By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

The Ithaca football team has won 61 straight games dating to opening night 2010, a stretch that is the longest active streak in the U.S., second-longest in MHSAA history, longest to take place fully during the MHSAA playoff era, and three wins from cracking the the national all-time top 10 list. 

But more than a century before the Yellowjackets began this era of invincibility, they were among those embracing the sport during its infancy in the late 1890s. 

Research by the Ithaca Area Historical Society led to the uncovering of the above photo of the 1899 Ithaca High School football team and all but two of the players' names. 

The Ithaca program has 376 victories dating back to the start of the 1950 season – and further research that is underway should show the team has well over 500 wins dating to its first team in 1895. Cadillac, with 512 victories, was 10th on Michigan high school football's all-time wins list heading into this season.

For some added perspective: The MHSAA was begun from a preceding organization during the 1924-25 school year. The first MHSAA playoffs were played in 1975. Ithaca's most recent varsity football loss came to Montague in a 2009 Division 6 Semifinal.