This week in 1960, Cornell’s Freshman Football team learned a costly lesson. The squad lost to Princeton after blowing a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Tigers scored two touchdowns in the final period in order to capture the victory and hand the Big Red its first loss of the season.
The game was played on the lower alumni field. Halfbacks Paul Shank and Mike Strick scored Cornell’s only two touchdowns. Kicker Pete Gogolak missed a conversion attempt and two additional field goals. Ultimately, crucial fumbles and penalties hurt the Big Red’s chance for a comeback.
Coach Thoren believed that this loss would help the team realize they needed to play hard for all four quarters of the game. Two weeks prior, Cornell defeated Yale by only two points in a matchup that could have easily gone the other way.
The freshman team traveled to Buffalo the following week with a change in the first string line, switching Bill Colbeck and Bob Schieber for Gene Kunit and George Tebbetts. Thoren hoped that the Big Red had learned its lesson after the loss vs. Princeton and that this shock would bring out the team’s true potential against the Bulls.
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