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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2000/09/24/football-stuns-yale-24-23/)

September 24, 2000

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Football Stuns Yale 24-23

By ryan | September 24, 2000

Cornell rallied from a 20-10 deficit to knock off last year’s Ivy League champs Yale, 24-23, in front of a raucous Homecoming crowd at Schoellkopf Field. The Elis missed a short field goal as time expired that would have won the game. Cornell now stands at 1-1 overall, but 1-0 in the crucial Ivy standings.

Read more about Cornell’s emotional, come-from-behind win in Monday’s Sun.

Archived article by Sun Staff

Rahne and the Offense Use Game to Get Back in Sync

By ryan September 25, 2000

What a difference a week makes. After last week, every Cornell football player was shaking his head wondering what happened. Now the team has the inside track to an Ivy League title. The key to this turnaround was the play of junior quarterback Ricky Rahne. Last week he went 28-of-64 for 319 yards. Despite the yards, Rahne would be the first to say his performance against Bucknell was far from sharp. And while he was still not perfect against Yale, (the junior still threw two interceptions) his 17-for-30 for 212 yards and two touchdowns was a significant improvement from a week ago. The bigger improvement may have been his clutch passing, especially during the final drive. Rahne went 2-4 on the Cornell possession, with one completion for a first down on fourth-and-six at the Yale 37 yard-line, and the other a 15-yard toss to senior co-captain Joe Splendorio which ended up being the game-winning touchdown. The drive recalled memories of the Rahne from the 1999 campaign. “I felt a little bit more in rhythm. I felt like I was seeing things better,” Rahne said, comparing his performance against Yale to the loss to Bucknell. “I hope that I would be better with the completion percentage this week, since last week was about 30-percent,” he added with a smile. But Rahne was quick to point out his flaws. “Those two picks, those are still bad plays. We can’t have four turnovers and expect to win every game.” Rahne attributes this improvement to a good week of practice. “I had a much better week of practice. If I have a good week of practice, I’m going to feel much more in rythem in the game. I don’t think I had a very good week of practice heading into the Bucknell game. I think the rythem was much more from going back to basics and concentrating on that during the week,” he said. One of the major areas of improvement was Rahne’s ability to hit the outlet receiver in the backfield. This often let the Red pick up 5-10 yards which helped in the battle of field position and keeping drives alive. But Rahne said that his perfromance improved just as the entire offense played better. “As an offense we worked together a lot better. That means I took my right drop, linemen blocked the right guys, how they were supposed to, running backs picked up the blitz well, and receivers ran their routes at the right depths and made their cuts at the right time. That makes all the difference,” he said. In addition to the offense being more in sync, Rahne had other advantages on the Yale defense. While Yale had Than Merrill and Todd Tomich, two first-team All-Ivy players from a year ago in the defensive backfield, Cornell had a height advantage. And on the last play of Cornell’s final drive Rahne was able to use this to perfection. “Joe [Splendorio] is 6-5, 225-pounds, so that is a size advantage in the NFL. On that last play I threw it up a little bit because I know Joe can jump and I know he is big. So you are going to use that to your advantage,” Rahne said. So even though it was not a perfect performance by the keystone of the offense, the Red can rest easier knowing that Rahne appears to be returning to his excellent form of a year ago. “I definately threw the ball better than I did last week,” he said with a grin.Archived article by J.V. Anderton
Money for Books

By ryan September 25, 2000

Over 1500 donors had contributed to the new Tompkins County Public Library as of September 15, when the eight month fund-raising effort to increase library resources officially ended. The Library Campaign will clear $1.7 million when all campaign contributions have been received, according to Elayne Nicholas, Library Foundation director. The figure exceeds the expectations of the library staff, who hoped to raise $1 million dollars, noted library director Janet Steiner. “We are extremely exhilarated by the support of the community,” Steiner said. “It shows that the community truly believes in the value of the public library.” The cost of buying and rebuilding the new library has already been covered. Tompkins County provided $6.4 million to renovate the former department store on Green Street; the Park Foundation purchased the building for $2.5 million. With 33 percent of all of the donations coming from individuals, in addition to funds from New York State and Cornell, directors feel that the Library Campaign is indication of the strong community support for the library. “This provides an incredibly strong base [for the library]. Everyone bought into the project,” Nicholas said. Construction on the new library will end in mid-October and the library will open November 20, after a ten day moving period from the old building. There will be a two day grand opening for the library in January, with performances, book talks and children’s programs to highlight everything in the collection. The money raised by the Library Campaign will be used to provide the new building with furnishings, technology, programs and services that will maximize the increase in library space. The building on Green Street has double the space of the current library on Cayuga Street, which gives the library many new opportunities and options for improvement, according to Steiner. “We want to make [the library] the heart of the community,” Nicholas said. The collection will be shelved at heights that are age-appropriate, and there will be new comfy seats, reading rooms, program rooms, book talks and author visits, to name a few of the attractions, according to Steiner. “There is no value on access to information and education. It is very important because it gives anyone an infinite amount of possibilities,” Nicholas said. “But that access comes at a cost.” Archived article by Eve Steele