Cornell Big Red (1990)

Someone requested this one a while back, so let's take a glance at Cornell's third (and to this date, last) Ivy League championship, following titles in 1971 and '88.

The team: The Big Red went 7-3 overall and 6-1 in Ivy competition to share the title with Dartmouth, which beat Cornell by the baseball-like score of 11-6 on Oct. 20. The Red's other losses were to Colgate and Bucknell in non-conference action; the lone non-conference win was over Lafayette. According to this handy season summary, Cornell led the league in rushing (249.2 yards per game) and total offense (375.0) and outscored its foes 180-95.

The players: Cornell was all about the ground-n-pound on offense, as John McNiff ran for 998 yards and 10 TDs while Scott Oliaro added 744 yards and nine scores. McNiff was named to the all-Ivy League first team as were offensive linemen Jay Bloedorn, Chris Field and Greg Finnegan; Olioaro was a second-team selection. Quarterback Chris Cochrane threw only five touchdown passes, but he also threw only five interceptions.

Chris Cochrane, shown in practice, was an effective
game manager for Cornell. Y'know, I don't think
"game manager" is a dirty phrase.

On defense, lineman Tim Cronin was named first-team All-Ivy, while Mark Broderick (LB), Gerry Willinger (DB) and Paul Tully (DB) were named to the second team.

Scott Oliaro (22) holds onto the ball against Brown, c. 1990.

The coach: First-year coach Jim Hofher, a former Cornell quarterback, went 45-35 at his alma mater from 1990-97 before he left to take an assistant position at North Carolina. Most of his teams usually went 6-4 or 4-6, so they were at least competitive. He later coached Buffalo, whose inept transition from FCS to FBS has been surpassed only by UMass, from 2001-05, going 8-49.

The uniforms: Cornell's unis still had some traces of the old Bob Blackman look from a decade earlier, specifically the chunky stripes on the sleeves and pants. But other elements, like the "CORNELL" wordmark on the jerseys and helmets, were long gone. Cornell wore names on the backs during this era; Dartmouth was the only other Ivy team to do so. The big "C" remains on the helmets today, although several modifications have been made over the years.

The fallout: Cornell continued to pump out decent teams during the Hofher era, although the Big Red never won the Ivy title again. His successor, Pete Mangurian, went 16-14 from 1998-2000 before he made Columbia scary bad from 2012-14 (3-27).