Retired Numbers

[Will]

This may seem like a silly question, but I'm baffled and can't seem to find the answers from my little seat in Section D.  Has Cornell ever retired any numbers of any players?  If so, whose numbers?  If not, who would be your top choices for whose numbers to retire?

[Greg Berge]

Cornell has never retired a number.  It goes against the spirit of the team being bigger than the star, and all that jazz.

[jtwcornell91]

In general, retired numbers are very rare in college.  (Makes sense, considering the turnover.)  The only ones I know of are Travis Roy at BU and Bill Cleary at Harvard (and they only did that last year).

Of course, Cornell does have one number out of circulation.

[Roy Kornbluh]

And that would be what?

[Greg Berge]

13.

We'll soon find out if that's a hard core tradition or just happenstance, because one of our prospects wears that number for his current team.  It's not the sort of number you get unless you request it.

[Richard Stott]

This has to be one of hockey's stupidiest traditions.  Who's the prospect who wears 13?  My hat's off to him and I hope he wears it for Cornell.  

The only Cornell player I ever remember wearing 13 before was Jim Wallace in the 60s, and I think he only wore it for one year.

[jtwcornell91]

Actually, I'm fond of that tradition; just another little thing that makes Cornell hockey different.  (Not to mention a bit of trivia for us cognoscenti to carry around.)  I did completely fail to convince the Canadian hockey fan/player I had lunch with that there was anything good about the tradition of not having a #13, or any number 40 or higher.  (He pointed out to my chagrin that Dryden wore the non-goalie number 29 with the Habs.)

[tml5]

Actually, another neat numbers thing that I noticed this season is lining up in numerical order for the national anthems.  I haven't noticed very many other teams doing this.  Anybody know if there's some particular reason for it - has it been going on for a long time, or is it just a quirk of Schafer's and/or the team's?

[Give My Regards]

McCutcheon's teams lined up in order also.  I don't recall whether they did during the Reycroft era.

[ursusminor]

RPI used to line up in numerical order. I don't know if they do it now.

[Al DeFlorio]

I remember reading on the old Round Table that Clarkson lined up by the numbers.  Anyone notice Saturday night?

[Ken71]

Clarkson lined up in numerical order, with the low numbers by their bench and the high numbers by the scorer's box.  Cornell lines up in the opposite direction.  I hadn't noticed any of the other opponents lining up in sequence.

I have noticed some of our opponents "honoring" the Color Guard by standing in place until the Color Guard has left the ice.  Princeton did so, and so did Clarkson.  The Red does not.  

Ken '71

[Sarli]

Cornell has lined up by numbers for as long as I can remember. but then again I graduated last year so I only go back to 97

[Erica]

I noticed this a long time ago and started looking at the other teams. They all do it as far as I can remember. At least, I don't specifically remember any team not doing it.  So don't think we're too special in that regard. I think it's generally a hockey thing to do.

[tml5]

I've seen several teams this season that did not line up in number order.  one of Dartmouth/UVM, both of Princeton/Yale, UAH (I think, it was awhile ago), Harvard, and maybe Brown didn't, at least as far as I remember.  That's the only reason I noted it as something that Cornell does.