M.H. "Mike" Abrams, Class of '16 Professor Emeritus of English, has never missed a Cornell home football game since arriving at Cornell in 1945. In celebration of his 95th birthday, the team thanked its biggest fan by making him honorary co-captain this year for the Oct. 6 home game against Harvard -- Abrams' alma mater.

Abrams describes himself not as a fan of football in general, but of Cornell football specifically. He respects the way football is played here -- "intense, but relaxed," and its role in the lives of students. And going to games -- that's second nature now.

"I like the snappy fall air and the excitement of the game, and the good fellowship," he said.

A legendary literary scholar whose "Norton Anthology of English Literature" (1962) has delighted -- and dismayed -- legions of high school and college English students, Abrams had his 95th birthday celebration July 15 at his daughter's home on Cayuga Lake.

On hand for the party was Jim Knowles, Cornell's head football coach, who presented the birthday boy with a travel bag, intended for Abrams' use when he accompanies the team on the bus to New Haven, Conn., for the Yale-Cornell game, Sept. 22, and a game jersey sporting No. 1 and his name.

The jersey is for Abrams to wear to the Harvard game Oct. 6, when, as honorary co-captain, he will accompany the co-captains to the center of the field for the coin toss.

"What my function will be but to look pretty, I have no idea," Abrams said.

Knowles, who became head coach in 2004, played football at Cornell and remembers "Prof Abrams" coming to games and to occasional practices. Abrams continued his support of the team when Knowles was an assistant coach during the 1990s.

"When I got to return to be head coach it was great to see him still involved with the program," Knowles said. "He's a first-class guy and a big fan of Cornell football."

Abrams is the author of "The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition," an influential book of literary criticism published in 1953 that still stands at No. 25 in the Modern Library's list of the 100 best nonfiction books written in English in the past 100 years.

Besides being known for conceiving and editing "The Norton Anthology of English Literature," now in its eighth edition, Abrams also wrote "The Glossary of Literary Terms," a staple book for literature students that was first published in 1958.