intramural hockey gone :(

[Josh '99]

[quote Jacob '06]Reffing the sorority games was always fun. You could call offsides every 20 seconds and they wouldn't even figure it out by the end. [/quote]Ooh, boy, I know a few Cornell sorority alumni who'd be upset with this generalization.  :-}

[David Harding]

I wonder how big a specified gift would be needed to restore the program.  

Can anybody tell me what the format for intramural ice hockey was in recent years?  In my day (1968-1978) the interest was high enough and the general demand for ice time high enough that they just ran a single elimination tournament.  Half the teams only played one game.  A few teams played a bunch of games.  It wasn't a league with a fixed number of games for a fixed fee.  That model would work better if you were charging.  My fraternity's team was not good, but we had lots of enthusiasm.  So it was one and done.  My team in grad school (physics) was reasonably good, But in both cases most of play was informally arranged games on rented ice time, not intramural competition.  The ice time situation sure got better when Cass Rink opened in 1972!

Counting costs.  The Lynah site says ice rental is $175/hour.  If they haven't replaced Dave as night manager, I wonder whether the rental hours have been cut back dramatically, too.  They still advertise overnight skate sharpening.  

Again from my day, there were so many casual players in the intramurals that they provided close to full equipment for everyone.  I could be wrong, but I remember helmets, sweaters, pants, shin guards, and gloves.  That cost adds up.

[Jacob '06]

[quote David Harding]I wonder how big a specified gift would be needed to restore the program.  

Can anybody tell me what the format for intramural ice hockey was in recent years?  In my day (1968-1978) the interest was high enough and the general demand for ice time high enough that they just ran a single elimination tournament.  Half the teams only played one game.  A few teams played a bunch of games.  It wasn't a league with a fixed number of games for a fixed fee.  That model would work better if you were charging.  My fraternity's team was not good, but we had lots of enthusiasm.  So it was one and done.  My team in grad school (physics) was reasonably good, But in both cases most of play was informally arranged games on rented ice time, not intramural competition.  The ice time situation sure got better when Cass Rink opened in 1972!

Counting costs.  The Lynah site says ice rental is $175/hour.  If they haven't replaced Dave as night manager, I wonder whether the rental hours have been cut back dramatically, too.  They still advertise overnight skate sharpening.  

Again from my day, there were so many casual players in the intramurals that they provided close to full equipment for everyone.  I could be wrong, but I remember helmets, sweaters, pants, shin guards, and gloves.  That cost adds up.[/quote]

At least when I was there (02-06) the format was a set number of games and then I believe a playoff at the end of the season. They did give out full equipment for those players that wanted it until they ran out. This equipment is all pretty much surplus equipment or old equipment from the hockey team, and the worst job as a ref was working in the equipment room and dealing with that stench. I find it pretty believable that hockey was by far the most expensive IM sport per game b/c they couldn't run games simultaneously and they generally had scorekeeper, 2 or 3 refs, equipment room person, and supervisor working each game. All of those people got paid, and then there is the issue with paying for the ice time and the zamboni.

[billhoward]

Sad news. I loved playing intramurals and playing pickup hockey both at Lynah and, since it was so hard to get ice time at Lynah, at Cass Park. I still cannot believe my girlfriend came out to watch me play at 1 a.m. on a weekday in February. Even when we were terrible, there was those Walter Mitty moments when someone slipped and, in falling, slapped at the ice with the stick for balance, the puck was just ahead of the stick, and the puck wobbled in for a goal. Priceless.

Based on our playing crappy intramural and pickup hockey (us, not intramurals), one of my fraternity brothers went on to play crappy adult hockey and coach youth hockey in the Binghamton area for a couple decades. It was the combination of seeing Cornell's varsity play AND personal participation that led him down the path of teaching hundreds of grade schoolers how to play less crappy hockey than we did.

Speaking of priceless, $175 an hour seems pretty cheap for ice time, at least in the world outside Ithca. How late is Lynah open now and how hard is it to get ice time? The barebones Lynah site doesn't list hours. I recall that Lynah had slots as late as 1 a.m.-2 a.m.

Has anyone considered paying an intramurals hockey surcharge to support it? If the true cost including ice time, gear, and referees is $250 an hour, if particpants paid half that amount and Cornell the other half? Or is the prevailing wisdom that $50,000 is high enough and everything ought to be included? Maybe student volunteers could help Cornell administer to cut the administrative overhead.