What do Cornell Sports and Andy Warhol have in Common?

It must be said –– I’m all about making connections. And for the record, I’m not just talking about the connections that score me a summer internship with Comcast SportsNet (looking at you, Dan Baicker). Or the connections that result in 2009 World Series tickets for yours truly; oh wait, I have yet to actually establish that one (which is why I’m going to use this opportunity to solicit two tickets for one of the Series games in Philadelphia next week. One for me, and one for my friend, coworker and fellow Phillies devotee, Meredith Bennett-Smith. Please, email me if you can be of service! I guarantee a column shoutout).

However, the best kinds of connections, for me at least, are those made in the classroom. Because otherwise, chances of me paying attention in lecture are virtually nonexistent –– unless I can find some way to relate the subject of said lecture to a topic I actually care about.

For instance, during my junior year of high school I wrote my American Studies term paper about the New York City Draft Riots, just so I would have an excuse to watch Gangs of New York.

Faced with the daunting task of reading 40 pages of my psychology textbook at 4 a.m. in preparation for a prelim, a Lord of the Rings reference on page 616 was all I needed to restore my focus.

However, I never expected a film class of all things to inspire outside connections. Especially when considering, as implied above, that most of these associations I develop in class bear some relevance to the entertainment industry and film in general. But as it were, FILM 2850, taught by Prof. Lisa Patti, managed to relate in some capacity to ... the Cornell athletics scene?

Sitting in a pitch black theatre at 9:30 p.m., watching Academy Award winning director Chuck Workman’s 1990 documentary about Andy Warhol, and lamenting that I was missing yet another DU Thirsty Thursday, my interest finally piqued when Campbell’s director of design mentioned the inspiration behind Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans screenprints.

As the story goes, the label became red and white in 1898, after one of Campbell’s executives saw a Cornell football game and liked the colors of the jerseys. Sixty-four years later, this label would serve as the cornerstone of perhaps Warhol’s most recognizable work.

So, the next time some young fool questions the legitimacy of Cornell sports, I won’t hesitate to pull out this little-known fact. Our football team, and fanbase for that matter, may not be on par with USC or Texas, but we have sick uniforms. Our basketball team may not be able to advance beyond the first round of the NCAA tournament, but the fact remains that the Cornell Big Red indirectly influenced one of the most talked-about artists of all-time –– one who essentially ushered in the pop art movement.

(Editor’s note: I, like Jimmy Rollins, am prone to making bold predictions. And I am going on the record as calling a second-round berth for Steve Donahue’s team in the 2010 NCAA tournament. After all, it was Warhol himself who said, “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.”)

Interestingly enough, the Warhol-Cornell connection doesn’t end there.

Warhol died in Feb. 1987, due to post-trauma complications from a routine operation to remove his gall bladder. The New York State Health Department charged that Warhol was a victim of inadequate care provided by the overseeing hospital; according to a 10-page report, the medical staff failed to do proper work-up tests prior to the surgery, administered a drug to which Warhol may have had an allergic reaction, and repeatedly failed to note his chart accurately.

The guilty party? None other than the New York hospital of Cornell Medical Center.

So there you have it. Not only did the Cornell brand propel Warhol to stardom, but it also prompted his untimely demise. Now tell me, what other academic institution can lay claim to such resounding influence? Certainly not USC or Texas.