I have enormous respect for Coach Schafer, which has only been enhanced by the
announcement at the Dartmouth game (I wasn't there, but my understanding is that
he *asked* the students, rather than *told* them, to tone things down "to uphold
the Cornell tradition" or some such). It will be interesting to see if this
carries over to the next home game -- well, the next home game is over Thanks-
giving break... maybe the next one after that, which is December 3 against
arch-rival Colgate. Will the fans respect the coach's wish and be creative, not
vulgar? Will they respond to the inevitable vulgarity (presumably by somebody
who wasn't at the Dartmouth game) with "hey, that's not cool, the coach doesn't
like it"? Or will things go back to "normal"? I hope it's the former, if for
no other reason than out of respect for Coach Schafer.
>From what I know of Coach Schafer, I am sure he did this on his own without
prompting from any higher-ups. Nevertheless, I think this is the proper way to
handle vulgar fans... have the coach, or a team captain, request over the PA
that they tone it down. Back in the mid-80's, when the Lynah Faithful were even
more crude than they are now (if you can believe that :-), there was an adminis-
tration-ordered crackdown on profanity, and fans who engaged in vulgar or
profane cheers were "escorted" from the rink by Public Safety officers. This
had virtually zero effect, except to cause a lot of anger and hurt feelings.
And this time around, once they were asked to cool it, the Lynah Faithful did
show some creativity in their cheers... though they did slip in a few chants of
"Ba-a-a-a-ad call" in the third period... gotta love that :-)
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!! DJF 5/27/94
"A man shouldn't be an athlete after the age of 27."
-- George Foreman, in 1973
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