Cornell football ambivalence

[RichH]

[quote billhoward]Remember when Brent Musberger used to be the fresh young face of TV sports? Now he's ready to ease on to Sixty Minutes.[/quote]

No, because it was before I was born.  In addition, he started doing NFL games at an age older than I am now.  The dude was born in the 1930s, bill.  :-)  Now he's just a human drinking game.

[polar]

I went to the cornell-penn game. After it was over I couldn't feel my fingers or feet.

Honestly, if the team is going to play like they did in that game, no one is going to talk about them. Nobody wants to sit in 20-degree weather watching them stink up the field. It's the same reason no one talked about Cornell basketball before next year: they weren't good. If Cornell starts playing better, watch how quickly people will start caring.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote RichH][quote billhoward]Remember when Brent Musberger used to be the fresh young face of TV sports? Now he's ready to ease on to Sixty Minutes.[/quote]

No, because it was before I was born.  In addition, he started doing NFL games at an age older than I am now.  The dude was born in the 1930s, bill.  :-)  Now he's just a human drinking game.[/quote]

"You are looking LIVE at sold out Lambeau Field, in Green Bay, Wisconsin..."

(Sorry, I can't remember the name of the place the Vikings used to play in Bloomington.  Guess I could have gone with Milwaukee County Field, where the Packers used to play a few games a year.)

[jtwcornell91]

[quote RichH][quote Jeff Hopkins '82]We play crummy teams, and they don't even let us go to a playoff game if we did do well.  It's like being the best shoveller at the pig farm.  Who really cares?[/quote]

Frankly, I do.  I sat in the stands in 20 degree weather on Saturday to watch the Penn-Cornell game.  I like the history.  I like the tradition.  I also like the fact that the highest honor that is attainable is the league championship.  It lends more weight to it, and to each league game.  That's our goal.  Screw the national mumbo-jumbo.  

I've heard stories about the students tearing down the goalpost and throwing it into the gorge in '88 and '90.  I'm still waiting for that to happen again, and it'd be nice to see someday.[/quote]

I agree completely with Rich that the focus on the league title, and big rivalry games, is a plus in Ivy League football.  I was a huge football fan as an undergraduate, but it's a lot harder now, in part because of the team's futility.  I dragged a friend from DC to Philly for last year's Cornell-Penn game, and sat in the cold watching the slaughter and hearing her complain about how much Ivy Football sucks.  The last excitement I remember was the Penn game at Schoellkopf in 2000, when we lucked into an Ivy Title showdown with Penn, which may also have been the first time the Trustees Cup was awarded.  On the other hand, even when the team went 2-5 in league (4-6 overall) in 1989, the second Ivy win came Thanksgiving Day on ESPN in the snow at Franklin Field, and it was worth the train ride from Long Island.  On the other other hand, I also care less about the NFL now, and generally find football less interesting than I did as a kid.

Oh, and to answer Bill's question, I still remember a Big Red wide receiver being pulled down at the 5 yard line as time expired to prevent a comeback win against Dartmouth (50 years after the 5th down game) and keep us from an undefeated season and an unshared Ivy title. :-(

[oceanst41]

I think you have to really love football and/or really love the tradition of Ivy football to sit through these games. There are just too many reasons for the casual fan to not give a damn about the football team, whether it be style of play, quality of the team, lack of a postseason, etc.

I went to games because I love football and love Cornell, some people need more than that.

[Lauren '06]

No one has pointed out that the thread title mistook "ambivalence" for "apathy"?  This is not the elynah I remember!

I've never really cared about Cornell football, except in the sense that I enjoy football itself as entertainment.  If the team goes 0-7 every year for the next century, I won't be particularly bothered--but if I'm in town, I'll be there to watch.

[ugarte]

[quote jtwcornell91]
(Sorry, I can't remember the name of the place the Vikings used to play in Bloomington.  Guess I could have gone with Milwaukee County Field, where the Packers used to play a few games a year.)[/quote]
In that booming metropolis, Metropolitan Stadium.

[dbilmes]

If Cornell had a winning tradition of football, fans might get more worked up about it. But except for a few brief stretches here and there (i.e.the early '50s, the Marinaro Era, etc.) our football program has been mired in mediocrity. That's why fans get more passionate about hockey, and to a lesser degree, lacrosse. It's also the same reason why no one really got too worked up over the mediocre basketball teams we've had for most of the past 40 or so  years.

[RichH]

[quote ugarte][quote jtwcornell91]
(Sorry, I can't remember the name of the place the Vikings used to play in Bloomington.  Guess I could have gone with Milwaukee County Field, where the Packers used to play a few games a year.)[/quote]
In that booming metropolis, Metropolitan Stadium. The Mall of America[/quote]

Fixed your post.