Preparing for Game Day

Optimistic members of Columbia University’s football team huddle during a scrimmage at Baker Field in Upper Manhattan on Sept. 28, 1959. A Times article that accompanied this photo reported, “The roar of the Lion was heard around the Ivy League Saturday, and the Light Blue faithful — alumni and undergraduates — are heartened in the belief that at long last Columbia is on the way out of the football wilderness.”

The Times said the team’s “outlook has not been so hopeful in years,” especially after a decisive victory over Brown University in its season opener. The newspaper went on to predict, “For the first time in a long spell, Columbia has the size, strength, ability and speed and also the depth to establish it as a match physically for the other teams in the league.”

But the high hopes came crashing down in the next game with a 22-0 loss to Princeton, and the big dreams turned to nightmares as the Lions finished the year with a 2-7 record, its eighth-straight losing season. The football wilderness only got colder, darker and lonelier for Columbia. It lost 44 games straight from 1983-1988.

This made-to-order image is printed on giclée archival photo paper and is available framed or unframed. Framed photography comes ready to hang with a removable wire attached to the back. Choose from a lightweight ayous wood or a gold or silver metal frame to customize the frame best suited to your space. The print comes from The New York Times’s extensive archives, known as the “morgue,” which houses more than five million photographic prints that date back to 1905. It is available exclusively from The Times Store.