On Wed, 23 Nov 1994, Jeff Benensohn wrote:
> Well:  Cornell may be the Big Red, but we DO have a mascot,
> and it is a BEAR.  We are not the Cornell Bears though.
> Trust me:  I have been the mascot at home games, and I wore
> a bear suit!!  Maybe some other Cornell alumni know the history of
> this situation...  and I wonder if Dartmouth and Harvard have mascots?
 
I, too, donned the twenty-five pounds of fur and plastic to inspire
madness in my fellow Lynah Faithful on a few occasions.
 
The story as I recall it (I'm sure it's available in a more accurate and
complete fashion in several places, including Morris Bishop's books) is
that a few years after Cornell started playing football, someone brought a
real live bear named "Touchdown" to a game, and it was a natural thing to
make him the mascot.  There were four actual live bears named "Touchdown"
in the history of the school, the last being a female cub named "Touchdown
IV" who escaped from the baggage car of a train while on a road trip to
Cleveland in 1939.  Since then, only costumed humans have served.
 
To my knowledge, Cornell's athletic teams have never officially been
called "The Big Red Bears" or anything similar.
 
As far as Dartmouth goes, they've only been the Big Green for a few years,
having switched from the Indians during the first flurry of Political
Correctness-inspired team name changes, and I'm not aware of any official
mascot or costume...  and Harvard skates a puritan/pilgrimesque character at
hockey games; I'm not sure about other sports.
 
The only thing I have to say about the name "The Big Red" is that former
football coach Maxie Baugham (1984-1988) tended to chew the Wrigley's gum
of the same name during close contests.
 
Jeffrey Anbinder
The Sexiest Man in Ithaca Radio