Coe-Cornell play football for 119th time Saturday

CEDAR RAPIDS - Matt Dillon will never forget it.

It was 1978, and his Cornell Rams destroyed the Coe Kohawks, 67-13, in Mount Vernon. It was such a blowout of a football game, Cornell Coach Jerry Clark allowed one of his players to try the lost art of drop kicking after touchdowns.

“Mike Looney, my very best friend in the world,” Dillon said. “He tried three of them. He missed the first one and made the last two. I didn't know what to do because I was the holder. You know, where I go stand?”

The 119th edition of the oldest college football rivalry west of the Mississippi River is today at noon at Coe's Clark Field.

Dillon is arguably the best quarterback in Cornell history and now its head coach. The Cornell-Coe football game still means a heck of a lot to him and his players.

“No question,” he said. “It's the biggest game for us.”

But can the same be said on the other side?

Coe has beaten Cornell nine times in a row to extend its series edge to 63-51-4. While Cornell (2-7) has struggled in recent seasons, ending a 34-game Iowa Conference losing streak last week against Loras, Coe has become a perennial IIAC championship contender.

The Kohawks (8-1) are ranked 22nd nationally by D3football.com and would appear to have an NCAA Division III at-large playoff berth wrapped up with a victory today. Because of that, this is a huge game.

Would it be otherwise?

“On the Coe side of things, I don't think it's that big of a rivalry for us,” said Coe senior linebacker Tate Harrison. “I'd have to say Coe-Wartburg is a bigger rivalry for us. But on the Cornell side, I'd think it'd make their season to beat Coe, especially this year with all the success we're having.”

Before you get too worked up about Harrison's comments, Rams fans, your coach agrees with him.

“We haven't been as competitive as we need to be against them,” Dillon said. “I'll give you a bigger example. It's like Iowa-Iowa State when Iowa won (15) in a row. It should be a big rivalry game, but we need to prove that we can win.

“I don't want to speak for them, but Wartburg might be a bigger game for them than us. Central might be a bigger game for them. It's up to us to change that.”

If these Coe players need proof that the Cornell game still means everything to a lot of alumni, they should talk to one of their assistant coaches. Jim Dostal recently had former NFL coach and Coe grad Marv Levy autograph a book Levy has written.

“The inscription said something like ‘To Coach Dostal, from one Coe alum to another,'” said Coe head coach Steve Staker. “Congratulations on a great season ... Beat Cornell.'”

That pretty much says it all.

“This is one of those games where you can't say it's not a rivalry, just because of the short distance between us,” Staker said.