Re>Stuff on Ice/RPI-Union
There has been a great deal of discussion about throwing stuff on the ice, so
let me throw in my two cents on the subject.  Then I'd like to add a few words
on the RPI-Union game last Saturday.
 
Here at Lynah Rink, we throw newspaper after the visiting team has been
introduced.  Friends of mine who have never seen a Cornell hockey game are
always amused by the quickness and readiness of the rink staff to pick up the
trash after the national anthems are played.  That ritual is for good fun, and
it's done before the game starts.  So I think the Athletic Dept does not bother
to discourage students and some non-students like me from continuing the
"tradition".  However, the AD has pretty much stopped people from throwing
sieves, chickens and fish (a Cornell vs. Harvard tradition), and I have not
seen a hat in a long time (last time we had a hat trick at home was Boston
College at Cornell in spring 1991, when Ryan Hughes scored all 4(?) Cornell
goals.  Right?).  My feeling is that anything that will interfere with the flow
of the game, and especially cause harm to a player, does not belong on the ice.
 I remember during the quarterfinals two years ago against Harvard at Lynah,
somebody threw a sieve after Cornell scored the fourth goal.  David Burke
skated over very quickly and picked up the sieve.  However, the officials saw
the darn thing coming down and I believed the Big Red was given a bench
penalty.  I remember thinking, "Neat, somebody threw a sieve!  You don't see
that often anymore."  But I did not want Cornell to receive a penalty.  The
score was 4-2, and Harvard can easily storm back to tie the game.  I'd rather
the sieve-thrower to celebrate our goal some other way, because it was a
needless penalty.  I'm all in favor of tradition, but rules and player safety
come first!  Oranges, tennis balls, dead animals simply have no place "during"
the game.
And talk about rink security, when I was at Colgate, there were more public
safety officers than uniformed people at Army!  They even searched me for
alcohol!  I don't ever want to see Lynah get so bad.
 
As for the RPI@Union game, Jim Teresco from Union wrote:
 
> About half of the crowd was RPI fans.  They brought a very large band, hung
>banners, and made a lot of noise.  It was a lot like the Cornell game,
>except this time there was no excuse for Union.  Union is in session now...
>Achilles Rink sets aside 1250 tickets to every game (Half of the
>rink!) as free tickets available to Union students, faculty, and staff
>members.  400 of those tickets were not picked up!!  And this for the
>biggest game of the year!
 
Growing pain!  I have the luxury of becoming a Cornell fan when the program is
already mature.  Union students and staff evidently still have a bit more to
go.  I was at Union when Cornell played there, and was impressed by the
thundering cheers from the home fans when Union scored that lone goal.
Unfortunately, they did not have much to cheer for that night, but I saw strong
support there.  I was amazed to hear Jim said that so many tickets went
unclaimed, espeically when they were free and for a major contest.  Can you
imagine what will happen if we give out FREE tickets here at Lynah?  We'll
probably have a riot, for real (I mean, we almost had one during the student
ticket sale last fall).  From Jim's posting, the game sounded very close.
Maybe with more home support, the result might have gone the other way.
Please, Union people, come out and support your team!  One of these days, you
may become like Clarkson who always brings the pep band to Ithaca and has a
loud cheering crowd in Sect O.  We don't like that, but fair's fair.  I've had
limited travel with the Cornell team, but I'm always touched by the huge
turnout at Boston Garden, Colgate, and RPI.
 
Tom Tseng '87
Go Big Red!