A
Academics
38 Ivy League players have earned the distinction of first-team Academic All-America, most recently Brown running back Nick Hartigan in 2004. Yale's Rich Diana is the only player in League history to be a first-team All-American and first-team Academic All-American in the same season. In that year of 1981, Diana was the Ivy MVP, a NCAA Postgraduate Scholar, a fifth-round pick of the Miami Dolphins and a top-10 finisher in Heisman Trophy voting.

African-American Quarterbacks
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was an influx of black quarterbacks in the Ivy League, as Penn, Princeton, Harvard and Brown each had a starting black QB while Yale, Cornell and Columbia had backups. But before all of them, there was a single trailblazer -- John McCluskey, Jr., at Harvard -- who was the League's first signalcaller of color. The Ivies had four starting African-American quarterbacks between the years of 1968 and 1974 ­- Rod Plummer of Princeton, Rod Foster of Harvard, Marty Vaughn of Penn and Dennis Coleman of Brown. Additionally, three others -- Bob Dubose of Columbia, Kurt Schmoke of Yale, and Barrett Rosser from Cornell -- saw time behind center for their respective squads. The first two times when black quarterbacks squared off in a major-college football game happened in the Ivy League, first in 1970 when Foster led the Crimson to victory over Princeton and Plummer. Three years later, Coleman and Vaughn met in Franklin Field.

All-Americans
The Ivies can boast of more than 350 players who have earned first-team All-America honors. Last season, Harvard's Clifton Dawson received the honor. The Ivy League has had at least one player selected first-team All-American every season since 1983.

B
B.D.
Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip features B.D., a character based on Brian Dowling, Yale's quarterback in the late 1960s. Dowling was a first-team All-Ivy League performer in 1967 and 1968. In 1968, Yale went 8-0-1 en route to a tie for the Ivy championship. In the first eight games, Dowling threw for 1,438 yards and 17 touchdowns. He also finished ninth in the Heisman trophy voting for the season. B.D. made his first appearance in "Bulls Tales," a strip Trudeau penned while a student with Dowling at Yale. He has worn a helmet since his first appearance in the Doonesbury comics. He even went to Vietnam with his football helmet on. Eventually, though, the football helmet was replaced with other kinds of headgear, including motorcycle, war combat and riot helmets.

Balestracci
In 2003, Dante Balestracci became the first four-time All-Ivy player in the League's illustrious history. As a freshman, he was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year after leading his Harvard Crimson with 64 tackles. He recorded 58 tackles in only seven games during the 2001 season and followed that performance in 2002 with 94 tackles. In his final year, Balestracci set himself as the standard for Ivy linebackers to come, registering 96 tackles, 11 sacks and 21 tackles for lost yardage.

Bednarik
A star for Penn before official Ivy League play began, Chuck Bednarik was the No. 1 pick in the 1949 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. A collegiate All-American in 1947 and 1948, Bednarik missed just three games in 14 seasons for the Eagles. He earned scores of All-Pro selections for Philadelphia while trying his hand at linebacker and offensive positions. He made the game-saving tackle in the 1960 Championship against Green Bay. For his career, Bednarik picked off 20 passes for a total of 268 yards.

Berman
A Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame inductee in 1991, Chris Berman is one of the nation"s most famous sportscasters. He graduated from Brown in 1977, where he was play-by-play voice for football. Berman graduated to small-time broadcasting jobs in Westerly, R.I., and Waterbury, Conn., before becoming one of the first sportscasters at ESPN, when he joined in 1979. Throughout his tenure with ESPN, the multitalented Berman has earned several Cable Ace and National Sportscaster of the Year awards for his work on such shows as SportsCenter, NFL Gameday, NFL Primetime and Baseball Tonight.

C
Caldwell
A multi-position player at Princeton in the early 20s, Charles Caldwell was also a pitcher in baseball. In fact, he played professionally in three games for the New York Yankees in 1925 and earned a place in baseball lore for beaning Wally Pipp in batting practice, opening a starting role for Lou Gehrig. After a stint as assistant coach at Princeton, Caldwell became head coach at Williams College in 1928, where he went 76-37-6 in 17 seasons. From Williams, he became assistant at Yale for two years before returning to Princeton as head coach in 1945. The Tigers were undefeated in 1950 and 1951 under Caldwell and won the Ivy League title in 1950, 1951, and 1955.

Camp
Yalie Walter Camp had more to do with the creation of American football than anyone else. At the collegiate level, the game had been rugby-style until Camp's innovations led to the first structure that resembles today's game. It was Camp who established the line of scrimmage, the center snap, 11 players to a side, downs and the All-America team.

Colors
Three teams have colors for their team name. Ever since its inauguration ceremony in 1868, Cornell has been associated with the carnelian red that draped the banners behind the podium. 1904 Cornell graduate Rym Berry wrote a song dedicated to "The Big Red Team" and the rest is history. Dartmouth's school color has been forest green since 1966, when students adopted it at the first athletic contest. The media originally used the nickname "Indians" in association with Dartmouth, but as it became increasingly politically incorrect to use that nickname it was eventually phased out. By the mid-70s, the Indian symbol used on Dartmouth athletic apparel was terminated. Though never officially adopted as a nickname despite its use in athletic media guides and publications, "Big Green" has been the functioning nickname ever since. Harvard adopted their "Crimson" color in 1875 rather than the other option at the time, magenta. They've been the Harvard Crimson ever since.

Cozza
One of the legendary coaches in Ivy League history, Carm Cozza won 10 Ivy titles during his 32-year career, nine of them coming during a remarkable 15-year span from 1967 to 1981. Cozza holds every significant coaching record in Ivy League football history, including seasons (32), championships (10), games (224) and victories (135). His 1974 Bulldog squad featured 10 players named to the All-Ivy first-team, a feat that was unmatched until 2003, when Penn Coach Al Bagnoli saw 12 of his Quakers earn first-team honors. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

D
Dana
Currently the oldest living NFL player, Sam Dana was known as Sam Salemi during his playing days at Columbia. The 102-year-old Kenmore, N.Y. resident played in five games for the New York Yankees during the 1928 season, catching one touchdown pass. His teamed at Columbia with baseball legend Lou Gehrig. Click here for a catching up with feature on Dana.

Dateline
NBC anchorman Stone Phillips was once an All-Ivy performer for the Yale Bulldogs. He quarterbacked Yale to the 1976 Ivy League title and was awarded with the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship in 1977. Phillips, who graduated with honors, was also recognized as an All-American.

Director
"Miracle," the inspiring story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, marked the defining moment in Gavin O'Connor's career as a director. The Penn graduate was a first-team All-Ivy League selection in 1985. Fourteen years later, he scored his first major success on the big screen as the co-writer and director of "Tumbleweeds." The movie won the Filmmaker's Trophy at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Along with his brother, Greg, O'Connor has also developed his own production company, Solaris. He is set to team with producer Mel Gibson to direct "Warrior," an epic film about Boudica, the female warrior who led Britain against Roman conquerors and was named Britain's first queen. The film is set for a 2006 release.

E
Edison
Princeton and Yale's 1903 battle wasn't just a match-up of undefeated teams. It also served as the site for the oldest collegiate football video footage on record, thanks to a Thomas Alva Edison-sponsored production company. The result is a remarkable recording of a game previously witnessed by only the 50,000 spectators on hand. The Library of Congress has obtained the
footage and has it online here.

Elias
Keith Elias remains one of the greatest rushers in Ivy League history. He finished his career as a two-time All-American and the Ivy League MVP in 1993. For his career, Elias had 736 carries, 52 touchdowns and 4,739 all-purpose yards. He went to the NFL, where he played three seasons for the New York Giants and two for the Indianapolis Colts.

F
Fenway Park
Home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball, Fenway Park has also played home to Ivy League football. In 1943, at the heart of World War II, travel restrictions limited Dartmouth and Cornell's options for a venue. They were unable to travel to each other, as no rail line ran between Hanover and Ithaca. The previous year, the teams had traveled to Buffalo for their showdown. In 1943, however, Dartmouth claimed a 20-0 victory in the shadows of the "Green Monster."

Fiedler
In 2000, Jay Fiedler became the first Ivy League graduate to start at quarterback in an NFL season opener since 1974. He was a three-year starter for the Big Green from 1991 to 1993 and set school records with 456 completions, 6,684 yards and 58 touchdowns. Fiedler’s NFL career has also proved successful, with more than 10,000 yards and 61 touchdowns during his career. And it should be kept in mind that he didn't play his first professional game until he became a Minnesota Viking, four years into his career in 1998.

Fifth Down Game
The Ivy League's historic "Fifth-Down Game" took place in 1940. Dartmouth and No. 1 Cornell were locked in a bitter defensive battle, with the Big Red trailing the Big Green, 3-0. After failing to earn a first down late in the game, Cornell was mistakenly given a "fifth down," which they promptly converted for the 7-3 victory. The mistake was confirmed on game film the next day and Cornell forfeited the result to Dartmouth. This classic game ended Cornell's 18-game unbeaten streak and still serves as the only instance in which a college football result has been decided off the field.

Ford
An Emmy Award-winning news anchor, Jack Ford was a starter on Yale's 1969 championship team. Following his years at Yale, he received the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award for achievement in pulic life. His work as chief legal correspondent for the Today Show, Dateline NBC and NBC Nightly News led to a spot as co-anchor of the weekend edition of the Today Show. Ford went from NBC to ABC when he became an anchor and correspondent for Good Morning America and 20/20.

Franklin Field
One of the legendary athletic venues in the nation, Franklin Field was originally opened in 1895 for the first running of the Penn Relays, the world's oldest and largest track and field relay meet. It is considered the oldest stadium still operating for football games and is known as the site of the nation's first scoreboard (1895), the nation's first two-tiered stadium (1922), the first football radio broadcast (1922), first football telecast (1939) and Vince Lombardi's only NFL playoff loss (1960). During the 1930s and 1940s, Penn led the nation in attendance for several years as crowds often numbered as many as 80,000. Today, the newly refurbished stadium seats 52,593.