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 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 until 2025 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 Athletics – Frequently Asked Questions
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, 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 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".
Athletics
Baseball Basketball Basketball Cross country Cross country Equestrian Football Fencing Golf Field hockey Ice hockey Gymnastics Lacrosse Ice hockey Polo Lacrosse Rowing (heavyweight) Polo Rowing (lightweight) RowingSoccer Sailing Sprint Football Soccer Squash Softball Swimming & diving Squash Tennis Swimming & diving Track and field† Tennis Wrestling Track and field† Volleyball
The sprint football team has won the CSFL title six times. The men's ice 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's lacrosse team has been NCAA champion four times and Ivy League champion 33 times. The men's lightweight rowing team varsity 8+ has won the IRA regatta eight times since 1992 (1992, 2006–08, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019). 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 16 times.
Championship teams
Baseball
Ivy 1972, 1977, 1979, 1982, 2012 EIBL 1939, 1940, 1952, 1972, 1977 Men's basketball
Ivy 1988,Ivy League Basketball Champions November 15, 2007 2008, 2009,Cornell clinches Ivy League title, NCAA tournament berth for second straight year ESPN.com June 3, 2009 2010Cornell hits 20 3-pointers en route to NCAA tournament bid ESPN.com May 3, 2010 Women's basketball
Ivy 2008 Cornell Big Red.com October 3, 2008 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 2008Lightweight Rowing Captures Third Straight National Title 06–09–08 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 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 "We're not fencing this year," The Cornelian, Volume 102, Part 1, p. 104, 1970."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 (27) 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, 2024,2026 (*shared title) Ned Harkness Cup 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013 Women's ice hockey
NCAA Frozen Four 2010, 2011, 2012, 2019, 2025 ECAC (5) 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2025 Ivy (18) 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1996, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2024, 2025, 2026 Men's lacrosse
NCAA 1971, 1976, 1977, 2025 Ivy (34) 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, 2026* (*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, 2025 (Div. II)Women's Polo Claims 13th National Title, Tops Virginia 18–12 CornellBigRed.com | Apr 24, 2011 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*, 2026* (* shared title)No. 40 Men's Tennis Downs Columbia to Win Outright Ivy Title CornellBigRed.com, April 23, 2011 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, 2025Cornell Claims 15th-Straight Wrestling Title February 11, 2017; Ivy League website NCAA Runner-up 2010, 2011, 2024 Ivy League tournament champions 2025, 2026
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, 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 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, 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.Cornell Alumni News 1910-12-21 p. 146 The Alumni Fields became the site of an underground Synchrotron Laboratory.Retrieved 2007-09-09.
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 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 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 the University 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 in college football. 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 polo, the men's and women's teams maintain rivalries with the University of Virginia and the University of Connecticut.