Touchdown (mascot)
The CUAA spent twenty-five dollars, excluding shipping costs, raised by the revenue from season ticket sales to purchase the bear.
[1] The next week, the football team took a trip to Atlantic City, New Jersey before the big Thanksgiving game against the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
[1] When Touchdown was woken to pose for pictures with the football team on a boardwalk at Atlantic City, he instead ran into the nearest door open.
[1] Two football players, Booty Hunkin and Walt Lalley, used a life raft with no paddles to rescue Touchdown, who was unable to swim.
Although there was some talk about sending him to a zoo in Rome, the bear was eventually sent back to Old Town, Maine, where he lived the rest of his life.
[2] Although Touchdown II represented Cornell on the sidelines for the latter part of the season, he was kept under close protection off the field to prevent another kidnapping attempt.
[3] On the final game of the season, University of Pennsylvania students brought a bear of their own onto the sideline named "Jack Victory," who, along with the football team, stole the show from Touchdown and the Big Red, defeating Cornell 23–0.
[1]: 37 Once campus life returned to normal in 1919, Montana-based Cornell alumnus R. H. Barney '17 donated a local bear for use as the football team's mascot.
The Cornell Daily Sun, the university's student newspaper, reported that Touchdown III was "the admiration of the entire [football] squad, as well as the coaching staff," echoing the Ithaca community's general sentiment.
Authorities and volunteers found the bear napping in a nearby grassy field, prompting a humorous Sun article entitled "Touchdown III Loses at Game of Hide and Seek.
This long period without a mascot can be at least partially attributed to bear-hating CUAA head Romeyn Berry, whose tenure lasted until 1935.
In an attempt to replicate the Dartmouth game's result, three Cornell undergrads drove to Burnet Park Zoo in Syracuse and rented a bear as a temporary mascot.
Students' desire for a new bear was echoed in the Sun the day after the Penn rally, further legitimizing growing pro-Touchdown sentiments.
[1]: 49 After stepping down from CUAA's leadership in 1935, Berry authored an article in the Cornell Alumni News in 1936, praising the fact that a bear had not been acquired for that year's football season.
During the season, the "Cornell Daily Sun editorial board [...] was a co-conspirator with the Press Club, the social journalistic society that brought [Touchdown IV] to campus.
Touchdown IV's supporters included the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity, and Princeton Athletics, who delighted at the opportunity to mock Cornell for having a female bear as their mascot.
[1]: 78–81 Touchdown IV was subsequently released into the wild of Pennsylvania, and the Cornell Big Red finished the season 8-0 and ranked fourth in the country.
[9] White backed eyes were also added, bringing the mascot in some ways closer to the version featured in the Cornell Athletics logo.
[10] In 2021,under new leadership, the Big Red Bears sought to bring a new transportation system to campus to increase the efficiency and safety of the Touchdown program.
In fall of 2011 Geoffrey Block, representative on the Student Assembly, tried to petition to have "Touchdown" recognized as the official mascot at Cornell University.
Touchdown is a firmly established figurehead of Cornell University being featured on official social media pages, websites, major promotional events, merchandise, and more.
University officials supported the idea and the statue was erected outside Teagle Hall near Schoellkopf Field and dedicated prior to the 2015 homecoming game.
