Thanksgiving, football and 100 years ago

My first job in newspapering — my livelihood from 1980 to 2002 — was covering high school football in deep East Texas, somewhat distant from my Finger Lakes roots.

One time, I was assigned to a Thanksgiving Day game, where a halfback — listed as a freshman in the program — was having a spectacular outing, running over and around people for several touchdowns.

With all my “many” years of covering high school football in deep East Texas (i.e., two), I wrote a piece that led with, “On Thanksgiving afternoon, I watched the greatest freshman running back I’ve ever seen.”

On Friday afternoon, I received a call from a longtime resident, who said, “I saw you wrote [name] was the greatest freshman running back you’ve ever seen.”

I said, “That’s right,” and he replied, “Yes, he’s a freshman, but he’s also 24 years old.”

There were probably not a lot of 24-year-old freshmen on Cornell University’s 1921 undefeated football team, though the Big Red outscored their opponents 392-21 over eight games. One of the wins was against Western Reserve, 110-0, the week after they beat Rochester 55-0.

As reported in the Cornell Daily Sun, “In the final game of the season, Cornell went on the road to Philadelphia to face Penn (4-3-2) in their annual Thanksgiving matchup, which would prove to be its biggest test, as Cornell had not defeated Penn since its first national championship season in 1915. The Red had posted a record of 4-22-1 in previous years against the Quakers. In front of 25,000 opposing fans, Cornell flipped the script and shutout the home team, 41-0. [Eddie] Kaw had a career day, rushing for team high five touchdowns, and the Red finished the season with an unblemished 8-0 record” (see t.ly/HOYy for the full article).

Interestingly, beyond that season-ending game at Franklin Field, all of Cornell’s 1921 games were at home on Schoellkopf Field, except for a contest with the Columbia Lions, who the Big Red dominated 41-7 at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

Playing in Philadelphia for 69 consecutive years from 1894 to 1963 — before alternating sites between here and there — Cornell-Penn remains one of the nation’s longest-standing college football rivalries. Yale-Princeton is the oldest, going back to 1873.

During the golden era of Ivy League football, long-time residents often reflect on special trains that ran between Ithaca and Philadelphia filled with Big Red boosters who celebrated their Thanksgiving on the road.

The Thanksgiving Cornell-Penn football game, broadcast on national radio before the television era, often attracted huge crowds to Franklin Field.

The 1931 game drew a reported 70,000 and earned a story on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer, along with a quarter-by-quarter breakdown of every detail from the game. The 1947 contest saw a crowd estimated at 80,000, but eventually, the allure of this rivalry game waned, due in part to alternating sites and that “last game” scheduling component. Cornell now plays Columbia the last game of the season, this Saturday in Ithaca, and Penn plays Princeton.

Of course, life, in general, has changed on many fronts since 1921. Looking back at an edition of the Cornell Alumni News from that era is like reading something from 100 years ago, humor intended, and inevitably interesting.

Some representative copy from advertisements:

• H.J. Bool Company: “We make at our Factory at Forest Home moler lantern slide cases, domestic science furniture, equipment for forestry buildings and Flat Top Desks for Cornell University Students.”
• Lang’s Palace Garage, marketed as being in the “center of Ithaca” and “absolutely fireproof. Open day and night. Commodious and fully equipped. A full stock of tires and tubes and everything in the line of sundries.”
• Heggie’s, also downtown: “Are your fraternity and society pins in good order for the reunion? We still make them at the old stand.”

But while life has changed in some ways since 1921, Thanksgiving and football remain somewhat aligned, though in some households, potentially disruptive!

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that Cornell beat Penn earlier this year, 15-12, at Franklin Field.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and thanks for reading East Hill Notes.

East Hill Notes are published the first and third Wednesdays of each month in Tompkins Weekly. Gary Stewart, gjs28@cornell.edu, is associate vice president for Cornell Community Relations. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizallemedia.com.