Senior safety and team captain Nick Indovina usually doesn’t find himself lined up against someone weighing over 172 pounds, let alone someone double his age.

That was the case on Saturday, however, when Indovina and the sprint football team played host to former sprint football players in the annual “Fossil vs. Rookie” alumni game at Schoellkopf Stadium Field. Despite being outmatched in weight and age, the Red beat the alumni, 14-0, to remain undefeated in the yearly contest. Touchdown runs by senior captain and running back DJ Schiavetta and junior quarterback Elliot Corey provided all the scoring the Red needed as the defense held the rusty alumni to a shut out.

This weekend was not about the scoreboard, however. The Cornell Sprint Football Alumni Weekend, which began in 1977, is a time for players and family members from both the past and present to come together and share in the tradition of one of Cornell’s most unique athletic programs.

This year, over 200 people attended the weekend’s events, which included a golf tournament on Friday and a pre-game brunch followed by a post-game barbeque on Saturday.

55 alumni participated in the full contact scrimmage on Saturday, ranging from players who hadn’t suited up in over forty 40 years to players who graduated this past May.

“You realize you’re playing not only for yourself and this team, but you’re playing for a legacy of dedicated student athletes,” Indovina said. “The fact that we had such a great turnout gives testament to how truly united this program is.”

The cohesiveness of the Sprint Football program is demonstrated through the endless alumni support the team receives.

The team is funded entirely through donations from nearly 1,100 active Cornell Sprint Football alumni.

A key producer of these donations is the annual Alumni Weekend. The weekend’s activities were offered free of charge to the visiting alumni and their families and the only form of payment accepted was voluntary donations given directly to the program.

In addition to these donations, any alumnus who chose to participate in Saturday’s scrimmage was weighed-in before taking the field and was asked to pay $2 for every pound over his weight limit in college (sprint football has not always been a game for men weighing 172 pounds or less, but was in fact established in 1934 as a league for players weighing in at 150 pounds or less in 1934).

Most of the proceeds generated by the event are used to fund the sprint football program at Cornell, which has a budget of over $250,000 per year. All other profits are donated to the “Robert Cullen Endowment Fund for 150 lb. Football” to help ensure the longevity of the sport at Cornell. The support of the Cornell Sprint Football alumni has provided the team and its players with the resources necessary for success both on and off the field.

“[Alumni Weekend] exposes them to the alumni, which is great for networking for jobs, for internships, and for carrying on with the organization afterwards,” said head coach Terry Cullen. “It’s very productive from a professional standpoint.”

Alumni Weekend proved useful from a football standpoint, as well. In order to prepare the team for its opening game against the University of Pennsylvania, the alumni played a defensive style similar to what Penn will play against Cornell.

This hadn’t been done in the past, primarily because Cornell’s annual “Red vs. White” game used to fall the week before the alumni game, after just four days of practice.

This year, the intersquad scrimmage was played two days before the alumni game, allowing the team an extra week of preparation before ever taking the field in a competitive format.

“I thought it was very beneficial,” said co-head coach Bart Guccia. “We waited basically another week and it seemed to help. The offense seemed much more prepared and ready to play.”

Guccia and the rest of sprint football team will find out if the extra practice paid off soon enough, when Cornell plays host to Penn at 7 p.m. on Friday evening at Schoellkopf Stadium.