Cornell University Athletics

Cornell Football Timeline

1869
The first football game, an intramural contest featuring 40 players per side, occurs on campus.

1874
Cornell president Andrew D. White refuses to let Cornellians travel for a football game against Michigan in Cleveland because "I refuse to let 40 of our boys travel 400 miles merely to agitate a bag of wind."

1887
Cornell relents, and the first intercollegiate game under modern rules is played against Union College on No. 12, 1887. Union wins the game 24-10 in the contest played where Day and Stimson halls stand today.

1888
Cornell picks up its first win in program history, topping Palmyra 26-0 in the season opener on Oct. 20 en route to a 4-2 record.

1892
Glenn (Pop) Warner '94 saw his first football game at Cornell, thinking it was "just a schoolboy scramble with a few bloody noses," gave it a try, and went on to become the best known of the sport's pioneering coaches. He caused more rule changes than all other coaches combined.

1897
Warner begins the first of his two coaching stints at Cornell, going 5-3-1 with wins over Syracuse and Penn State. He ended his Cornell career with a 36-13-3 record.

1901
Cornell wins a record 11 games, going 11-1 under first-year coach Ray Starbuck. Cornell outscores foes 324-38, dropping an 8-6 decision to Princeton in the eighth game of the year. It was the first points the Big Red had allowed all year.

1915
Cornell picks a great year to open play at Schoellkopf Field. Charley Barrett '16 scores a first-quarter TD to lead Cornell to a 10-0 victory over Harvard in a game of unbeatens. The Big Red handed the Crimson its first loss in four years and was declared national champion, the first of five national titles for Cornell.

1919
The Big Red plays its first of six games in seven years at the Polo Grounds against Dartmouth and Columbia, going 3-3.

1920
Cornell's all-time winningest coach Gil Dobie leads the Big Red to a 6-2 mark. Dobie's next three squads would win national championships.

1921
The Big Red goes 8-0, claims the mythical national title and begins its school record 26-game win streak. Cornell outscores its foes 392-21.

1922
Cornell wins its second-straight crown, going 8-0 and outscoring opponents 339-27.

1923
National title No. 4 and the third in a row, the Big Red goes 8-0 and blisters foes by a 320-23 margin.

1938
Cornell begins its second-longest win streak (18) with a win over Penn State. The streak ends with the Fifth Down game two years later.

1939
The 1939 team goes 8-0 and claims the program's fifth national crown and is the Lambert Trophy winner, with Cornell defeating Syracuse, Princeton, Penn State, Big Ten champion Ohio State, Columbia, Colgate, Dartmouth and Penn. Cornell overcame a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter to beat the powerful Buckeyes 23-14 in Columbus. The rumor of an invite to the Rose Bowl was quickly quelled by the Big Red administration, which did not want to further strain the players' academic situations.

1940
The Fifth-Down Game. No. 1 Cornell improved to 6-0 with a 7-3 victory over Dartmouth in Hanover, scoring on the last play of the game. After reviewing game film on Monday, Coach Carl Snavely and acting athletic director Robert J. Kane wire Dartmouth officials to tell them Cornell scored on a fifth down. The Big Green accepts the forfeit, winning the contest 3-0. Cornell also becomes the only Ivy League school to reach No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, hitting the top spot for three weeks.

1943
In the heart of World War II, travel restrictions limit options for a venue to play a contest against Dartmouth. They were unable to travel to each other as no rail line ran between Ithaca and Hanover. Instead, the two teams met in Boston and played at Fenway Park in the shadow of the "Green Monster." The Big Green won 20-0.

1948
Bob Dean '49 scores from 1-foot out and kicks the PAT with 2:40 left, giving the Big Red a 27-26 come-from-behind victory over Dartmouth in front of 30,000 fans at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red takes the mythical Ivy League championship with a perfect record behind the feats of Hillary Chollet '50 and Pete Dorset '50.

1951
Cornell defeats defending Big Ten Conference and Rose Bowl champion Michigan, 20-7, in front of the largest crowd in Schoellkopf history (35,300).

1963
Pete Gogolak kicks a then-NCAA record 50-yard field goal against Lehigh. He also sets a major college record with 44 consecutive PAT kicks.

1969
Sophomore Ed Marinaro bursts onto the collegiate scene with a 162-yard effort against Colgate in the season opener. He ran for 100 yards in seven of the team's nine games, posting a school record 1,409 yards on the ground and 14 touchdowns. Included is a then-school record 281 yard performance against Harvard.

1970
Not to be outdone, Marinaro breaks his own school record with 1,425 yards and shares the Asa S. Bushnell Cup for Ivy Player of the Year with Dartmouth's Jim Chasey.

1971
Marinaro caps off his fine career with a then-NCAA record 1,881 yards and 24 touchdowns en route to earning first-team All-America honors. He claims all of the major national player of the year awards except the coveted Heisman Trophy, which he finishes second to Auburn's Pat Sullivan in one of the award's closest votes. The Big Red shares its first-ever Ivy crown on Marinaro's shoulders, matching Dartmouth's 6-1 record in Ancient Eight action.

1981
Derrick Harmon becomes the first Cornell player to earn Ivy League Sophomore of the Year (now Rookie of the Year).

1982
Cornell moves to the Division I-AA classification.

1986
The Big Red made an unlikely run for the league title, finishing the year with just one loss in Ivy play a year after going 3-7 overall. Cornell drops a 31-21 decision to Penn in the season finale as the Quakers claimed the crown.

1988
Cornell brought the Ivy League trophy back to the East Hill in 1988 when the team earned six victories against its Ancient foes. Five individuals earned first-team All-Ivy honors, including Cornell Hall of Famers Scott Malaga (RB) and Mitch Lee (LB). The team outscored its opponents by nearly 100 points while averaging 345.0 yards per game.

1989
Cornell makes a Thanksgiving Day appearance on ESPN, playing a 10 a.m. contest against Penn. The Big Red wins 20-6 and is 3-0 all-time on ESPN.

1990
Cornell posts a 6-1 Ivy mark and a share of the Ancient Eight title under the direction of first-year head coach and former gridiron great Jim Hofher 79. The Big Red leads the league in rushing (242.9 ypg.) and total offense (375.0 ypg.) while outscoring its opponents 180-95. Three of the team's offensive linemen -- Jay Bloedorn, Greg Finnegan and Chris Field -- earned first-team All-Ivy honors, leading the Big Red's 14 overall selections. Scott Oliaro runs for a school-record 288 yards against Yale.

1991
The Big Red travelled to Division I Stanford to celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of its sister school from the West. The Cardinal win 56-6.

1995
Cornell wins five straight Ivy games midway through the season and finishes tied for second in the Ancient Eight standings.

1996
The Big Red plays its first overtime game, defeating Princeton 33-27 at home in the season and home opener. Chad Levitt '97 falls 58 yards shy of the school's career rushing record after being hurt in his final collegiate game, ending his four-year run with 4,657 yards. He is named second-team All-America and the Ivy League Player of the Year.

2000
Big Red fans are provided with plenty of excitement, as Cornell's all-time leading passer, Ricky Rahne '02, led the team through some amazing fourth-quarter comebacks. The squad battled to win three games by one point each to challenge for the Ivy title, finishing the season in second place.

2001
The season opener at Bucknell is cancelled after the attacks of Sept. 11. When the season begins, Ricky Rahne '02 builds on his passing totals and graduates as the school's career leader in passing (7,710 yards) and touchdown passes (54).

2002
Keith Ferguson '03 graduates as the school's all-time leader in receiving yards (2,569) and becomes the first Cornell player to record 200 career catches (202).

2004
Despite being picked to finish last in the preseason poll after an 0-7 campaign the previous year, first-year head coach Jim Knowles '87 breathes new life into the program. Cornell goes 4-3 in Ivy play, becoming the second Ancient Eight team to go from a winless league record to a winning mark in the span of one year.

2005
The Big Red went 4-1 at Schoellkopf Field and finished the season with a 6-4 overall mark. Three-time first-team All-Ivy pick Kevin Boothe was chosen in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders and earned first-team All-America honors.

2006
Cornell posts five consecutive home victories to finish the season 5-5 overall, including triumphs over No. 23 Albany and No. 15 Princeton. The win over the Tigers handed the Ivy champion their only defeat of the year, and it also proved to be the highest ranked team Cornell had ever defeated since moving to Division I-AA.

2008
A last-second touchdown pass from Nathan Ford to Jesse Baker gives the Big Red a 25-24 win at Lehigh and caps a school-record 472 passing yards for the Big Red. Ford also sets Cornell single-game records for total offense (447 yards) and pass completions (39).

Cornell All-Time Football Team (1887-2003)
as voted by the Cornell Football Association (CFA) in 2003