Fond retirement wishes to Dave Nulle

Several friends passed this newsworthy item along this afternoon. It's the end of yet another era for Cornell Hockey:

[blogs.cornell.edu]

Dave the Zamboni Guy (despite the nickname, I've never seen him drive a Zamboni...just Olympias and Roby Steamers) has taken Cornell's retirement package. Certainly a big part of the colorful charms of Lynah, Dave leaves me with a lot of memories. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in a couple of his costumed skits during the years. And hey, how many of you can say that thousands sat and watched you do your job every week?

Here's a nice Sun feature on him from 2006:
[cornellsun.com]

I'm sure we'll still see him around Lynah. But what will he do with all those costumes?

Happy retirement, Dave!

Best wishes, but...

Good luck Dave!!!

just a thought but what does retiring have to do with continuing to drive the zamboni? i would do it for free if it got me into the games.

As another one-time participant in Dave's hijinks, happy retirement to Dave!

What Kyle said.

Dave taught me how to ice skate. Great instructor - broke everything down and made it fun and easy to learn. One of the nicest guys around the rink.

I'm not surprised he took the retirement package, but it's always sad to see the end of an era (edit - a good era, anyway).

Best wishes, Dave!

upperdeck
just a thought but what does retiring have to do with continuing to drive the zamboni? i would do it for free if it got me into the games.

I don't know Dave personally, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he were willing to keep resurfacing the ice during games without getting paid for it. Whether the university would let him (I'm sure there are insurance and other issues) is another story.

Best of luck, Dave!

upperdeck
just a thought but what does retiring have to do with continuing to drive the zamboni? i would do it for free if it got me into the games.

Unfortunately the ice needs to be resurfaced MANY more times than just the 3 times in an average men's game. I anticipate that aspect of the job had a bit more to do with easing towards retirement (aside: I assume he also drove the resurfacer much of the other times as well).

As other have said, the end of the era. His replacement can only hope to be half as good as him. I fondly remember him blessing my group of friends one night at Dunbar's, for at Cornell the zamboni driver is as close as one can get to a religious figure.

BCrespi

upperdeck
just a thought but what does retiring have to do with continuing to drive the zamboni? i would do it for free if it got me into the games.

Unfortunately the ice needs to be resurfaced MANY more times than just the 3 times in an average men's game. I anticipate that aspect of the job had a bit more to do with easing towards retirement (aside: I assume he also drove the resurfacer much of the other times as well).

He used to, at least in the evenings, but I seem to remember him telling me that he stopped doing the resurfacing outside of men's hockey games. We only stopped to chat every once in a long while, so it's possible that he hasn't been doing much of the regular day-to-day resurfacing for several years.

I'm pretty sure he was the night manager, so there was probably more to the job than driving the Olympia.

Add me to the list of people who were taught to skate by Dave. (Don't blame him for the fact that I'm not very good, that's my fault.) Lynah won't be the same without him.

RichH
has taken Cornell's retirement package.

The wording of this sounds like more of the Athletic's Dept. cost cutting on the heels of eliminating the administrative assistant (Sue Detzer.)

Will Casey Jones and Scott Garrow (or Ian Burt) be answering the phones, typing recruit letters, and now, resurfacing the ice between periods???

TimV

RichH
has taken Cornell's retirement package.

The wording of this sounds like more of the Athletic's Dept. cost cutting on the heels of eliminating the administrative assistant (Sue Detzer.)

This was a university-wide program; anybody over a certain minimum age with a certain minimum number of years of service to Cornell was eligible to apply for a voluntary retirement package as part of university-wide cost cutting. Although more people applied than they anticipated, they approved every application.

TimV

RichH
has taken Cornell's retirement package.

The wording of this sounds like more of the Athletic's Dept. cost cutting on the heels of eliminating the administrative assistant (Sue Detzer.)

Will Casey Jones and Scott Garrow (or Ian Burt) be answering the phones, typing recruit letters, and now, resurfacing the ice between periods???

I don't think Ian is still around, at least his wife left CU and I think went back to Canada.

Does this mean we have to start cheering "You're not Dave" at home games?

Jim Hyla
Does this mean we have to start cheering "You're not Dave" at home games?

I sure hope not.

I'm still holding out hope that Dave may want to keep resurfacing the ice during games, on a volunteer basis, and that the university will allow him to.

Perhaps I am being ridiculously optimistic. It wouldn't be the first time.

andyw2100

Jim Hyla
Does this mean we have to start cheering "You're not Dave" at home games?

I sure hope not.

I'm still holding out hope that Dave may want to keep resurfacing the ice during games, on a volunteer basis, and that the university will allow him to.

Perhaps I am being ridiculously optimistic. It wouldn't be the first time.

Your hope requires the administration to not suck. Don't hold your breath.

As part of the contract between the University and the employees who chose to take the early retirement, the employees can still be employed by at the University as a part time employee (20 hrs/wk with no benefits). So there is a way for Dave to still be around on game nights to do the ice, but I seriously doubt that the athletics dept will hire back any of the employees who left.

From Dave's last game, March 15, 2009.

Good luck Dave!

I still like that nobody noticed that the Pepsi logo was applied upside-down.

RichH
I still like that nobody noticed that the Pepsi logo was applied upside-down.

I'm actually rather proud of the fact that I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned it.

If we're going to talk about logos, this may or may not have been corrected, but at one point the Shortstop Deli ad on one side advertised sodas for 09c and on the other side for 9c. (The 09c is visible in Age's photo.)

RichH
I still like that nobody noticed that the Pepsi logo was applied upside-down.

Kyle Rose
I'm actually rather proud of the fact that I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned it.

You both still recognized it as a Pepsi logo.

PepsiCo 2, Proud eLynah-er's 0.

Jordan 04

RichH
I still like that nobody noticed that the Pepsi logo was applied upside-down.

Kyle Rose
I'm actually rather proud of the fact that I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned it.

You both still recognized it as a Pepsi logo.

PepsiCo 2, Proud eLynah-er's 0.

One of those rare moments where I'll proudly agree with Kyle on something other than "Let's Go Red!" I can't imagine anything sillier than caring whether the red half or the blue half of the Pepsi logo is supposed to be ascendant, or the fact that one or the other is "supposed" to be ascendant to make the logo "correct" in the first place - and the fact that I recognized it as the Pepsi logo still doesn't make me want to drink anything other than Coke when I desire a cola beverage.

"And because we have soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a 0-0 tie."

Beeeej
I can't imagine anything sillier than caring whether the red half or the blue half of the Pepsi logo is supposed to be ascendant, or the fact that one or the other is "supposed" to be ascendant to make the logo "correct" in the first place

I didn't think you were new here...

andyw2100
If we're going to talk about logos, this may or may not have been corrected, but at one point the Shortstop Deli ad on one side advertised sodas for 09c and on the other side for 9c. (The 09c is visible in Age's photo.)

09c or 0.09¢? Are we talking Verizon Math here?

Beeeej

Jordan 04

RichH
I still like that nobody noticed that the Pepsi logo was applied upside-down.

Kyle Rose
I'm actually rather proud of the fact that I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned it.

You both still recognized it as a Pepsi logo.

PepsiCo 2, Proud eLynah-er's 0.

One of those rare moments where I'll proudly agree with Kyle on something other than "Let's Go Red!" I can't imagine anything sillier than caring whether the red half or the blue half of the Pepsi logo is supposed to be ascendant, or the fact that one or the other is "supposed" to be ascendant to make the logo "correct" in the first place - and the fact that I recognized it as the Pepsi logo still doesn't make me want to drink anything other than Coke when I desire a cola beverage.

"And because we have soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a 0-0 tie."

It's summer on eLynah. By August this will look like an important and poignant discussion.

Beeeej

Jordan 04

RichH
I still like that nobody noticed that the Pepsi logo was applied upside-down.

Kyle Rose
I'm actually rather proud of the fact that I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't mentioned it.

You both still recognized it as a Pepsi logo.

PepsiCo 2, Proud eLynah-er's 0.

One of those rare moments where I'll proudly agree with Kyle on something other than "Let's Go Red!" I can't imagine anything sillier than caring whether the red half or the blue half of the Pepsi logo is supposed to be ascendant, or the fact that one or the other is "supposed" to be ascendant to make the logo "correct" in the first place - and the fact that I recognized it as the Pepsi logo still doesn't make me want to drink anything other than Coke when I desire a cola beverage.

"And because we have soccer highlights, the sheer pointlessness of a 0-0 tie."

And this from one of the most pedantic members of our community.

Wow, that's a lot more words, thought, and effort than I meant for anyone to spend about that. All I was going for was to make someone else smile and/or post a funny comment like Kyle did. As I said in a PM to him in response to his pride of not noticing, I'm pretty ashamed that I even noticed it at all back the fall. Someone somewhere would care a lot because they pay money to get their ads juuuust so. And the fact that it isn't makes me a smidge happier.

[gawker.com]

Sorry for the threadjack. Sheez. Some people.

RichH
And this from one of the most pedantic members of our community.

Damn straight, baby. It's May and I miss hockey.

I ran into Dave downtown last week and he expressed a desire to keep driving for games only. But, he vaguely mentioned "rules" in the midst of a "I'm not sure" section of the discussion.

He did say that it would be nice to have evenings and weekends for himself. I don't think he meant the games, but the other responsibilities.

CK

On the topic of Zamboni's, this article about the Zamboni Company was in the New York Times on May 22.

As Economy Stumbles, the Zamboni Glides On

A new Sun article on Dave Nulle's retirement.

The latest Cornell Alumni Magazine headlines an article on Dave Nulle "Frozen Asset".

Despite retirement, Lynah's 'Zamboni Dave' is still riding high...