Sprint Football

End of an era: [cornellbigred.com]

I do wonder if this is the end of the program. New AD, interim coach is the alumni association president, no success in years, dwindling sport all around?

In all honesty I had no idea it still existed.

sprint is probably more closely tied to the core values of cornell sports than the main team..

upprdeck
sprint is probably more closely tied to the core values of cornell sports than the main team..

i don't think that's fair. they both lose a lot.

They are building new locker room facilities for the Sprint team so I don't think it's going away just yet.

I'm sure there are a lot of sprint football alums who would be quite upset if the sport was dropped. It's hard to see the new AD coming in and starting a controversy right away by cutting a sport.

dbilmes
I'm sure there are a lot of sprint football alums who would be quite upset if the sport was dropped. It's hard to see the new AD coming in and starting a controversy right away by cutting a sport.

the coach's new job is basically "fundraising from his old players" so, yeah, the team is staying

ugarte

upprdeck
sprint is probably more closely tied to the core values of cornell sports than the main team..

i don't think that's fair. they both lose a lot.

The core value of Cornell sports is to perform in front of an empty house. I'd say Sprint football is a true leader in that category.

is sprint self funded like baseball or is it school funded

Self funded, with many supportive alums

Over my 40 years working at Cornell, I went to more sprint football games than "regular" football games because they were more fun to watch, even if Cornell did not win. The fans sat in the west stands and they were pretty full, albeit with parents, girlfriends and fraternity brothers. It is a fast game and linemen can move as quickly as the players in the backfield. As noted, there is a great deal of alumni support so I suspect that the program will be around as long as there is enough competition to make it worthwhile.

As an aside, there is a fairly new sprint football league in the midwest, cleverly called the Midwest Sprint Football League.

Self funded? The university does not contribute a dime to sprint football?

not sure CU doesnt help in some ways.. like do they charge for the facilities and lights? but other costs like coaches/travel I dont think they do anything.

Kind of nice to have sprint football as a Cornell sport. Penn still plays but other Ivies that did play bailed: Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Harvard.

The current weight limit is 178 pounds. Only nine people on the varsity weight 178 or less, and probably another nine could make that weight if need. But the varsity also 3-4 people up in the 350 range. When some players on the varsity (or NFL) field outweigh others by 1.5:1 and sometimes 2:1, odds of concussions are increased.

Sprint football has won more titles than varsity football. In the era of the Eastern Lightweight Football League (1967-97) and Intercollegiate Sprint Football League (1998-Present) won 3 undisputed titles last in 2006, and 3 tied titles. Although the 2022 team went 1-6 including losing to Army and Navy By a combined 127-0. Those were two long bus rides home.

I've seen about a dozen games mostly undergraduate years. The action is quick. My recollection is also that the games I saw were invariably at night, in the rain, sometimes with temps in the 30s.

I hope it sticks around.

One downside (to keeping sprint football going) is this is another 35-40 male players offset by about 4 female managers.

Sprint Football Team Kicks Off New Locker Room

[cornellsun.com]