No way...

You must be joking.....we had a hockey player named Murray Death?!

[hockeydb.com]

That has to be the greatest hockey name I've ever heard.
(and there was a kid who played high school hockey back home whose last name was Thrasher.....he's a close second to Death).

Any other ironically appropriate hockey names you've heard of?

EDIT: looks like hockeydb.com has incomplete stats for that 1966-1967 year.



Post Edited (03-12-03 14:23)

I had a faculty brat friend who said that at least by the time he had kids in elementary school the family was pronouncing it "Deeth," for their benefit.

Not sure if Murray's still there, but for a long time he worked at Cornell--I think for a time doing development work for the engineering school. Seems to me at some point he changed the spelling of his name to Deathe, to encourage the proper pronunciation.

Good player, and an important cog on that championship team. Nice guy, too.

Why did he only play that one year? Or are the stats for his other years just not available?

Well... FWIW... the "Death sisters" (twins?) (both Ithaca High School '84) pronounced their name "Deeth" (spelled "Death" throughout junior/senior high school. I'm not sure if they are related to Murray, but they both(?) played hockey locally (in Ithaca) during their school years.

Of course, if he were their father, then -- time-line-wise -- Murray would've had to have been a daddy (or, at the very least, a daddy-to-be) during his Cornell hockey days (unless the girls had skipped a coupla grades... or...), so... ummm...??



Post Edited (03-12-03 15:18)

My dad ('69) is pretty good friends with Murray. He still works for the college of engineering. Had a few beers with him after the Harvard game a couple of years back--real nice guy. Doesn't like the 'death' pronunciation, either... How cool would it be to be introduced to people as Mr. Death???

Murray played three years and scored 95 points. Graduated 1967. Now, according to cornell.edu, he's doing major gifts in development.

If you want to see a picture of him from his playing days, there is one at the Chapter House. If the Chapter House is still around and they still have old Cornellalia on the walls.

Yep. Still there (both the Chapter House and the photo).

Murray was a colleague of mine in Engineering and later in Development. He was an associate dean for alumni affairs and development, succeeding Mary Berens when she became the director of alumni affairs for the university. Later, Murray went to 55 Brown Road and has been with the university development office since. Don't think he has retired yet...

I was at the "installation" of that imfamous picture of Murray at the Chapter House. I seem to recall that his friends and colleagues put it up there as a joke on the occasion of his promotion in Engineering. Early 90s, I want to say. It might have gone up to replace an older photo.

Indeed, he changed the spelling of his last name to Deathe (but still pronounced DEETH, of course). Nice guy, for sure...

Murray centered the 2nd line for our first National championship team.

Murray's a long time golf partner in Ithaca. He's still in town. Over the years he coached girls hockey (The Shooting Stars), refereed, and was, I believe, for a time, the ECAC rep who would submit a review of the quality of the officiating after each men's home game. ack here to work at the Engineering College been in Ithaca. Murray is one terrific guy. You can find him at all the games.

Murray Death(e) was in Ned's first recruiting class, which utterly transformed Cornell hockey from a struggling wannabe hopeful of stealing an occasional game from an established opponent to the powerhouse of the nation.

The best way to see what this class did is to go to Greg's site (http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/tbrw.html ), click on the "Players" box, then click the "By Season" link under "Exhaustive Scoring," and look at how the class of 1967 led the scoring list in 1965 as sophomores and again in 1966 as juniors. The addition of the great class of 1969 (Dryden, Cornell, Tufford, Pattison, McGuinn, etc.) as sophomores in 1967 filled out that team to NCAA championship level.



Post Edited (03-12-03 20:09)

Yup, see him at the games all the time. Even way back then it was pronounced deeth, and I don't remember anyone even joking about it. Al is absolutely right about that class ('67). Sometimes in their freshman year there were as many people at the frosh game as the varsity. You really knew something good was happenning then.

I can understand that an adult with children would want to avoid a lot of references to death. I am shocked, however, that a teenager playing a game as rough as hockey wouldn't embrace the mispronunciation of his name. (Though I guess Miroslav Satan wasn't encouraging hellish associations either.)

Which reminds me....ever noticed how evil Miroslav Satan actually looks? Scary!

[sports.espn.go.com]

But Mike Ricci still gets the "Ugliest Dude in Hockey" award. No contest.

And somebody at ESPN was having fun with the Satan link. His player profile number is 666.

The paren within the URL above makes it non-functional. Here is a direct link to the By Season frameset:

[www.spiritone.com]

Thanks for catching that, Greg. It's fixed above, I think.

[Q]Al is absolutely right about that class ('67). Sometimes in their freshman year there were as many people at the frosh game as the varsity. You really knew something good was happenning then.[/Q]

Wasn't that the year that the frosh won the preseason frosh-varsity game?

I also have had the privilege of working with Murray in development, and he is a genial, professional, and absolutely hysterical guy. I consider him a friend and a mentor, and he was my co-pilot when I went to solicit my first $1 million gift for Cornell (which we slam-dunked, by the way).

After playing, I think Murray reffed ECAC games for a while as well.

Beeeej



Post Edited (03-12-03 23:03)

I don't remember. Al, can you help?

Beeeej:
When you have a law degree under your belt, we may yet see a planned giving development officer out of you That is a great story about you and Murray going out on a solicitation call.

So is it true that the first $1 Million is the hardest?

I don't remember either, Jim, but it wouldn't surprise me.

The 1963-4 team scored 77 goals and had a total of 183 points for the season. The following year, the sophomore class alone scored 113 goals and had 284 points. Ned brought with him from RPI a goalie (Al McNally) and a forward (Bob Leaf? Help!), both of whom would have been ineligible in 1963-4. He may have done some kind of goalie rotation in the freshmen-varsity game with McKibbon, McNally, and Quarrie (the last a highly-regarded recruit who had the misfortune of seeing Ken Dryden arrive just in time to bench him for his senior year).

Re the original post and great hockey names: I always liked the hockey name "Beukeboom" (sp?). THAT sounded like a hockey name.

And as for great Cornell names, there never has been one so much fun to yell after a goal as "Sancimino!"

I think "Shields" is a pretty good name for a goalie, but that got me wondering whether there were any goalies out there with the last name "Wall". According to HockeyDB there were two of them in the WHL. Must not have been real Walls, though, as they each played 3 or 4 games (though HockeyDB does note that stats may be incomplete for goalies).

As far as names that stand out in the ECAC, Stonehouse wasn't bad (as a name), Capouch really was (how do you say that?). There's always "We want Boo-yah" when it comes to refs.

My brother and I did attempt a cheer about a Princeton player (#9) a couple of years back: "Hey Prime, nine is not a Prime number." Pity we didn't coordinate better... oh well.

Weber State had a goalie a few years back named Sam Jackson. His nickname was, of course, Stonewall.

[slack.net]

I have done $250,000 to $500,000, but have not successfully asked and closed a $1M gift yet. My day will come....

Tom
formerly Cornell development & Harvard development
now in sunny CA...

Somebody in Section A yelled something similar to Prime from Princeton earlier this year at Lynah. I found it very funny. But then again, I'm a dork....

Minor Cornell connection above - Jeff Beukeboom is Joe N.'s cousin.

Avash '05 wrote:

Somebody in Section A yelled something similar to Prime from Princeton earlier this year at Lynah. I found it very funny. But then again, I'm a dork....

That would be me
Thank you for appreciating!

-Mike (04)

No problem...it was very funny....

hey are you the guy with the signs (red jersey/glasses) on the aisle there? Because if you are, I sit two rows in front of you (wearing a home jersey) and often ask before the game what the sign says.

If only Phorum 5 with mailboxes and messaging were done

Speaking of Joe, I was looking forward to seeing him play against the Bruins tonight but he's a healthy scratch. Anyone know what's up? Giving him a rest? A message?

he's "ill."

Yeah, yeah,....

How's that Phorum 5 thing coming anyway?

Avash '05 wrote:

hey are you the guy with the signs (red jersey/glasses) on the aisle there? Because if you are, I sit two rows in front of you (wearing a home jersey) and often ask before the game what the sign says.

haha yeah that's me...didn;t know i had achieved any notoriety

-mike

Yep, Avash. Stomach virus, according to Pat Burns in today's NYT. Doesn't sound "healthy" to me.

Joe's to be honored for his 1000th point before Sunday's Devils-Rangers game.

WBZ 1030 reported it as the flu.