The Great Paint Caper of 1946
In 1945, the Ivy League was formally established. These eight traditional football competitors no longer ruled the national scene as they did at the turn of the century, but their rivalries ran as deep as ever. It seems that on several occasions in this era, rowdy visiting fans would travel to Ithaca, sneak onto the Arts Quad the night before a big game, and paint over our statues of A.D. White and Ezra Cornell with their own school's colors.
This did not sit well with the Big Red Marching Band.
Their revenge would be exacted on November 28th, 1946, the night before the season closer at Penn. At 1:00 AM under a new moon, Cornell bandies took to the mean streets of Philadelphia with cans of red paint. Casualties, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, included "former Provost Edgar Fahs Smith with his face red ... and Benjamin Franklin standing his stone vigil with a bright red sash befitting an Ambassador to France." Regarding Smith, "The face had been painted red as well as a book held in one hand, while on the base was lettered 'C.U.' in brilliant red." Several other spots around campus were hit, including the medical school and Franklin Field's ticket office.
Unfortunately, these insurgents weren't as well-trained in criminal activity as the people who had earlier vandalized Cornell. A total of ten were chased from the scene and arrested by Penn's campus police ... caught red-handed, if you will. These gentlemen spent the rest of the evening in prison. By a first-hand account:
The ten expendables spent much of the night singing Cornell songs from their cells while carving initials into the bars with nail files and regretting the fact that they weren't given time to use their 'secret weapon,' a sack of lime which was to have been spread on Franklin Field into a great C.
Penn authorities declined to press charges and the Cornellians were released the next day, just in time for the football game.
Rest assured, band members of the modern era would never dream of causing a ruckus at another school's campus (especially Penn's), and have never had any confrontations with law enforcement officers. However, the Big Red spirit exmplified by these bandsmen continues today, both on and off the field.
By the way, Cornell lost that game 26-20 to finish the season at 5-3-1, which just goes to show: the band always wins.
- Kyle Preston '06
