It’s Official: Cornell’s AD Is Cooler And A Bigger Track Fan Than Yours
by LetsRun.com
May 12, 2014
Let’s face the facts. With most tracks now moved outside of the football stadium, many college Athletic Directors have only the minimalist of interactions with their track and field teams (we imagine back in the day, they probably inadvertently bumped into tracksters more often on their way to football practice).
Not Cornell Athletic Director Andy Noel. Not only did Noel actually attend this weekend’s Ivy League Heps Track and Field Championships at Yale (Heps), but after it was all over, he made good on a promise to the Big Red men that if the completed a sweep of the indoor and outdoor conference titles, he’d dye his hair red. Actually that’s not a factual statement – he promised to dye both his hair and eyebrows red – and made good on both fronts.
The bet – oh wait, the NCAA hates that word; we mean promise – from Noel came at the indoor championship meet at Dartmouth, which Noel also attended. At indoor Heps, many of the Big Red men’s stars, like Spain’s 200 national record holder Bruno Hortelano-Roig (20.47 PR), were sporting dyed red hair. Noel said he too would go red if the Big Red came through with double victories indoors and out.
On Sunday, the Big Red men narrowly defeated Princeton 149 to 142.33 to earn their first outdoor title since 2010, as the class of 2014 made sure it didn’t become the first Cornell class since the class of 2002 to not win at least one outdoor conference crown during their four years on East Hill (the Big Red won an unprecedented 8 straight crowns from 2003 to 2010).
Noel even posed for selfies with the stars of the team.
Noel wasn’t the only one having a good time, making news while enjoying a victory on Sunday.
Former NFL star and current NBC announcer Chris Collinsworth attended the meet and cheered on his daughter Ashley Collinsworth, a key member of the victorious Harvard women’s team. Ashley was the runner-up in the women’s 100 (11.78) and was also on the Crimson’s winning 4 x 100 and runner-up 4 x 400 teams.
At the meet, Collinsworth also tried his hand at the production side of things as he filmed much of the action on an ipad.
A few photos of the festivities appear below but be sure to check out 100+ pictures here: 2014 Ivy League Heps Track And Field Photos. On page 3 of the gallery, you can see larger versions of the Noel photos by clickong on them. We’ve also got a video of Noel getting his hair dyed at the bottom of this article.
 Don’t worry, we promise it won’t hurt
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 See, it feels like a free massage
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 Don’t forget the eyebrows
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 A great selfie
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 Chris Collinsworth
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 Chris Collinsworth
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More: 2014 Ivy League Heps Track And Field Photos
(Disclaimer: Andy Noel is LetsRun.com founder Robert Johnson’s former boss. Rojo, a Princeton grad, was an assistant track coach at Cornell from 2002 to 2012).