Cornell – Columbia Pregame Notes

  • The game will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network, while local listeners can tune in to WHCU 95.9 FM/870 AM to listen to Barry Leonard and Howie Borkan.
  • A victory in the annual Empire State Bowl match-up would complete the Big Red’s road slate with a 3-2 record, its first winning mark outside of Schoellkopf Field since going 3-2 in 1994.
  • Four of Cornell’s five losses have come by a touchdown or less and each of those were decided on the final drive.
  • The series will move to week 10 of the season starting in the 2018 campaign.
  • The two teams have a long history, having met 104 times dating back to 1889 — the 14th-most played series among Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams and the second-most played series in Big Red football history (Cornell-Penn will play for the 120th time in the final weekend of the season).
  • The Big Red’s semi-annual game in New York City draws a large alumni crowd, who also take to the streets for the Sy Katz ’31 Parade.
  • Katz, an avid supporter of all things Cornell, fell in love with the Big Red Band in the 1970s and decided it needed its own parade.
  • With the help of friends at the Cornell Club-New York, he managed to get a police permit to march one city block — over the years, the tradition has taken on a life of its own, but the mission remains the same: to give the Big Red Band a grand time to shine.
  • The 23rd Katz Parade begins at 5:30 p.m. and marches three blocks down Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center to the Cornell Club.