the Lehigh-Lafayette series, which is uninterrupted since 1897. In

, the men's and women's teams maintain rivalries with the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

and the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

. For men's lacrosse, Cornell and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

have historically been the perennial favorites in the Ivy League and the Princeton game is usually the most anticipated Ivy-game. Fellow upstate schools

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

and

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

are also considered Cornell's lacrosse rivals. In women's equestrian,

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a Private school, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,700 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Scien ...

is an ongoing rival.

References

External links

* {{Authority control