Former Opponent News

Interesting story in the Daily Pennsylvanian speculating about the possibility of Penn restoring its hockey program now that it has spent $2.5 million renovating its on-campus rink. Personally, I can't see it happening, especially in the current climate where even Ivy schools like Brown are cutting sports.

Weird timing, that's for sure.

This may just be the latest iteration of a story that has been cyclically revived since at least 1985 when I first heard it.

Trotsky
Weird timing, that's for sure. This may just be the latest iteration of a story that has been cyclically revived since at least 1985 when I first heard it.

a) Maybe an affluent Penn / Wharton alum possibly retiring this January might spearhead the fundraising campaign. It is / was a nice rink. IIRC there was a glassed-in booth on stilts at center ice for the Class of '23 and other supporters to watch the game from a higher elevation.

b) When Penn dropped hockey, there were few D1 hockey players from NJ or Pennsylvania. That's changed. Penn/Princeton is a better hockey travel partnership than Princeton/Quinnipiac.

b) The bulk of the story seemed to be a lament that Penn lacks men's volleyball even if only 2 Ivies have it and 23 D1 schools total. Men's volleyball, fencing and gymnastics took a hit across the country in the wake of Title IX. As long as football has no women's counterpart, you have to lose at least three sports to offset all the men playing football.

c) She has something better to do that respond to the DP? Hang her out to dry for blowing them off. Hey, how come Andy Noel doesn't have a PhD? Although he seems to be doing okay without one.

Daily Pennsylvanian
Penn Athletics Director Dr. M Grace Calhoun did not respond when asked to comment on the future of these sports at the university.

Interesting bio and combination of degrees, though:
BS, Electrical Engineering, Brown '92
Masters, Excercise Science, Florida
MBA, Lehigh
PhD, higher education administration, Florida

(In fairness, my wife trained as an economist at Smith, then her advanced degrees are in art and art education. The difference between what the parents would pay for and what the spouse is happy to support.)

billhoward
(In fairness, my wife trained as an economist at Smith

Wait, I thought Smith girls married Yale boys? You been holding out on us, Bill?

Radcliff women ... Harvard men
Barnard women ... Columbia men
Vassar women ... Yale men
Wellesley women ... Harvard / MIT men
Smith women ... Yale / Amherst men
Bryn Mawr women ... Princeton / Swarthmore / Haverford men
Cornell women .... Cornell men
Holyoke women ... Dartmouth men / Holyoke women
(nobody) ... Penn men

[caution: off-season thread drift] "Smith to bed, Holyoke to wed" was the watchword of the earlier part of the 20th century. (Dorothy Parker: “If all the girls attending [the Yale prom] were laid end to end, I wouldn't be at all surprised.”) Less so by the time I showed up there.

I had three job options: the papers in Ithaca, Rochester and Springfield, Mass. My father, an Amherst grad, pointed out that if one worked in Springfield and lived 20 miles away in Northampton, one would be at the doorstep of the country's largest all-women's college, and so I and the Sun's managing editor moved there, figuring it'd be a breeze meeting well-bred women looking for something more refreshing than the usual run of Yale, Amherst and Dartmouth louts. We moved thinking whatever the Latin phrase is for "shooting fish in a barrel" and found it not quite that easy. We also lost a year mistakenly thinking the fine arts center was the student union. Eventually things improved. The magic words my wife-to-be said were, "A first date in Providence, a Cornell NCAA hockey game? That sounds fascinating." Music to any Lynah fan's ears.

billhoward
"Smith to bed, Holyoke to wed"

“Oh, Mount Holyoke, we pay thee tuition,

In the fervor of youth that’s gone wrong,

Each year it gets higher and higher,

My God, alma mater, how long?

So from barroom to bedroom we stagger,

And united in free love for all,

Our drinks are too strong, and our morals gone,

Mount Holyoke what’s happened to me?"

I thought I did very well marrying a Hartwick gal.
Loved Ms Parker's comment above.

Penn's rink is a lot nicer than it was before the renovations last summer. They redid the roof, repainted the inside and outside, and replaced the boards and refrigeration system. A lot of the money for those renovations came from the Snider foundation and Flyers alumni association. I'm glad they renovated the rink (it's the only full indoor rink anywhere near the heart of the city), but I'd be surprised if Penn fields any D1 teams there for now

Iceberg
I'd be surprised if Penn fields any D1 teams there for now

D1 teams de facto or de jure?

Mother, father, wife, self, son, sister,brother-in-law,and two nieces are all Cornell graduates. The benefits of all this outbreeding are greatly exaggerated.

billhoward

Iceberg
I'd be surprised if Penn fields any D1 teams there for now

D1 teams de facto or de jure?

De jure I think. Penn has club teams but in many ways the rink is a relic and from what I understand, the school isn't too gung ho about the place. That being said, between the Wharton MBA students, adult leagues, club teams and youth teams, there's no shortage of demand for the ice.

I found this article this article from last year that sheds some light on the possibility of D1 hockey returning to Penn.