I read with interest the numerous messages that I received this morning
about RPI's decision to remain in the ECAC instead of switching to the
HE.  The comments turned to whether the school should be called RPI or
Rensselaer.  (For years the only way that I could remember that it was
Rensselaer and not Rensselear was that the ending was the same as my
name, which some will argue is also spelled incorrectly.)  Personally,
I cringe whenever I hear RPI referred to as Rensselaer.  It seems that
most technological schools are trying to shed their technological
label.  At least two schools that now play Div-I hockey, Clarkson and
Lowell, had "tech" in their names when I was at RPI.
 
Well, this discussion is diverging from college hockey.  In one of the
messages on this subject D. L. Sullivan stated (quoting from the RPI
student newspaper).
 
>Also noted in the announcement was that the ECAC
>hockey league includes many of Rensselaer's most cherished hockey
>rivalries, including those with Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Harvard, Brown,
>Cornell and Princeton.
 
Having read many other messages that have appeared on H-L about
rivalries, most notably those (I think from Pam) that mentioned that
although Minnesota's number one rival was Wisconsin, Minnesota is the
number one rival of at least four schools, Wisconsin, UMD, St. Cloud,
and North Dakota, I started to think about the six ECAC schools that
were mentioned and the five that weren't.  In my opinion, the list is a
bit weird.  Although Clarkson and St. Lawrence are probably their own
biggest rivals, RPI is certainly a rival of each, and I certainly have
no qualm about their inclusion.
 
Cornell was a one-sided rival of RPI when I was there, as Cornell was
typical the #1 team in the east and sometimes in the country at the
time.  Also, Cornell's coach, Ned Harkness, was previously at RPI.
Thus RPI and its fans got up for Cornell, but not vice versa.  Because
of this, RPI was in 68-69 and 70-71 able to upset Cornell at the
then-called RPI Fieldhouse.  Since that time I think that the rivalry
has evened out, and is now both ways.
 
When I was at RPI, I would have laughed at the thought that Harvard was
considered a rival of RPI.  The reason for this was that Harvard
refused to play RPI.  (RPI played too roughly.)  I don't think that RPI
and Harvard played each other before mandatory scheduling started in
the ECAC in the late 1970's.  Now that the teams play each other twice
a year and are close to each other in talent level, their as a
rivalry.
 
This brings us to Brown and Princeton.  Having followed RPI for 30
years now, I can't think of a time that I would have considered either
of these fine institutions as having a rivalry with RPI.  Certainly in
the ten years that I was at RPI, I never considered games against
either of these teams a truly important game (not that I wouldn't
attend anyway).  At the time that RPI was a national power in the
mid-80's, both of these schools had, in my opinion, weak teams, and
from what I could gather from the little news that I got in DC, most
games were blowouts.  Over the last three or four years, RPI and Brown
have been comparable in talent, and maybe a rivalry could develop, but
I don't think that there is one.  I suspect that one of the reasons
that RPI decided to switch its satellite broadcast this year from the
Brown game to the Clarkson game, is that the interest in Clarkson will
be much much greater than in Brown.  I am curious if any of the many
RPI alumni on H-L has ever regarded Princeton as a rival.  The few
years in the last thirty that Princeton has had a good team
corresponded to those when RPI's were poor.
 
Notably absent from this list is Union.  Clearly, Union is not one of
RPI's "most cherished hockey rivalries" because Union has not had a
Div-I team for too long.  But because of the proximity of the two
schools a rivalry will eventually result.
 
I would have listed Colgate and Vermont on the list of RPI rivals
before listing Princeton and Brown.
 
As to the HE, RPI had a similar rivalry with BU when I was at RPI to
the one they had with Cornell.  RPI had a much inferior team but
managed to pull an occasional upset.  I will always remember the 7-0
victory in 68-69 where RPI managed to win with a center playing goalie.
Somehow, RPI, which has always had an undermanned squad had only one
goaltender on that year, senior Tom Nichol.  Twice that year he was
sick or injured.  On the first occasion, sophomore center Barry
Sherwood was drafted to play goal against BU.  I assume that BU was
very overconfident, and RPI played the best defensive game that I have
ever seen, but when it was over RPI was on top 7-0.  Later that year (I
forget against who), when Nichol again couldn't play, RPI lost with
defenseman Brian Dickey in goal.  (Sherwood had left school in the
second semester.  He probably didn't like carrying the dufflebag ;-) ).
Also, later that year, in a first round ECAC playoff, BU bested RPI
4-2.
 
As to the rest of the HE schools, RPI had rivalries to some extent
with Providence, Northeastern, BC, and New Hampshire -- certainly in
each case greater than with Princeton and Brown.  The remaining HE teams
did not have Div-I (Merrimack, UMass-Lowell, UMass-Amherst) or had
been Div-I for only a short time (Maine) prior to the ECAC-HE split.
 
 
Ralph Baer   RPI '68, '70, '74