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

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, located in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

. The university sponsors 37 varsity sports, as well as numerous intramural and club teams. Cornell participates in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level 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 athleti ...

as part of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

. 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 National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) is a women's collegiate fencing organization in the United States. The organization was founded as the IWFA in 1929 by two New York University students, Julia Jones and Dorothy Haf ...

, the Collegiate Sprint Football League, the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC), the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (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 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 throughout the No ...

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. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

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 (the live bear was replaced in 1939) that is worn by an undergraduate student; it is referred to as the "Big Red Bear" or by its nickname, "Touchdown." And recently, "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 James Lynah (1881 – February 24, 1956) was an American businessman and sports administrator who is considered the principal founder of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Lynah Rink is named in his honor. Early years Born in Charl ...

, and Robert Kane. Big Red sports are covered in the two campus publications, ''

The Cornell Daily Sun ''The Cornell Daily Sun'' is an independent daily newspaper published in Ithaca, New York by students at Cornell University and hired employees. ''The Sun'' features coverage of the university and its environs as well as stories from the Asso ...

'' and '' The Cornell Review'', as well as on 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".

Sports sponsored

The

sprint football Sprint football, formerly called lightweight football, is a varsity sport played by United States colleges and universities, under standard American football rules. As of the 2022 season, the sport is governed by the Collegiate Sprint Football ...

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

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

team has been NCAA champion twice, ECAC champion 12 times and Ivy League champion 22 times, and recorded the only undefeated season in NCAA Division I Hockey history in 1970. The men's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a 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 was extensiv ...

team has been NCAA champion three times and Ivy League champion 29 times. The men's Lightweight rowing team varsity 8+ has won the IRA regatta seven times since 1992 (1992, 2006–08, 2014, 2015 & 2017). The women's polo team has won the National Women's Polo Championship 15 times and the women's hockey team has been Ivy League champion 14 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 ;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 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1980, 1986, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2010 *Ivy 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1984*, 1985*, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004*, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020 (*shared title) * Ned Harkness Cup 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013 ;Women's ice hockey * NCAA Frozen Four 2010, 2011, 2012, 2019 *ECAC 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 *Ivy 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1996, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2020 ;Men's lacrosse *NCAA 1971, 1976, 1977 *Ivy 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* (*shared title) *Ivy League Tournament Champions 2011, 2018 ;Women's lacrosse *Ivy 2006*, 2017* (* shared) ;Men's polo *National 1937, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1992, 2005 ;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 The Eastern Sprints is the annual rowing championship for the men's Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC). (Since 1974, the "Women's Eastern Sprints" has been held as the annual championship for the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Co ...

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 o-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 *Ivy League champions 1957–1960, 1962–1966, 1973, 1974, 1987–1993, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003–2019, 2022 *NCAA Runner-up 2010, 2011

Other teams

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

, which has a capacity of 25,597. The

teams play in

Lynah Rink Lynah Rink (pronounced LIE-nuh) is a 4,267-seat hockey arena at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, that opened in 1957. Named after James Lynah, Class of 1905, who was the director of Cornell athletics from 1935 to 1943, it is home to th ...

, 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 tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

, 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 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 o ...

with other collegiate institutions. Cornell's principal rival is

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

. The men's ice hockey team has a historic rivalry with

that dates back to 1910 and includes many championship meetings. This rivalry was highlighted in the 1970 novel ''

Love Story Love Story or A Love Story may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres * Romance (love) ** Romance film ** Romance novel Films * ''Love Story'' (1925 film), German silent film * ''Love Story'' (1942 film), Italian drama film * ''Love ...

'' and its film adaptation. Following tradition, when Harvard plays the men's ice hockey team at Cornell's

, some Big Red fans throw fish on the ice. A historic rivalry with

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

, 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 fo ...

, 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 and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

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

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

are long-time rivals in football. They have played each other in 122 games since their first meeting in 1893, this is the fifth most-played rivalry in college football. Cornell's football series against both the University of Pennsylvania and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

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

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

and the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

Cornell University vs Princeton Lacrosse 1987

For men's lacrosse, Cornell and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

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 and

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/ Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

are also considered Cornell's lacrosse rivals. Additionally, in women's

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. Histo ...

is a constant rival.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Cornell Big Red, color=white , list = {{Ivy League navbox {{ECAC Hockey League {{Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association navbox {{Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges {{New York Sports {{Ithaca, New York