Ithaca has won three NCAA Division III Football Championships and Cortland has nine playoff and 15 bowl game appearances since 1988.

Since 2006, Ithaca College students and alumni residing in Los Angeles have gathered to watch the game in an event dubbed CortaCal.

The event was started in 2009 by Ithaca alumni living in NYC and was first held at George Keeley Pub on the Upper West Side.

In 2019, the game was held at MetLife Stadium in the New York City area, as part of commemorations of the 150th anniversary of college football.

While driving in nearby Homer in 1959, Cortland football captain Tom Decker stopped at a yard sale and purchased a $2 jug from a local farmer, named Freddy Testa, that he thought could be used as a trophy during the annual game between the two teams.

After meeting up with friend and Ithaca football captain Dick Carmean, the two painted the jug blue, gold, red, and white in honor of both schools’ colors.

[3][4] New York State police assisted the crowd control, and a "command post" was set up at the local fire station.