Greg writes:
>          And what I am thinking is that the "crudity" alarm goes off
>far too often in regard to the Cornell student sections. Basically,
>there is one recurrent cheer concerning the head official's alleged
>intimacy with the species Ovis Aries which is definitely not PG-17
>material, but that's about all.
 
Obviously, what is "the norm" to one fan may be highly offensive to another,
but there was a time a few years ago when the student section of Lynah was
offering up far more vulgar and obscene sayings than anything you'll hear
there nowadays.  There's been a lot of improvement made, so I think this is
a case of a lingering bad reputation that at one time was well-deserved but
is now a bit unfair.
 
But I DO have to say something about that "cheer" Greg refers to.  While I
personally don't find it offensive (not much bugs me), a lot of people are
really bothered by it, and that does not help the image of the Cornell fans
any.  And it isn't just the "crudeness" angle either -- sometimes the
bellowing of this cheer indicates a little fan stupidity.  Case in point:
during the Harvard game, there were two instances where the ref was
serenaded with said cheer and the call involved was not only correct but
also painfully obvious.  It seems like the interpretation here has changed
from "Hey, you made a mistake, pal" to "How DARE you call a penalty on the
home team!"  At the very least, I think we Ivy League more-academic-than-
thou types (tongue firmly in cheek!) can come up with a more creative way of
expressing our displeasure.  I've heard a lot of good cheers at Lynah, and
perhaps we could do without this one.  Fortunately, it hasn't been used very
often this year.
 
>                                                                You say
>that some cheers offend other fans? I don my flame-retardant suit and
>say: the students are the only fans who really matter. For four years
>it's their classmates, their friends, their team. The rest of us -
>alumni, townies, faculty, staff, hockey-l dignitaries - are decorative
>and amusing, but ultimately superfluous. (Not unlike ceramic dalmatians...)
 
WHOA there!!  Halt!  Stop!  Reverse!
 
Only the students matter?  Sure, their friends or classmates may be on the
team (though I wonder sometimes whether most of the students could pick out
the hockey players on campus if they weren't wearing their uniforms), but
why does that make them so much more important than any other group of fans?
There are lots of people who have been supporting Cornell hockey for much
longer than the current crop of students has; are they "superfluous"?  Some
of them have been going to games at Lynah since it was built back in the
late '50s.  How about the Cornell Hockey Boosters?  I know most students
have no use for the boosters, but they do quite a bit in support of the
hockey program here.  (I know this -- I have to go to the Board of Directors
meetings, *ACK!*)  And how about the parents, who travel from who-knows-
where to the games to support their sons and watch them play?  That's a VERY
important group of fans right there.  I suspect that someone will point out
that without the students, there would be no Cornell, which is true enough,
but consider that without the faculty, staff, etc. there would be no Cornell
either.
 
 
The point is, EVERY fan is important, and anyone who has a ticket for a game
should be able to enjoy the action on the ice without having to put up with
their fellow fans hollering something offensive.  I know I sound like Laing
Kennedy here, but think about how you feel when you go to a movie or a party
or something, and some obnoxious jerk ruins your whole evening.  That's how
some people used to feel about the fan behavior here, to the point where the
athletic office was hearing numerous complaints and some fans were choosing
not to renew their season tickets.  People don't go to games if they think
they are going to have an unpleasant time all evening long.  Losing fan
support is not a situation that any college hockey program likes to find
itself in, which is part of the reason for the "heavy-handed tactics" that
Greg spoke of.  I agree that the whole thing was remarkably badly handled,
but in retrospect, something needed to be done.  As I said before, things
seem to be a lot better now.
 
By the way, it is not only certain fans that have disapproved of some of the
cheers.  Head coach Brian McCutcheon has let it be known on occasion that he
would rather have the fans support the team without the use of profanity and
crudeness.  I think he's worth listening to.
--
Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94        |  [log in to unmask]
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