Article on Top 10 Lynah Faithful Traditions

[RichH]

But being that many of you have been Cornell hockey fans for over a decade, ...

A few of us have been following Cornell hockey since the 1950's, so we have a slightly different perspective.  My undergraduate years were late 60's and early 70's, but I had grown up in Ithaca.  A tradition that has been eliminated in recent years was a real line for season tickets.  We lined up in Barton Hall starting about Thursday in anticipation of sales on Sunday morning.  That was serious business.

Sure, but real men from the 60s had to line up, and spend the night, outside Teagle. None of that, stay inside, have a party while waiting, stuff for us. That was when True Hockey Fans were formed.::barf::

60's?  Hell, we did that in 83 and 84.

That was one of the great Cornell hockey traditions and it's a shame it has gone the way of, well, pretty much everything else cool.  Although truth be told it was rife with abuse.  It was odd how one frat boy would somehow morph into his whole house 15 minutes before the door opened.

That behavior, as well as what I remember being described as a near-riot sometime around 1991 caused a lot of the changes. If my mind hasn't warped the stories too badly, I believed several people were physically injured with a crush of people all pushing against a chain-link fence near Schoellkopf in the 1991 line.  Then they did the thing in the early-00s (?) where they announced the line-number location over email, leading to a mad sprint across campus (and traffic).  As critical as I am with the fake-line "sleepover" thing, it was an attempt to maintain some semblance of dedication and line tradition.

[Dafatone]

But being that many of you have been Cornell hockey fans for over a decade, ...

A few of us have been following Cornell hockey since the 1950's, so we have a slightly different perspective.  My undergraduate years were late 60's and early 70's, but I had grown up in Ithaca.  A tradition that has been eliminated in recent years was a real line for season tickets.  We lined up in Barton Hall starting about Thursday in anticipation of sales on Sunday morning.  That was serious business.

Sure, but real men from the 60s had to line up, and spend the night, outside Teagle. None of that, stay inside, have a party while waiting, stuff for us. That was when True Hockey Fans were formed.::barf::

60's?  Hell, we did that in 83 and 84.

That was one of the great Cornell hockey traditions and it's a shame it has gone the way of, well, pretty much everything else cool.  Although truth be told it was rife with abuse.  It was odd how one frat boy would somehow morph into his whole house 15 minutes before the door opened.

That behavior, as well as what I remember being described as a near-riot sometime around 1991 caused a lot of the changes. If my mind hasn't warped the stories too badly, I believed several people were physically injured with a crush of people all pushing against a chain-link fence near Schoellkopf in the 1991 line.  Then they did the thing in the early-00s (?) where they announced the line-number location over email, leading to a mad sprint across campus (and traffic).  As critical as I am with the fake-line "sleepover" thing, it was an attempt to maintain some semblance of dedication and line tradition.

I think that latter one was... 2005?  The 2005-2006 season.  The location wound up being Lynah, or at least the Lynah entrance to Bartels.  It was the first year I was "lining up" for tickets, and I remember all my friends taking the ramp and getting stuck there while I went up the grass in the front and got ahead of them.  It wasn't a super-dangerous crush, but it was a least a fairly-dangerous crush.  I'm sure some people got hurt at least a little.

[ScrewBUHarvardtoo]

I have another article coming up about the history of the Lynah Faithful (I'll post it here when it's up) and I do mention camping out for tickets, and how back then the true fans would line up outside Lynah hours before games. I also make a plea to student to actually show up early to games (can't tell you how much it pisses me off when the student section is not even half full when the puck drops). Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full when it's full. I also say that people should support the women's team more, as it would be great if they could sometimes play in front crowds as big and rowdy as men's games

[Trotsky]

Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full.

Right about the time when Harvard was supplanting BU as the arch rival, the building was just as full and loud when the players would do the pre-game skate.  That was when the visitor, particularly Harvard for Fish and Fowl, would get the full shock and awe of the crowd -- since once the game is on athletes are very good about just shutting the crowd out.  You could tell the great players -- the MacDonalds and Fuscos -- absolutely loved it and were probably motivated to play even better, but the third and fourth line guys could often be seen scanning the crowd and thinking, "WTF is wrong with these people, and have I had all my shots?"

[BearLover]

I have another article coming up about the history of the Lynah Faithful (I'll post it here when it's up) and I do mention camping out for tickets, and how back then the true fans would line up outside Lynah hours before games. I also make a plea to student to actually show up early to games (can't tell you how much it pisses me off when the student section is not even half full when the puck drops). Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full when it's full. I also say that people should support the women's team more, as it would be great if they could sometimes play in front crowds as big and rowdy as men's games

Tickets should not cost $240 when every other sport is free.  That's the problem.

[marty]

I have another article coming up about the history of the Lynah Faithful (I'll post it here when it's up) and I do mention camping out for tickets, and how back then the true fans would line up outside Lynah hours before games. I also make a plea to student to actually show up early to games (can't tell you how much it pisses me off when the student section is not even half full when the puck drops). Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full when it's full. I also say that people should support the women's team more, as it would be great if they could sometimes play in front crowds as big and rowdy as men's games

Tickets should not cost $240 when every other sport is free.  That's the problem.

I was wondering how much tickets cost in Al's get there early era of the 60's. I'm also wondering how much  season tickets cost me circa 1971.

[Towerroad]

I have another article coming up about the history of the Lynah Faithful (I'll post it here when it's up) and I do mention camping out for tickets, and how back then the true fans would line up outside Lynah hours before games. I also make a plea to student to actually show up early to games (can't tell you how much it pisses me off when the student section is not even half full when the puck drops). Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full when it's full. I also say that people should support the women's team more, as it would be great if they could sometimes play in front crowds as big and rowdy as men's games

Tickets should not cost $240 when every other sport is free.  That's the problem.

I was wondering how much tickets cost in Al's get there early era of the 60's. I'm also wondering how much  season tickets cost me circa 1971.

If you can remember the 60's you were not there.

[ACM]

I have another article coming up about the history of the Lynah Faithful (I'll post it here when it's up) and I do mention camping out for tickets, and how back then the true fans would line up outside Lynah hours before games. I also make a plea to student to actually show up early to games (can't tell you how much it pisses me off when the student section is not even half full when the puck drops). Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full when it's full. I also say that people should support the women's team more, as it would be great if they could sometimes play in front crowds as big and rowdy as men's games

Tickets should not cost $240 when every other sport is free.  That's the problem.

I was wondering how much tickets cost in Al's get there early era of the 60's. I'm also wondering how much  season tickets cost me circa 1971.

Couldn't tell you how much season tickets cost, because I never had them. General admission to the hockey games (and lots of other athletic events) was through the CUAA (Cornell University Athletic Association, I guess) coupon book, which was simply a book of numbered coupons that cost something like $25. Each event was assigned a number, and you tore the corresponding coupon out of the book and handed it to the usher / gatekeeper as you walked in.

[RichH]

I have another article coming up about the history of the Lynah Faithful (I'll post it here when it's up) and I do mention camping out for tickets, and how back then the true fans would line up outside Lynah hours before games. I also make a plea to student to actually show up early to games (can't tell you how much it pisses me off when the student section is not even half full when the puck drops). Lynah becomes much more intimidating when it's full when it's full. I also say that people should support the women's team more, as it would be great if they could sometimes play in front crowds as big and rowdy as men's games

Tickets should not cost $240 when every other sport is free.  That's the problem.

I was wondering how much tickets cost in Al's get there early era of the 60's. I'm also wondering how much  season tickets cost me circa 1971.

Couldn't tell you how much season tickets cost, because I never had them. General admission to the hockey games (and lots of other athletic events) was through the CUAA (Cornell University Athletic Association, I guess) coupon book, which was simply a book of numbered coupons that cost something like $25. Each event was assigned a number, and you tore the corresponding coupon out of the book and handed it to the usher / gatekeeper as you walked in.

I can fill in the data point for the '90s even though I never bought student tickets (band) as being about $6-8 per game, probably increasing to $10/game by the later part of the decade.  For the final game of the dreadful '93 season, some students wore paper bags over their heads with "$84 for this?" written on the front.  Mind you, this was also the era where students were NOT admitted free to other ticketed events such as football, basketball, and lacrosse.  I don't remember what student tickets cost for those, but it was probably in the $5 ballpark.

[KeithK]

The face price per ticket for the years I had season tickets:

1997-98   $10 (12)
1996-97   $10 (12)
1995-96    $9 (12)
1194-95    $9 (11)
1993-94    $8 (10)
1192-93    $9

The number in parentheseis is the face price for the Harvard game. I'm pretty sure students got a $2 discount off of the face price during these years.