Saluting the crowd

When did the organized salute take hold? My earliest recollection is the '96 NCAA East Regionals when Cornell lost a heartbreaker (damn that crossbar!) yet nonetheless gathered in the Cornell corner of Pepsi Arena and saluted the Cornell contingent. That was really poignant which is why I remember it, but before that I just can't recall being conscious of the salute (my memory is horribly unreliable). And when Cornell did start doing it -whenever that was- was it a widespread practice (it seems that more teams do it now)?

I believe it started during the 1995-96 season with Schafer's arrival, though I can't say exactly which game.

Beeeej

I kinda remember that they would do it after each home win through the 95-96 season and it continued into the playoffs. I also remember them saluting after the NCAA loss that year as well in the corner before they got off the ice.

I remember that they used to wait until every player on the other team was off the ice before they raised their sticks.

J.P.

They didn't just do it after wins, they also did it - though perhaps a bit less enthusiastically - after losses. They still do.

Beeeej

> I believe it started during the 1995-96 season with Schafer's arrival, though I can't say exactly which game.

The very first home game of the season (a 4-1 win over Brown). They may have started at the exhibition game -- I didn't see it.

I'm not sure to what extent the various Cornell teams influence each other, tradition-wise -- probably not much. In any case, if it's true that the hockey version of the post-game salute really only started as recently as '95-'96, then the icers' tradition is definitely predated by the laxers.

The lacrosse team saluted the Cornell section of the crowd at Rutgers after the Big Red lost a one-goal heartbreaker to Johns Hopkins in the 1987 national championship game (their only defeat that year) to end what was truly a magical season (they had finished 7-6 the year before). I'll never forget that. (I'm sure this'll be one of those stories I re-tell endlessly as senility begins to creep into my brain... oh... heh-heh... nevermind...)

I guess all this says is that such displays of respect for their fans by Cornell athletes were around at least as far back as 15 years ago.

There's a nice article about the Lynah Faithful in today's Ithaca Journal. Check it out at: [theithacajournal.com]

It was very well written!!!

But now comes the provisional part. True fans get up not just for the big rival, but for all games. Princeton and Yale, the two teams that skate into Lynah this weekend, should feel close to the same wrath as did the Crimson. Without the fish or foul language, of course.

Yes, even a dead Cornell hockey crowd is the most rabid sports crowd one will find in Ithaca. But it is not the best crowd in Ithaca that is the claim.

It is being one of the best hockey crowds in the nation that the Lynah Faithful say they are. And to earn that moniker requires a season's worth of effort.

Coincidentally, I was just looking at my photo of the stick salute after the streak-breaking win over Harvard that same weekend in 1995.

Actually, that article should be taken as a challenge by the current students.

It always arrived late. It cheered only when prompted by the band or a cowbell. Similar in a lot of ways to a pro basketball crowd that is encouraged by an enormous scoreboard to "Make Some Noise!!!"

It does, for fifteen seconds, then sits down again.

Being there for the whole game and cheering without prompting (although I'd argue that the band and the cowbell are part of the crowd, unlike exploding scoreboards and piped in Jock Jams) have traditionally been points of pride and distinction for the Lynah Faithful, along with never booing our own players.

I agree that the organized stick salute at the end of the game was first seen in Schafer's first season as coach. But I think members of the team may have spontaneously saluted the fans after big games even before that.

And they still wait until all of the opposing players have left the ice to give the salute -- which is why it was so annoying when, after the loss to Dartmouth, one of their players decided he just HAD to chat with the ref (who was hanging out by the scorers table) after all his teammates had gone to the locker room. Fortunately, the ref noticed that our whole team was waiting and gestured the guy toward the door.

As I recall, during Schafer's first year the whole team also used to skate in circles around our defensive zone as our starters were announced prior to road games. This practice has been discontinued, but it seems comparable to the Patriots' preference for being announced as a team prior to the Super Bowl. And the guys who won the ECAC tournament in '96 sure knew how to work together as a team!

Importance of fans to the team is acknowledged in the one of the Sun articles today....as if anyone reading this doubted that! (I mean, why else would they salute?). The whole USCHO issue of denfending ourselves and isolating ourselves from the actions of a few (last week-end) was also written about thoroughly. Hopefully it'll get the point across! It should be re-published next year right before the home Harvard game.

Do they still have Freshman Seminars? Maybe we could include Ethical Lynah Conduct in the Philosophy department. Gotta make more sense than Critique of Pure Reason.