Tony Buffa wrote:
 
> I was at RPI from 60-64, the last two years of the Ned Harkness era.
> When he left for Cornell (I believe in 1963-64 season but could be wrong)
 
Ned's first year at Cornell was indeed 63-64.
 
>and after all the crying and screaming died down in Troy, everyone was
>convinced that "now that Ned had a lot of scholarship money (implication
>"athletic" scholarships) he would eat up the college hockey world, and we
>all know what happened, he did, with players like Ken Dryden, and even has
>the only undefeated season, I believe, at 29-0 or some such back in
>69(?)... I don't know how many NCAAs he won, but he sure was another notch
 
I think that the 29-0 was 69-70, the year after Dryden graduated.  (RPI
broke the string early the next year :-) ) I think that he won two NCAA
championships at Cornell to go along with the one at RPI, but I am sure
that someone from Cornell would know for certain.  Someone could
correct me at this, but I do not think that there were actually things
called "Athletic Scholarships" then.  Each school had its own policies.
Cornell's main advantage at the time was that despite being an Ivy
league school, it had majors where it was easier to get people accepted
than at RPI.  (I can see the flames coming now :-) )  As I recall,
besides for certain special programs as the Biomed program, you are not
admitted to a specific course of study at RPI.
 
>up on the success ladder than when he was at RPI where I know he did NOT
>have athletic scholarships and managed to win (OT vs Minn, I believe in
>1955 with 12 players!) once...
 
RPI's first championship was in 53-54.  54-55 was a losing season.  I
think that 12 players is approximately correct.  One of these days, I
will have to type in an article from a 1974 that I have at home at the
time of a reunion of the 1954 team where Harkness described how his
small and undermanned team beat Michigan and Minnesota.
 
>my question is:  does anyone know for sure that perhaps there are (or
>were?) different classes amongst the ivies?  Someone has posted they know
>for sure that Dartmouth for example, absolutely does NOT give athletic
>scholarships.  Do the others?  Ralph Baer (I believe it was him) has said
that RPI has given them since 1980.  What about the rest of the ECAC?  In
 
NONE of the Ivies give Athletic Scholarships.  Union doesn't either.
RPI and Clarkson do.  I am under the impression that Vermont also does,
but SLU and Colgate don't.  This has come up before, but I am not sure
that anyone posted definitive information.  I am not certain that 1980
was the exact year that RPI started giving athletic scholarships -- it
was about then.
 
>spite of respecting a so-called academic index, does this make it tough on
>the schools that don't?
 
A good question.  Personally, I think that it just makes it different.
Many schools that don't give out Athletic Scholarships regard athletics
as an outside activity that is given weight when scholarships are
awarded.  RPI has had trouble recruiting any depth no matter what system
is used.
 
>Is this the reason why there always seem to be 3
>or 4 extremely weak teams in the ECAC or is it just because it is the only
>12 team league?
 
In my opinion, the main reason is the latter--with 12 teams there will
always be about 3 or 4 very weak ones.
 
>Maybe some could comment on these queries next week in the lull between
>games after the results of this weekend are well posted!
 
>Thanx.
 
>Tony Buffa
>RPI '64
 
>Go Engineers!!
 
Ralph Baer  RPI '68, '70, '74