Cornell Daily Sun column

[osorojo]

There's nothing like winning, a LOT of winning, to ramp up the numbers attending, the excitement of, and the atmosphere enjoyed by fans of a successful hockey team. It's nothing like golf, or tennis, or even baseball! It's been more than 50 years and I'm still amped - I hope current C.U. students are able to attend and enjoy the successes of C.U. hockey - live, not on mini-screens.

[billhoward]

I'm not sure I'm equipped to say Lynah is the single best fan experience out there, but it's just about the only great fan experience I know of that is also a tiny enough arena for every fan to be heard on the ice/court/field.

My roommate, from Brooklyn, made me laugh when he declared the world's best pizza came out of Brooklyn. An in-law said the best Chinese food ever was in Akron. (Guess where she was from.) I'm from Rochester and we know the world's best burgers and place to hang out after games was Don & Bob's next to Brighton HS.

We all want to believe we in some way were part of the best experience ever. If you were '70, '71` or '72, you had the excitement of the anti-war demonstrations – not to make light of this; the war was a mistake – plus four final-four trips and one or two hockey titles, plus Marinaro, plus the NCAA lacrosse title won on the field, plus the IRA (rowing, not retirement) championship. Plus no final exams in the spring. Could that be the most amazing era -- at least post WW II -- ever?

Three generations of Harvard hockey players, asked their favorite road trip, all say: the Cornell weekend. That makes me feel even better about the game.

[dag14]

Class of 1972.  And it was a pretty amazing four years.  I definitely didn't appreciate the uniqueness of the experience until I found myself comparing my college years to those of the Cornell students I taught in the 80's, 90's and in this millenium.

[billhoward]

Yeah, well you had bell-bottoms yet were too early for disco balls in your undergraduate years.

And Woodstock, man. Plus, the Watkins Glen jam in, ah, 1972 I believe.

[CAS]

'73

[nshapiro]

I'm not sure I'm equipped to say Lynah is the single best fan experience out there, but it's just about the only great fan experience I know of that is also a tiny enough arena for every fan to be heard on the ice/court/field.

My roommate, from Brooklyn, made me laugh when he declared the world's best pizza came out of Brooklyn. An in-law said the best Chinese food ever was in Akron. (Guess where she was from.) I'm from Rochester and we know the world's best burgers and place to hang out after games was Don & Bob's next to Brighton HS.

I am not from Rochester, but Abbott's is the world's best frozen custard - Amazing stuff - dozens of flavors of soft serve scooped, not from a machine

[Trotsky]

In all honesty, the best ribs I have ever had were from Somerville, MA.  Where I did not come from.  And they were made by two guys from Mississippi.

The best soft pretzels were sold outside the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side in December, 1973.

[George64]

nshapiro[/s]]

I'm from Rochester and we know the world's best burgers and place to hang out after games was Don & Bob's next to Brighton HS.

I am not from Rochester, but Abbott's is the world's best frozen custard - Amazing stuff - dozens of flavors of soft serve scooped, not from a machine.

Chocolate almond!!!  I'm fortunate to have an Abbott's within walking distance from my home.
Three grandkids graduated from Brighton HS, two more in the pipeline.  Go Barons Bruins!

[Dafatone]

In all honesty, the best ribs I have ever had were from Somerville, MA.  Where I did not come from.  And they were made by two guys from Mississippi.

The best soft pretzels were sold outside the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side in December, 1973.

It was not the best sushi I've had in my life, but I have had damn good sushi in Fargo.

[RichH]

In all honesty, the best ribs I have ever had were from Somerville, MA.  Where I did not come from.  And they were made by two guys from Mississippi.

The best soft pretzels were sold outside the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side in December, 1973.

It was not the best sushi I've had in my life, but I have had damn good sushi in Fargo.

For the North Dakota road trip in 2008, two (former?) members of this board convinced me to follow them to a food stand in the Minneapolis airport because they heard it had amazing sushi. (Possibly due to the frequent fresh fish freight flights from Northwest Airlines?)

[RichH]

Duke is duke.. but if duke had 10 yrs of down play like cornell did i suspect they too would have lost much of the casual fan base..  Lets see what they do now that  Coach K is gone.

Duke is duke because of the near endless hype during the peak Dan/Keith ESPN years. You get a weird bald man screaming "it's awesome baybee" enough times on the only thing to put on the tube late at night to enough vapid-headed sports zombies and soon everybody wants to be part of the thing on the teevee too.  The Cornell Hockey Line occupies the "legendary" part my mind, but a sliver of a quark of the sports world know anything about it.

I went to Cornell's NCAA basketball tournament game in Syracuse that one year (Albany's ECAC weekend was just down the road), and I hated everything about it in addition to the score. Compared to literally any NCAA Hockey game, I was bowled over by the inane, mindless, over-doneness of it all. Everyone was just mean. Frozen Four games feel like a really big and weird family reunion. That felt like a pissing contest in the back row of a WWE wrestling match.

[osorojo]

". . . a pissing contest in the back of a WWE wrestling match?" HAH! The writer is so obviously uninformed and/or untrustworthy. Everyone knows the FRONT row of a WWE wrestling  match is the venue for pissing contests!