The Sad Thread: Worst Losses in Cornell History

[billhoward]

A couple of games that aren't exactly "losses", but which rank among the most painful games ever:

12/13/72 9-0 beating at the hands of BU at Lynah (that later was awarded to Cornell by forfeit for BU's use of an ineligible player, but which Cornell still considers a loss)
1/4/85 10-10 tie vs. McGill in Montreal; while not a loss, probably one of the ugliest games in Cornell history

That was a horrible calendar year:
* Winter-spring 1972 the end of the seemingly forever (63 games) unbeaten streak at home, to Clarkson.
* Then March 1972 losing the NCAA championship to a BU team we had beaten in the regular season. Nobody knew it would be the last trip to an NCAA hockey title game to date.
* And fall 1972 that 9-0 loss at Lynah to BU.

The following spring was the most disheartening loss, any sport: Being up 5-2 vs. Wisconsin in the NCAA semis and losing 6-5 in OT. Cornell-Syracuse lacrosse 2009 probably tied or surpassed the heatbreak level since that was a title game.

All this makes me think: When it comes to chokes - sorry, to losing close games in huge contests - do we have more games where we were favored (or were ahead) and lost, or where the other team was the one that folded its tents. The 1987 and 1988 (?) lax teams were largely unregarded and made the title games ... Viginia was a favorite in the NCAA semis in 2009 ... probably the basketball team's first two wins in the NCAAs in 2009 were upsets at least to the seeding committee.

[billhoward]

You were there, too, in 1972? Yes, the Cornell band rocked the joint. On the ice, this was the rubber match in the CU-BU season: a 3-2 RS win for us at Lynah, the ECAC title loss in the Garden the previous week, and then this game. We didn't just fall behind, we got dominated, eventually losing 4-0. The combination of this loss and the heartbreaker OT loss to Wisconsin the following spring in the NCAA semis soured some fans on the then-young, new coach, Dick Bertrand, and that can't-win-the-big-game aura hung over him, for better or worse, until he moved on.

There are many what-ifs and one of the biggest ones is: What if a career counselor or Myers-Briggs guru told Ned in spring 1970 that he was in no way suited to be a pro hockey coach and if someone had endowed the Cornell coaching position that year so the money was really good, if the then-48-year-old Harkness could have been our Pete Caril and coached until the mid 1980s.

[Al DeFlorio]

BU was 12-0; Cornell 11-0.  Ranked #1 and #2, respectively, in the country at game time.  BU was the established power; Cornell, the upstart.

I have heard that this was the game when "Screw BU" started.  Is that true or just retconned apocraphra?

Though it must have started sometime...

It's funny, I had always thought of that game being at MSG as part of the ECAC Holiday Tournament, but it was at Boston Garden (or perhaps Matthews Arena) in the Boston Tourney.

I think "Screw BU" started at the NCAAs in 1972.  We'd lost to BU 4-1 in the ECAC championship game in Boston, enduring their damn jingle many-a-time.  Then we came back to Boston Garden for the nationals.  BU had this "pep band" with horns, electric guitar, full drum set, etc., and every time they started up their little ditty, the Big Red fans (maybe 3,000 out of the 15,000 in attendance) graced them with a loud "Screw BU!".  We were in good voice early, perhaps outdoing the BU fans, but as the game wore on and we fell behind, I have to admit that the Gah-den rocked to "Go BU!"

I think Killer's right.  By then the tide hadturned in the rivalry (Ned never lost to BU while at Cornell)...and that jingle was damn annoying.

[Greg, that 1966 game was at the then Boston Arena, where both BU and Northeastern played home games.  It was also the site for the first few ECAC championship tournaments, before the move to the never-to-be-forgotten Garden.]

[Jordan 04]

I certainly don't consider the Wisconsin game as one of the "worst losses" in team history.  We had to come from behind the previous game against a very talented team to even make the Regional Final, it was a home game for Wisconsin, we and McKee played incredible, and we finally lost on a shot that few, if any, goalies could stop.  Was it a heartbreaking loss? Sure. But it was also one of the few losses for a team I root for where I came away thinking "We lost, but that was pretty awesome!"

I agree now.  But immediately after that goal went in was the worst I've ever felt about pretty much any sport/team.

I felt the same way until the lacrosse final against Syracuse.

Now that is a "worst" loss.

[RichH]

If it's "historic," one could consider that Union's first ECAC league win came at Lynah (2/22/1992), and Sacred Heart got the first win for a MAAC team (pre-CHA) over a "Big 4" conference, also at Lynah. (11/4/2000)

[hypotenuse]

The 9-0 loss to BU at Lynah, mentioned above, was truly a disaster. I think it broke a very long home unbeaten streak for Cornell-- I was then a junior, had attened every game and had never seen us lose at home. I believe the prior home loss had been to Yale-- a game also mentioned above in this thread as our only regular season loss that year, to which Cornell responded by beating Yale 18-1 in New Haven at their next meeting.

I was also at the 5-4 loss to Wisconsin in Boston when we had been ahead 4-0; that was quite painful, but beating slaughtered by BU in Lynah was just bizarre. I remember reading somewhere that when the score came over the wire at least one editor called to make sure it wasn't a misprint.

[Towerroad]

I certainly don't consider the Wisconsin game as one of the "worst losses" in team history.  We had to come from behind the previous game against a very talented team to even make the Regional Final, it was a home game for Wisconsin, we and McKee played incredible, and we finally lost on a shot that few, if any, goalies could stop.  Was it a heartbreaking loss? Sure. But it was also one of the few losses for a team I root for where I came away thinking "We lost, but that was pretty awesome!"

I agree now.  But immediately after that goal went in was the worst I've ever felt about pretty much any sport/team.

Now that is a "worst" loss.

I felt the same way until the lacrosse final against Syracuse.

Amen! I was at that game. 25 Seconds. You have to hand it to Syracuse though, they never quit and played like champions.

[Josh '99]

I certainly don't consider the Wisconsin game as one of the "worst losses" in team history.  We had to come from behind the previous game against a very talented team to even make the Regional Final, it was a home game for Wisconsin, we and McKee played incredible, and we finally lost on a shot that few, if any, goalies could stop.  Was it a heartbreaking loss? Sure. But it was also one of the few losses for a team I root for where I came away thinking "We lost, but that was pretty awesome!"

I agree now.  But immediately after that goal went in was the worst I've ever felt about pretty much any sport/team.

I felt the same way until the lacrosse final against Syracuse.

Now that is a "worst" loss.

Ugh, tell me about it.  Plus the NCAA uses clips from the end of that game in a lot of their multi-sport TV promos.  HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE.

[Al DeFlorio]

The 9-0 loss to BU at Lynah, mentioned above, was truly a disaster. I think it broke a very long home unbeaten streak for Cornell-- I was then a junior, had attened every game and had never seen us lose at home. I believe the prior home loss had been to Yale-- a game also mentioned above in this thread as our only regular season loss that year, to which Cornell responded by beating Yale 18-1 in New Haven at their next meeting.

I was also at the 5-4 loss to Wisconsin in Boston when we had been ahead 4-0; that was quite painful, but beating slaughtered by BU in Lynah was just bizarre. I remember reading somewhere that when the score came over the wire at least one editor called to make sure it wasn't a misprint.

The payback at Yale was 19-1.  The game at Penn seven days before was 18-1.  In between:  A 3-2 win at BU.  The catastrophic Wisconsin loss in 1973 was 6-5 in OT.

[Trotsky]

There are many what-ifs and one of the biggest ones is: What if a career counselor or Myers-Briggs guru told Ned in spring 1970 that he was in no way suited to be a pro hockey coach and if someone had endowed the Cornell coaching position that year so the money was really good, if the then-48-year-old Harkness could have been our Pete Caril and coached until the mid 1980s.

We might have won 2 or 3 more NCAA titles.

We might have spent most of the 70's on probation.  

[Jim Hyla]

BU was 12-0; Cornell 11-0.  Ranked #1 and #2, respectively, in the country at game time.  BU was the established power; Cornell, the upstart.

I have heard that this was the game when "Screw BU" started.  Is that true or just retconned apocraphra?

Though it must have started sometime...

It's funny, I had always thought of that game being at MSG as part of the ECAC Holiday Tournament, but it was at Boston Garden (or perhaps Matthews Arena) in the Boston Tourney.

I think "Screw BU" started at the NCAAs in 1972.  We'd lost to BU 4-1 in the ECAC championship game in Boston, enduring their damn jingle many-a-time.  Then we came back to Boston Garden for the nationals.  BU had this "pep band" with horns, electric guitar, full drum set, etc., and every time they started up their little ditty, the Big Red fans (maybe 3,000 out of the 15,000 in attendance) graced them with a loud "Screw BU!".  We were in good voice early, perhaps outdoing the BU fans, but as the game wore on and we fell behind, I have to admit that the Gah-den rocked to "Go BU!"

I think Killer's right.  By then the tide hadturned in the rivalry (Ned never lost to BU while at Cornell)...and that jingle was damn annoying.

[Greg, that 1966 game was at the then Boston Arena, where both BU and Northeastern played home games.  It was also the site for the first few ECAC championship tournaments, before the move to the never-to-be-forgotten Garden.]

1967 was the first year in "da gaden". One thing that I'll always remember about the 66, last Arena game, was that we didn't have our band there and after Brown lost to Clarkson some of the Brown band came over to our side and played some for Cornell. I never forgot that, obviously, and still have a soft spot for Brown because of it.:-)

[billhoward]

The 9-0 loss to BU at Lynah, mentioned above, was truly a disaster. I think it broke a very long home unbeaten streak for Cornell-- I was then a junior, had attened every game and had never seen us lose at home. I believe the prior home loss had been to Yale-- a game also mentioned above in this thread as our only regular season loss that year, to which Cornell responded by beating Yale 18-1 in New Haven at their next meeting.

I was also at the 5-4 loss to Wisconsin in Boston when we had been ahead 4-0; that was quite painful, but beating slaughtered by BU in Lynah was just bizarre. I remember reading somewhere that when the score came over the wire at least one editor called to make sure it wasn't a misprint.

IIRC, the basketball team was beaten even worse over in the Barton Hall that night. Those years made me think a sober coach and a .500 season was the most we could hope for on the hoops side. I still cannot believe I was sitting last spring at a Sweet Sixteen game where Cornell was playing, and we lasted longer in the tournament than Syracuse. About 2-1/2 hours. Heh. I wonder if we could have with different bracketing taken down Butler?

[Al DeFlorio]

I wonder if we could have with different bracketing taken down Butler?

I'd've been happier playing Duke than Kentucky.

[ugarte]

If it's "historic," one could consider that Union's first ECAC league win came at Lynah (2/22/1992), and Sacred Heart got the first win for a MAAC team (pre-CHA) over a "Big 4" conference, also at Lynah. (11/4/2000)

I'd agree, if the Sacred Heart game actually happened.

[ACM]

The 9-0 loss to BU at Lynah, mentioned above, was truly a disaster. I think it broke a very long home unbeaten streak for Cornell-- I was then a junior, had attened every game and had never seen us lose at home. I believe the prior home loss had been to Yale-- a game also mentioned above in this thread as our only regular season loss that year, to which Cornell responded by beating Yale 18-1 in New Haven at their next meeting.

I was also at the 5-4 loss to Wisconsin in Boston when we had been ahead 4-0; that was quite painful, but beating slaughtered by BU in Lynah was just bizarre. I remember reading somewhere that when the score came over the wire at least one editor called to make sure it wasn't a misprint.

Cornell lost to Yale at Lynah in January of 1967. It didn't lose again at Lynah until a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Clarkson in February of 1972. The BU loss came in December of 1972, so the 63-game home-ice winning streak had already been broken.

The classes of '67, '68, '69 and '70 experienced the loss to Yale. The classes of '72, '73, '74 and '75 experienced the loss to Clarkson. The only class to go through four years at Cornell and never see the team lose at home was the class of 1971.

My class.