Past player's number

[RedAR]

Thanks all for your responses.  Also, how DO we find our goalies?  Baltimore, Australia, Texas?

[jkahn]

I think Sheain (the one from Baltimore) was a lacrosse goalie, and served as an emergency third stringer.  I did I quick internet search and found a Trey Sheain from the same high school who is now a freshman lacrosse goalie at North Carolina.

[Chris 02]

I can't see how being a lacrosse goalie translates into being a hockey goalie.  Maybe it's just some affinity for getting your body in between the goal and the fast moving object.  Certainly lacrosse goalie sticks are not like hockey sticks.  Nor can I imagine the lacrosse guys could skate too well either, unless of course they played hockey before.

[Keith K \'93]

Well, a locrosse goalie is probably a better emergency goalie than the average student pulled off of the Ag Quad.  Esp. in the '70s when I suspect there were fewer hockey players in the general student population so fewer Nate Hicks'.

[Al DeFlorio]

Keith K '93 wrote:

Well, a lacrosse goalie is probably a better emergency goalie than the average student pulled off of the Ag Quad.

And he's accustomed to having very hard rubber objects coming at him at very high speeds.  Seems to me Cropper's back-up in the perfect 1970 season was a mighty fine lacrosse goalie.

[Hillel J. Hoffmann \'85]

There's sortuva tradition of Cornell lacrosse and hockey goalies doing some flip-flopping between the 6x6 and 6x4 cages.

Al has already referred to the most famous example: Bob Rule '71, a CU hockey back-up goalie who was one of the greatest college lacrosse goalies of all-time. Another less well-known crossover is Justin Cynar '02, a great lax goalie who also was an excellent hockey goalie at the scholastic level long before he ever picked up a lacrosse stick.

Many other Cornell players past and present grew up doing the hockey-lax double--although not the goalie thang. I think it's more common than people realize, for a lot of different cultural/seasonal/skill-set reasons. Joe Nieuwendyk's lax prowess has been discussed before on this site (he was such a good indoor lacrosse player that there's an award named after him in one of Ontario's Junior lax leagues). Matt Moulson supposedly is a great box player too. On the other side, freshman Mitch Belisle from Maryland--a promising freshman middie on the Cornell lacrosse team this year--was one of the best hockey players in a region that has begun to produce A+ hockey talent. (Don't laugh: Jeff Halpern was just the first in what's gonna be a long line of MD/DC/VA talent showing up on NHL rosters ... they've already infiltrated D-I hockey lineups.)

[Al DeFlorio]

Hillel J. Hoffmann '85 wrote:

Many other Cornell players past and present grew up doing the hockey-lax double--although not the goalie thang.

Fans would yell "slap shot" at Harry Orr when he laxed for Ned on Lower Alumni Field (sigh) in 1966.  I recall Harry scoring on a sort-of underhanded shot that bounced low along the ground and managed to sneak past a screened goalie.

[jkahn]

In Rule's case, Cornell just didn't have anyone to back up Cropper in the '69-'70 season.  So, Ned basically convinced Bob Rule, a lacrosse goalie from Manhasset, to join the team and worked to make him the backup goalie.  Fortunately, Cropper got through the season without injury.  The one game I remember Rule playing in was the last regular season game at Princeton.  Cropper started but Rule replaced him when the score was 7-1 or 9-1.  After Princeton scored three straight goals, Ned put Cropper back in.  Perhaps Rule may have also played another third period earlier in the season with a little more success.

[Al DeFlorio]

Jeff Kahn '70 wrote:

The one game I remember Rule playing in was the last regular season game at Princeton.  Cropper started but Rule replaced him when the score was 7-1 or 9-1.  After Princeton scored three straight goals, Ned put Cropper back in.  Perhaps Rule may have also played another third period earlier in the season with a little more success.

Greg's stats show Rule playing three games for a total of 37 minutes, with three goals-against and eleven saves.

Trivia factoid also from Greg's stats:  In 1967-8, Dryden's back-up, George Swan, had a 1.00 GAA and .946 save percentage in 120 minutes played--both figures better than Ken's!

[jkahn]

Thanks Al.  I was pretty sure I had seen Rule play at Lynah.  He probably had one third period, one short stint when he came in only after Cropper lost a shutout late in the game, and the aforementioned game at Princeton - with 2 of the 3 being perfect (albeit short) performances.  That puts a more positive spin on it than my previous post, but most importantly, he was there if we ever needed him and, I'm sure, was very valuable to have in practice as well.

[peter shier \'78]

don't think the previously mentioned goalie, Baltimore Buzzy Shaen was a lacrosse goalie as well??? Seem to recall him being particulary good at C-House beer drinking though....he was a fairly portly guy who covered a lot of net...we still talk about him every summer at the reunion, falling under the ...."wonder whatever happened to...?" category....good guy.

Keith K...will get around to it when i can dig a few old programs up
CUlater...you flatter me....thnx

pete