sun article 03/05/02

[www.cornelldailysun.com]

"...Lynah Rink P.A. legend Arthur Mintz '71..."

I'm sorry, in whose mind, is Art Mintz a legend? Is there anyone outside of a limited circle of Cornell hockey and football fans who even know who he is? Are there people from other schools coming to Lynah and saying "boy, I really like that P.A. announcer! And isn't he the same guy telling us who recorded a tackle at the Cornell football games?"

I think this is a case of the children at the Sun (1) trying to create a buzz in their minds (and the minds of others), that there is something special about the PA announcer, like at some college basketball programs, to make the hockey program even bigger and (2) being intimidated by Art's demeanor and knowledge about Big Red athletics (although there were plenty of others who had a much bigger connection to, and knowledge of, the athletic program in my day, like Bill Furst, for example).

Best quote in the article: "We don't have any banners," said senior defenseman Brian McMeekin. "And that's what it comes down to."

Best quote in the article: "We don't have any banners," said senior defenseman Brian McMeekin. "And that's what it comes down to."

It's also the least accurate. Though it's probably the lowest priority banner we raise, we've already secured the Ivy Champs banner for the season.

Beeeej

I would also note the comment:

"Cornell's men's hockey program may have peaked in the 1970s, when it won two national titles"

Maybe they are thinking about the NY Knicks?


Here is another article that has some interesting notes:

[www.ivyleaguesports.com]

I like Dartmouth referred to as "The Big Greed"...

and I had no idea that the women's championship is the

"2002 ECAC JPMorganChase Hockey Championship"

I think it is very unique that the women's championship has a title sponser, but the men don't...at least to my knowledge.

Avaya, isn't it?

Edit: Well, "Presented by Avaya" anyway...

ok. maybe he's not a legend. still, Judy and I have noted on several occasions how much the majority of announcers in other ECAC rinks suck in comparison. Mintz is actually a real find. I have a sneaking suspicion that Lynah would be lacking without him. Maybe it's just me but I know that I get a huge smile on my face during the first home game of the year immediately upon hearing that familiar voice say those commencing words, "Good Evening Hockey Fans..." His tone, his love of the game, it all shows up in his announcing (not to mention that fact that he is audible and ennunciates) and from my perspective he has become part of the Lynah experience.

Just my $0.02

The mere fact that (I believe) only two people have been the regular PA announcer for Cornell men's hockey since Lynah opened makes the job special. Individuals can be as indifferent as they like to this particular part of Lynah tradition, but Arthur's presence seems to be important enough to the Faithful that they have been known to boo mercilessly when someone lesser fills in.

Beeeej

Hey Beeeej-

I know you have done lacrosse games for Cornell. Were you the poor soul that got booed at Lynah?

Nope, that booing incident was seven or eight years ago. The one time I announced men's hockey was a Red/White, and the crowd was quite forgiving - a tall order, since nobody had reminded me that the periods and penalties are different lengths in an intrasquad scrimmage.

I did get to PA announce that incredible lax win over Syracuse two years ago, though. I nearly knocked over all the equipment in there leaping around.

Beeeej

"Legend" means different things to different people, but for those of us for whom Cornell games are the main contact with hockey, Arthur sets the standard by which other announcers get judged. He's consistently clear, correct, and professional. He treats his role as a chance to be part of a QUALITY hockey program and it shows.

Thanks, Arthur, for a job very well done!

Ken '71

In the minds of a lot of people who have followed Cornell hockey for a while, Arthur Mintz is a mainstay. Players graduate, coaches leave and AD's and school Presidents change, but Arthur has been with Cornell hockey longer than I have, and I respect his dedication immensely. (Not to mention that it is rather unsporting of you to pick on a Sun reporter by dissing ACM, who did nothing to deserve it.) In our little clique, Arthur is a living legend. Long may he announce.

Anyway, who else would I turn to if I needed to know how much time was left in the period?

Right on, Ken.

Compared with the cheerleading bozos at most other rinks, Arthur is a real class act, and, in my opinion, adds a lot to the hockey program.

i am puzzled by the next to last paragraph in the article... it reads:

/I "As easy as it is to buy into statistics, Cornell doesn't yet seem satisfied. And apparently, the Red won't be satisfied until it can tote some hardware back to Ithaca." /I

i thought we had won the cleary cup...

That's software.

Beeeej

I agree with Melissa, Jeff, Charles, Al, and Ken. Since my freshman year, I've appreciated how Arthur has contribued to make the hockey-watching experience at Lynah Rink special. His professionalism is unusual for college sports. Just listen to a game at Ohio State, or Colgate, to see what we could have been subjected to at every home game.

ok. kinda on and kinda off topic but since we were talking about rink announcers and how cornell has lucked out i figured i'd bring to the forefront once again how lucky we are to have Grady announcing on the radio broadcasts.

after the union game this past week-end Judy and I were way too curious to wait until we reached my place (~15 min from Achilles ...spelling anyone?) to find out the standings so we tuned into the end of the RPI game. I couldn't believe the difference in the broadcasts. without getting too negative and dissing the RPI broadcasters (one of which is Jason Moy) I found myself thinkig over and over again, "Thank God for Grady!"

I second that. However, by all means, feel free to dis Jason Moy to your heart's content.

We are very lucky to have class professionals like Arthur and Grady/Pete. Nothing is worse than the hacks who do radio for most ECAC schools (prime example, St. Lawrence), or the "let's get ready to rummmmmmmmble" morons who do the PA around the league (prime example, Colgate).

One of Arthur's strong points that should not be forgotten is his appropriate sense of humor. While some may pander to their home crowds with false enthusiasm and more than a smidgen of "homerism," Arthur judiciously inserts emotion. My favorite- and I'm not sure of the game (it may have been the Union game 3 years ago that ended with a goalie fight)- "We've got ourselves a whole mess of penalties!"

And I'm not just saying that because I think he's reading this.

How long has Arthur been the PA announcer?

yeah. definitely agree. actually heard somthing funny from the RPI announcer this past week-end tho maybe no one else was as amused as me. cook got a penality for hooking and the announcer in a fun, rhyming way said, "cook..... on a hook". ok. doesn't sound funny at all when i read it but it really made me laugh for some weird reason.

My favorite Arthurism was the only time I ever heard him even remotely lose his cool. It was just after Harvard had scored on a delay penalty when some moron threw additional fish on the ice, in the late 80's. We got yet *another* warning, and Arthur announced it in his perfectly clipped tones, "For those of you who did not hear the first warning, or were incapable of understanding it,...". It *definitely* got everybody's attention, and even the students behaved like semi-sentient beings for the remainder of the game.

If I'm not mistaken, Arthur became PA announcer for the 84-85 season.

after the union game this past week-end Judy and I were way too curious to wait until we reached my place (~15 min from Achilles ...spelling anyone?) to find out the standings so we tuned into the end of the RPI game. I couldn't believe the difference in the broadcasts. without getting too negative and dissing the RPI broadcasters (one of which is Jason Moy) I found myself thinkig over and over again, "Thank God for Grady!"

Speaking of radio announcers, Grady is really good when it comes to them. I had the unique benefit of listening to 3 different announcers this weekend. First, Friday night following the CU-RIP game (and RIP has changed their broadcasters recently...they're not nearly as good as they used to be).

On Saturday night, I was driving back to Ithaca with friends and listening to the CU-Onion broadcast, and those guys definitely should have been more focused on the game especially since their team was on the playoff bubble. The Onion radio was kinda low powered, so by the time I got down to about Oneota, I was flipping stations around trying to get Ithaca, but I stumbled on the 'Gate broadcast. They have a really high-powered station. It was good to be able to hear that one because those guys were at the RIP game that lasted until late so we found out the playoff seedings. But they too, were not really focused on the game and talking about coffee and other random stuff.

Grady is where it's at!

I've never felt strongly about Grady one way or the other but he certainly pales to the truly legendary Roy Ives. Can I get a second on that one?

Jesus, CULater, are you going to piss on Dryden also?

Grady rules!

Whether or not he measures up to (the, yes, legendary) Roy Ives doesn't interest me in the least. I feel fortunate to have him as our announcer. The testimonials above, regarding the general crapulence amongst his ECAC "peers", should only enhance our thankfulness!

We could just as easily say, "Schafer's pretty good, but he's no Harkness", but why on earth would we want to??

(BTW, I see the author of the article has some inside knowledge on one of Vermont's goals (vs. Cornell) being taken away from them... Nice research...)

the eternal pessimist. . . CUlater '89.

zg88, I'm with you. . .Grady RULES!!!

Here goes.

After being subjected to RIPs announcing antics for years there are two unbelievable traditions at that school's WRIP that BEAR repeating.

Number one is that the post game show is so damn short that it is always over before I get to my car. They have some rap or hip-hop show that comes on after the game and I refer to it as their post game offering.

And numero B is that the three stars of the game are always RIP players. There was apparently some lame historical significance to this as years ago the points were counted for the season and some award was given to the player with the most season long accumulation (free hot dogs at Famous Lunch?) ....but that is no more. Yet the three stars remain as mentioned from one team.

Earlier this year one of the color announcers gave stars to the opposition. He was allowed to finish but admonished that WRIP doesn't do it that way. And since I have publicly questioned the practice on the USCHO forum I am sure it will live as long as I do.

I suspect that the Sun author, knowingly or unknowingly, was referencing an earlier article on the Harvard game written by an outside source (USCHO, maybe?) that refers to Arthur Mintz as "legendary." It's not just Cornell fans, although he's obviously pretty legendary among rabid fans of the Big Red, too.

Yessss,

Pete doesn't get the kudos he deserves. It is wonderful to have the eyes of a player giving us his side of the game.

In the words of my two-year old, "Are you kiddin'?!!"

Even jokingly you shouldn't be equating Grady with Dryden.

Not a pessimist, Ben '03, but someone who thinks certain things in the older days have either been forgotten or underappreciated (and someone who is willing to question the apparent blind rabidness for any and all things associated with the Cornell hockey program that is so prevalent on this board).

so here i am learning about how hep B is ruling the world and hepatocellular carcinoma is following in its footsteps, but then I come here and realize that being cynical seems to be taking over the minds of so many people. can't anyone take what they have and enjoy it without being critical of every damn thing? of course i get that way too and i dont think anything is sacred, but maybe people should start thinking about what things would be like without someone like Arthur (with someone worse) instead of hoping he gets replaced by someone before my time. i wonder what would happen if the daily sun just didnt exist anymore, too. guess there would be no more complaining about the quality of the writing and use of language and such. that might be nice.
tried coming up with a statement to summarize what i was talking about but that didnt happen! oh well. let us try to keep things in perspective when we are critical and when we praise.
anyway, LGR!

[rant] I am goddamn sick of people telling me (even when it isn't just directed at me) to calm down. This is a discussion board. We sometimes talk about things that are more controversial than "Woohoo we won again" (though that is always nice). When we do, because we are opinionated people, there is usually disagreement. When we disagree, we say so. Ad nauseum, sometimes (most of the time.) I happen to believe it is mostly for the better.

But very rarely does it turn personal, and very rarely is the discussion inappropriate. I hate being told, essentially, to care less about things I care about. I care about "privacy" becoming a stalking horse for concealing information. I care about gratuitous takedowns of good people associated with Cornell hockey that, aside from being regular readers of the forum, are damn good at their jobs. And I care about being able to express my opinions without some well-meaning mediator asking me to tone it down. Because I care about these things, I write about them. Too much, perhaps - but its cheaper than anger management therapy.

Forgive me if I think a forum with nothing but back-slapping "rah rah go team" would be boring. What makes this forum worth reading is the differing opinions of people who care. (And the volumes of knowledge to be mined for road trip assistance.) Skip the posts when you see my name if all you want is rainbows and puppy dogs. I promise not to care.[/rant]

For heaven's sake Apple, calm down! )

Sorry, that was way too easy, so of course I just had to do it.

Marty,

I'm an RPI alum, and I agree with you that awarding three stars after each game only to RPI players is dumb, but I enjoy hearing the announcers trying to come up with three players that performed well in the clunkers that RPI manages to have each year. However. I don't think that Cornell fans should complain when other schools keep traditions that have long outlived their relevance.

As to the short postgame show, I am happy that Jayson/Kurt et al. were able to keep RPI hockey on the air at all this year considering that over the summer the station management was intending to pull the plug on the boardcasts because no students stepped forward to do them. Students are apparently interested in broadcasting all sorts of obscure music genres, but not hockey games.

Thanks for the background, ursa. I never would have guessed that the students could be so apathetic. Many people at most schools would jump at the chance to do play by play or color.

Ahhh, the passion of youth.

(inserting teeth now) I remember the good old days when I used to get me self all fierd up about them high-faloootin' "causes" that seemed so danged important once-upon-a-time...

I guess I just have learned to live and let live...realizing that the world will probably not go to hell before I do.

PS: Age, how do i change my cock-eyed optimist vote to negative in the "Cant we all just get along" poll?

As I often do, I agree with BRA, except in one respect. If you were referring to my comments when you wrote about "gratuitous takedowns", then I think you read too much into them (unless I'm misremembering what I wrote). I've never written, nor believed, that Art doesn't do a fine job, on both hockey and football. What I questioned was whether he is considered a "legend". Whether someone is a legend typically has little to do with the quality of their work (although good work is often a prerequisite to becoming a legend); it has more to do with reputation and publicity outside of the tight-knit world in which the person operates. My experience has been that very few people know who Art Mintz is and that other than some fans who get a nostalgic feeling from hearing him announce, few people have said to me "boy, that Lynah PA (whoever he might be) is really good" (I have, BTW, had players and coaches and fans from other schools who have visited Lynah tell me "Boy, that Cornell pep band is really good" and "Boy, that Lynah crowd is really tough to play in front of". So, I might agree that the pep band and the Faithful are legendary among college hockey fans.

For the record, I note Tom Lento's posts about some "outside source" referring to Art as a legend, but without seeing the article or knowing who wrote it, I can't comment, other than to say that the mere fact that someone works some place for a long time does not make him or her legendary, IMO.

> cock-eyed optimist

Sounds like a UVM reference.

Sorry.

Some see optimism as the vacant drivel of the great unwashed (of which we have some). Some see cynicism as the detritus of the sadly sophomoric pseudo-intellectual (of which we have MANY). And *everybody* constructs the world so that, purely accidentally of course, the perfect balance of criticism and romanticism just happens to be... our own.

This just in: we're all full of shit. The forum is big enough for everybody's ego (which is pretty impressive), and we can all agree that it's worth the keystrokes to yap our mindless yap about Cornell hockey, in whatever style we like. That should be the only litmus test for posting to the board.

AWWW GOD! did you have to write "litmus test"?

bad memories of freshman chemistry flooding back. thanks Greg!

I was thinking Supreme Court, actually.

CUlater '89 - I am by no means trying to discount anything that may have been "been forgotten or under appreciated," I can only say I have access to what is in the here now. If I don't know about it. . .there's good reason for that (I'm younger than you and I wasn't around). I believe one of the main functions of this forum is to share information (I would like to hear some of your stories sometime). . .but please, don't bash what we've got now in favor of what you had. I think that's only fair.

...but please, don't bash what we've got now in favor of what you had. I think that's only fair.

Oh come on! That's part of the fun of being older. If things change in ways that I don't like I'm going to complain about it. You should feel free to disagree what someone else describes as being the "right way" and to say so. As long as we don't get really nasty about it there isn't really a problem.

Age: I can edit this message using the edit link under the next message (posetd by CULater). The edit link shouldn't be there to begin with. Something's not quite right... (At least I can't edit *his* post).

I don't recall bashing anyone who is there now (in fact I think I said that I didn't feel strongly about Grady's work one way or the other), but I noted that Roy Ives was, IMO, superior to Grady. Is that any different than saying that Dan Lodboa was superior to Doug Murray? Or Dick Schaap was better than John Saunders as the host of ESPN's Sports Reporters?