Cornell v. Penn Football Program 1919 - Byrd Epps Cover

Cornell v. Penn Football Program 1919, game played at Franklin Field. 48 pages. The front cover has a small sticker on the bottom right and some soiling and minor paper loss, otherwise in quite good condition.

Cornell-Penn games date back to 1893 and were played every year in Philadelphia which has better and more predictable weather that time of year than in Ithaca. They played the game 68 consecutive times in Philadelphia. Since the 1970s game have been held at both Ithaca and Philadelphia. Penn's rivalry with Cornell is the fifth most played college football rivalry of all time. Their first game was in 1893 and have played every year since, except in 1918, the year prior to this game due to the First World War. Since 1995, the winner of the Cornell-Penn football game has been awarded the Trustees' Cup.

The program features pictures of all players as well as a picture of virtually all the Penn varsity teams for the year in other sports. The center fold contains action photos from prior Penn games. The program also includes period advertisements including for Stetson Hats, Strawbridge and Clothier and the Penn-American Motor Car Company.

The cover illustration is one of the greatest of all time and was done by "Byrd Epps" (a student at Penn '20). It shows a perplexed angel standing atop the earth with a scale. On either side of the scale is a player from Cornell and Penn, as if the angel is trying to decide who will win. Not surprising, the Penn player is higher and the Cornell player below is protesting.