As Bob Kane \u201934, BS \u201936, a notable chronicler of Big Red sports history, wrote years after the fact: \u201cNo victory or bundles of victories have or will ever bring the glory this loss with honor has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was memorializing the outcome of a 1940 Ivy football game that lives in legend more than eight decades later\u2014not so much because of what happened on the field as off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In what would come to be known as the \u201cFifth Down\u201d game, the Big Red relinquished what might have been a key victory, simply because it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The date was November 16. The Big Red was ranked second in the country; with an unbroken 18-game winning streak extending from the previous season, the team entertained real hopes of a championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The away game at Dartmouth (then known as the Indians, now the Big Green) unfolded on a sloppy, frostbitten Saturday. Until the final quarter, it was scoreless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then a field goal by the home team put the score at 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with just 45 seconds on the clock, the Big Red completed a deep pass to halfback Bill Murphy \u201941, giving the visiting team a first down at the six-yard line.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The next several plays took Cornell to the one-yard line. After referee W.H. \u201cRed\u201d Friesell Jr. called a penalty on the Big Red, he set the ball back to about the six-yard line for the fourth down with 10 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A failed pass attempt into the end zone prompted Dartmouth fans to erupt in celebration\u2014but after conferring with another ref, Friesell brought the ball back to the six-yard line and signaled that it was again Cornell\u2019s ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friesell may have thought that one or more players had been offsides, which would have required that down to be replayed\u2014or perhaps he simply lost track of which down it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Either way, with a mere three seconds on the clock, the Big Red ran the same play\u2014and this time, Murphy caught the ball in the end zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cornell got the extra point immediately after the touchdown, winning 7-3 and leaving home-team fans dejected and confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The consensus in the press box was that an improper fifth down had occurred. But at that time, the scoreboard was the final authority\u2014and of course, there were no instant replays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The consensus in the press box was that an improper fifth down had occurred. But at that time, the scoreboard was the final authority\u2014and of course, there were no instant replays.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n On the train back to Ithaca, the Big Red players debated the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were well aware that their unbeaten streak would be over\u2014and their national title hopes dimmed\u2014if Cornell\u2019s victory were overturned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later that day, a joint statement was issued by then-President Edmund Ezra Day and athletic director Jim Lynah 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the officials in charge of today\u2019s Dartmouth-Cornell game rule after investigation that \u2026 the winning touchdown was scored on an illegal fifth down,\u201d they wrote, \u201cthe score of the game \u2026 will be recorded as Dartmouth 3, Cornell 0.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n (As it happens, both men had earned their undergrad degrees in 1905: Lynah from Cornell\u2014and Day from Dartmouth.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Big](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/photo-coach-and-captain-630x1024.jpg\")
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/11\/Fifthdown2-1024x257.jpg\")