And, if I recall correctly, the "academic" side of those Cornell  
powerhouses was the School of Hotel Management (not the Ag school).  
Most of the Ivies (if not most of the country) scoffed at the  
academic requirements of the Hotel Management School, likely while  
wishing that they had one, too. Meanwhile, at least some of the  
players (ie, Ken Dryden) were not only better at hockey than their  
rivals, they were also better students. Sour grapes, vintage 1966, et  
seq.
--Jeff Partnow
--Fairbanks



On Nov 14, 2005, at 5:24 PM, Bill Fenwick wrote:

> At 10:20 AM 11/14/2005 -0500, Mark Lewin wrote:
>> Although Cornell is a private university and is forbidden to give  
>> athletic
>> scholarships as part of their membership agreement with the Ivy  
>> league, part
>> of Cornell (the school of Agriculture, I believe) was part of the  
>> SUNY
>> (State University of New York). Harkness somehow played the  
>> loophole that
>> since SUNY was "separate" from the private Cornell, those students  
>> enrolled
>> at SUNY were eligible for hockey scholarships.
>
> This is not accurate.  There was and is no such loophole that would  
> allow
> the state side of Cornell to offer scholarships for hockey, or any  
> other
> sport, while the rest of the university (under Ivy regulations)  
> could not.
> There may have been, and may still be, financial aid available to  
> those in
> Cornell's state schools that was not available to those on the  
> private side
> (I don't know if this was/is the case), but such money would be made
> available to all students in need, not reserved for athletes.
>
>> Ned scoured the plains of
>> Canada from Ontario west to recruit for his spectacularly  
>> successful Cornell
>> team.
>
> This is true and was the source of most of the animosity directed  
> toward
> Harkness -- that he recruited Canadians, at a time when few schools  
> were
> doing so, and that with those players he was able to turn a team that
> wasn't much above club level into a national power.  When asked why he
> would leave RPI for Cornell, which had resurrected its hockey  
> program only
> six years before he got there, Harkness is said to have replied,  
> "Because
> Ithaca is exactly 90 miles closer to the Canadian border than Troy."
>
> As for Harkness' stint at Union, the beginning of the end was when  
> he broke
> an NESCAC rule (note: not an NCAA one, the NESCAC is quite a bit more
> restrictive) regarding visiting a recruit, and then proceeded to  
> lie about
> it when he was confronted.  I believe Harkness was suspended by the
> university president but almost immediately reinstated by the board of
> trustees.  Somewhere in there, four of Harkness' recruits were  
> rejected by
> Union's admissions department; all four wound up at Ivy League  
> universities
> instead.  Anyway, Harkness did coach the first half of that season
> (1977-78, IIRC), but when four more of his players were declared
> academically ineligible, he resigned, and most of his team quit as  
> well.
> Union left or was kicked out of the NESCAC shortly afterward.
>
> This whole mess helps explain why, when Union did eventually move its
> hockey team to Div. I status in 1991, they did so with a lot of
> restrictions -- no athletic scholarships, only playing 25 regular- 
> season
> games for several years, and so forth.
> --
> Bill Fenwick                                                 DJF    
> 5/27/94
> Cornell '86 and '95                                          JCF    
> 12/2/97
> LET'S GO RED!!
>
> "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
> -- Edgar Wilson Nye, quoted by Mark Twain