10 Photos Celebrating Columbia Football's First Ivy League Title in 63 Years
Plus, Michael Zheng (CC'26) takes home Columbia's first national tennis singles title of the NCAA Championships era.
Name a better duo: Thanksgiving and gridiron glory. On Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, the Columbia Lions became Ivy League Football champions once more, for the first time in 63 years. The Lions used an all-around effort to pick up a 17-9 victory over Cornell. The win, coupled with Yale's win over Harvard on Saturday, gave Columbia a share of its first conference crown since 1961. Columbia (7-3, 5-2) shares the title with Harvard and Dartmouth.
Celebrations abounded on the field and off — on Saturday, Columbia blue dominated the NYC skyline, thanks to Spireworks and Thomas Bow (CC'83, BUS'87), and the Empire State Building even lit up blue in honor of the Lions' win on Sunday.
To add to the air of excitement, just one day later Columbia Men's Tennis junior and three-time All-American Michael Zheng (CC'26) brought home the NCAA Men's Singles Championship title. Zheng is Columbia's first NCAA singles champion of the modern era and is the first Lion to win a singles title since Robert LeRoy won the title in both 1904 and 1906. Zheng is also the first men's singles champion from an Ivy League school since Yale's Lucien Williams won a title in 1922.
Below, check out a few photos from the Football team and Zheng's big wins.
There is sure a lot to celebrate this Thanksgiving week. Roar, Lion, Roar!
And a big congratulations to our tennis champ!
