The Intercollegiate Fencing Association ( IFA ) was the oldest collegiate fencing conference in the United States . It was affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
23-547: In its final season, the IFA had 11 members. Cornell only competed in women's fencing ; the remaining 10 teams participated with men's and women's teams All of the Ivy universities with Division I fencing programs were also members of the IFA. Dartmouth College does not have a varsity fencing program. The 2007 IFA Championship tournament was hosted by Princeton University on Saturday March 3, 2007. Because no suitable venue at Princeton
46-611: 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
69-430: 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 has long been a symbol of Cornell Athletics. In 1915, a live bear named Touchdown first appeared at football games to represent Cornell. The current version, which appears at many of Cornell's sporting events,
92-612: 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
115-676: 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 , 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
138-913: 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 (EARC), the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC), the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association , and the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA). Cornell's teams did not have an official name until after 1905, when
161-539: The University of Pennsylvania are long-time rivals in football, having played each other in 122 games since their first meeting in 1893, representing the fifth most-played rivalry in college football . Cornell's football series against both the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College are tied for second longest uninterrupted college football match-ups in history, both dating back to 1919. Cornell and Penn play for
184-598: The University of Pennsylvania . Cornell Big Red Other conferences : The Cornell Big Red is the informal name of the sports and other competitive teams that represent Cornell University in Ithaca, New York . The university sponsors 37 varsity sports, and several intramural and club teams. Cornell participates in NCAA Division I as part of the Ivy League . The men's and women's ice hockey teams compete in
207-633: The CSFL title six times. The men's ice hockey 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 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
230-814: The Graduate Director of Cornell Athletics from 1919 to 1935. During these years, Berry also served as graduate manager of the Cornell University Glee Club . In 1932, he was president of the Eastern Collegiate Baseball League, and he was named to the American Olympic Committee in 1938. Berry was succeeded as athletic director by James Lynah . Around 1936, he moved to a 65-acre farm known as "Stoneposts" in Jacksonville, New York, about 10 miles from Ithaca. His first wife
253-510: The John Collyer Class of 1917 Boathouse and Doris B. Robison Boathouse on Cayuga Inlet. Both boathouses underwent an $ 8 million renovation in 2011. Cornell maintains informal athletic rivalries with other collegiate institutions. Cornell's principal rival is Harvard . The men's ice hockey team has a historic rivalry with Harvard , which dates back to 1910 and includes many championship meetings. The Cornell-Harvard ice hockey rivalry
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#1732837871236276-619: The Men's Foil team champion. This trophy is known as the Little Iron Man and, at the time, was the oldest trophy still awarded for any collegiate sport in the United States. It was cast in 1893 and had been awarded to the IFA Men's Foil team champion since 1896. The 2008 IFA Championship Tournament was hosted by Columbia University on Sunday February 24, 2008. The 2009 IFA Championship Tournament
299-636: The National Women's Polo Championship 15 times and the women's hockey team has been Ivy League champion 14 times. Men's Squash The football, lacrosse, and sprint football teams play in Schoellkopf Field , which has a capacity of 25,597. The ice hockey 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
322-618: 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 and the University of Connecticut . For men's lacrosse , Cornell and Princeton University have historically been the perennial favorites in the Ivy League and the Princeton game is usually
345-435: 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
368-464: 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
391-441: The most anticipated Ivy-game. Fellow upstate schools Syracuse University and Hobart are also considered Cornell's lacrosse rivals. In women's equestrian , Skidmore College is an ongoing rival. Romeyn Berry Romeyn Berry (1881-1957) was an American sports administrator and author. Nicknamed "Rym," Berry attended Cornell University , graduating in 1904 and earning a law degree in 1906. During his senior year, Berry
414-496: The two campus publications, The Cornell Daily Sun and The Cornell Review , and various blogs. A number of fight songs 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 ". The sprint football team has won
437-658: Was Olive Nutting, whose father, Captain Lee Nutting, had won the Medal of Honor in the Civil War. His second wife was Hester Bancroft who was a sculptor and painter. Well-known among Cornell alumni for his wit, Berry contributed to the Cornell Alumni News , The Ithaca Journal , The New Yorker , The American Agriculturalist , and Cornell football game programs. He also authored Dirt Roads to Stoneposts (1949), Stoneposts in
460-463: Was available, the tournament was held nearby at the Lawrenceville School . There were 9 trophies given to teams at the annual IFA Championships in the following categories: In 1994 Stephen Kovacs (1972–2022), a Columbia saber fencer and later a fencing coach, became the first fencer to win four consecutive IFA championships. Among these awards, the most prestigious was the trophy given to
483-641: Was elected to the Sphinx Head Society and editor of the Cornell Widow with George Jean Nathan as business manager. In 1905, Berry composed the lyrics for the Cornell song The Big Red Team , thereby dubbing Cornell athletics " The Big Red ." From 1906 to 1919, Berry practiced law in New York City. During World War I, he served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Leaving his law practice, Berry became
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#1732837871236506-610: Was highlighted in the 1970 novel Love Story and its film adaptation . 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 , dating back to when Cornell and Boston University played in ECAC Hockey before the creation of Hockey East , is maintained by biennial games at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan , dubbed "Red Hot Hockey," on Thanksgiving weekend. Cornell and
529-542: Was hosted by Brandeis University on Saturday, February 28, 2009. It was the final one held. Until the end of the IFA tournament, the Little Iron Man was the oldest trophy still awarded in collegiate sports. It was awarded each year to the team that won the Men's Foil competition at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships. The trophy was cast in 1893 and was awarded to the IFA Men's Foil team champion since 1896. It currently resides at
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