cornellalumnimagazine.com/Archive/2007janfeb/depts/Spor -
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Published on: 1/1/2007
Last Visited: 3/5/2008
"The league's credo is that it allows the average-size American male to play college football," says Terry Cullen, MBA' 66, Cornell's longtime sprint coach."So, as the population has grown larger, so has the weight limit."
Cullen has been with Cornell's program since 1965, when he served as offensive coordinator under his father, Cornell Athletic Hall of Famer Bob Cullen.The senior Cullen, who died in 1996, is a legendary name in sprint circles: he's credited with saving the league after a post-war lull, and the championship trophy was named after him in 1984.At Cornell, he remained a co-head coach with his son after his formal retirement in 1979.One guesses that this season would have been particularly sweet for father and son: On October 27, Cornell's sprint squad downed powerful Army to deliver the team's first championship since 1986 and its first perfect season since 1982.So Terry Cullen can finally add another Cullen Trophy to the award collection in his Schoellkopf Hall office.
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Cullen attributes this to their superior conditioning-- and perhaps attitude."They have a real military arrogance about having Ivy League teams beat them," he says.
No wonder--it doesn't happen very often.Cornell's 6-0 campaign this year included a 16-10 overtime defeat of Navy at Schoellkopf on October 6 that marked the Big Red's first win over the Midshipmen since 1998.Princeton and Penn fell next, at 35-0 and 21-7.In the 26-7 finale at West Point, Cornell's league-leading defense proved the decider, with Army losing nine turnovers, including a fumble recovery for a touchdown that put the visitors up 10-0 in the first quarter.The Black Knights of Army--who had not lost to Cornell since 1992--couldn't muster any points until garbage time, when a touchdown with 1:25 to play spoiled the shutout.It was a dominating finish for a team that exceeded even Cullen's typically optimistic expectations."I always think it'll be a great team," he says."But this bunch has been a joy to work with."
As befits the name, speed is the biggest distinction between the sprint game and "big-guy football," as Cullen calls it.With all players at roughly equal size, linemen can chase down running backs and coaches can employ any number of curious defensive schemes.Physically, the smaller players don't back down from their larger brethren."In most ways, it's actually a much harder-hitting game because there's no fear factor," Cullen says."They play with a little more reckless abandon."
They also play for more modest rewards.The crowds are small, there's no recruiting, and league rules forbid scouting and field phones; in a sense, the game itself is something of a no-glory throwback to the college ball of a few generations ago."This is a very old-fashioned league," says Cullen, who likes to emphasize his team's superior skills in the classroom.The team has a "4.0 Club" for its academic all-stars, and his coaching duties typically include writing recommendations for various scholarship applications."We kill academically," he says.
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"It's no powder-puff game--it's rock 'em, sock 'em," says Cullen of the ritual, won this year by the alums, who are fined $2 for every pound they've put on since their playing days.
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