Best cheers, best insults

[KeithK]

Maybe that's a good reason to stop talking about expanding the rink - no solid wall to reflect sound against the goalie?

[jeh25]

[Q]Tub(a) Wrote:
I got a chance to stand in the walkway behind the goal for some of the Red/White game, and it was louder than any rock concert I have been to.[/q]

What?

[Beeeej]

[Q]schoaff Wrote:
The Lunatic did a parody of the "Cheering Policy" one year which including things like "All Cheers must be approved in writing by the althletics department. Please present your cheer approval documentation to your section's head user 30 minutes before use." I remember people in our section thinking it was serious and getting furious saying, "It says we can't even criticize the puck anymore!"[/q]

My favorite part of the Lunatic's parody of the Cheering Policy (apart from the fake ad showing Paula Abdul saying "Eat Me at Manos!") was "All cheers must contain praise for Laing Kennedy."

Beeeej

[Will]

[Q]Tub(a) Wrote:

 It is much louder on the open end of the rink. The band is pointing right at the goal, and the sound echoes off of the wall.[/q]

I don't think it's louder during the play of the game, when the band isn't allowed to be playing.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I hadn't realized they'd changed it, because it certainly had an effect.  There was even one game (against UVM, I think) where they made the goalies switch ends at the 10 minute mark of the third.  That's how much it got into somebody's head.

[Robb]

The theories that I'd heard were that our goalie can see the clock at the end of the game, and that it's easier for the goalie to see the puck with the wall in the background rather than randomly colored fans.  Not sure I buy the second one, but I have definitely seen opposition sieves in front of A almost twisting their necks out of joint trying to see the clock during the third period - that can't be fun.

[billhoward]

[Q]Robb Wrote:

 The theories that I'd heard were that our goalie can see the clock at the end of the game, and that it's easier for the goalie to see the puck with the wall in the background rather than randomly colored fans.  Not sure I buy the second one, but I have definitely seen opposition sieves in front of A almost twisting their necks out of joint trying to see the clock during the third period - that can't be fun.[/q]

In hockey, what does it matter if the puck comes with you with 10 seconds or 1 second left? You have to stop it. For the team as a whole, perhaps it makes sense. But then only if the score is within a goal.

The cleaner background makes more sense. think about the ballparks with stands in centerfield. They almost never use them and usually they're black or dark green, monochromatic, so the hitter can see the ball better. Of course, in a hockey rink it only makes sense when the shot comes at you from higher than the boards and that's not so often. Maybe for the goalie overall it seems calmer.

Somebody ought to ask Mike.

[KeithK]

Goalies do warn their teams about the end of a powerplay, which requires looking at a clock.  But in general I don't disagree with you re: the clock.

Batters eyes!  And people claim that today's ballplayers are the best ever.  Back in Dimaggio's day you didn't whine about the background.  You swung the bat with hundreds of people in white shirts sitting in dead center field, right behind the pitcher's release point.  And if you couldn't see the pitch that the hurler was throwing at your head then tough luck - you swung anyway.  And you didn't wear batting helmets - you just took the ball off of your hard head and stumbled down to first...[all together now].... And we liked it!

(Sorry, I got carried away.)

[David Harding]

The visibility of the puck is the reason that I remember being given when I was around (1970 +/- half a dozen years).  On the clock issue, I can imagine that a goalie might better anticipate when a shot would come in the closing seconds if he had as much information about the clock as the attackers, or might play a rebound slightly differntly.

In thise days, the rule was that "The Referee shall toss a coin before the match in the presence of the captains, first designating which captain shall call.  The winner of the toss shall have the choice of ends, which his team shall defend.  NOTE - ... The captain of the visiting team shall be selected to call."  

The practice was that Cornell took the closed end except when some other team made a big stink about it.  I don't know why the refs ignored that rule so universally, unless there was tacit understand around the league that the home team always got its choice.

[A-19]

one of my fav cheers, to colgate's elderly fans/parents of players last year: "you will die soon"

mike

[billhoward]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 Goalies do warn their teams about the end of a powerplay, which requires looking at a clock.  But in general I don't disagree with you re: the clock.

Batters eyes!  And people claim that today's ballplayers are the best ever.  Back in Dimaggio's day you didn't whine about the background.  You swung the bat with hundreds of people in white shirts sitting in dead center field, right behind the pitcher's release point.  And if you couldn't see the pitch that the hurler was throwing at your head then tough luck - you swung anyway.  And you didn't wear batting helmets - you just took the ball off of your hard head and stumbled down to first....... And we liked it!

(Sorry, I got carried away.)[/q]

And you could wind up as Don Zimmer.

If you want to read about what wusses today's athletes are, go find every fourth column by Brock Yates in Car and Driver. Yates seems to feel somewhat like Papa Hemingway, that unless you risk death, the sport is not sport.

[billhoward]

Hmm, a coin toss to determine which team chooses which end for hockey. Didn't know that existed, even in the abstract. With hockey, I thought the teams each were closest to their respective benches in the first and third periods, and I don't think the benches changed game to game.

Now that's one for Uncle Ezra.

[jkahn]

[Q]The practice was that Cornell took the closed end except when some other team made a big stink about it. I don't know why the refs ignored that rule so universally, unless there was tacit understand around the league that the home team always got its choice.[/Q]
General courtesy was that the home team had its choice.  I only remember one game during my years there when we wound up skating the other way (toward the closed end in the 1st and 3rd), when Harvard demanded the coin toss to throw us off our game.  They won the toss, had a talented team, but they still sucked when it came to trying to beat Cornell.  Might have been in the '68-69 season, but I'm not sure.

[billhoward]

[Q]jkahn Wrote:  [Q2]The practice was that Cornell took the closed end except when some other team made a big stink about it. I don't know why the refs ignored that rule so universally, unless there was tacit understand around the league that the home team always got its choice.[/Q]
General courtesy was that the home team had its choice.  I only remember one game during my years there when we wound up skating the other way (toward the closed end in the 1st and 3rd), when Harvard demanded the coin toss to throw us off our game.  They won the toss, had a talented team, but they still sucked when it came to trying to beat Cornell.  Might have been in the '68-69 season, but I'm not sure.[/q]

And that incident never made it into Love Story?

[David Harding]

[q][q]The practice was that Cornell took the closed end except when some other team made a big stink about it. I don't know why the refs ignored that rule so universally, unless there was tacit understand around the league that the home team always got its choice.[/q]

General courtesy was that the home team had its choice. I only remember one game during my years there when we wound up skating the other way (toward the closed end in the 1st and 3rd), when Harvard demanded the coin toss to throw us off our game. They won the toss, had a talented team, but they still sucked when it came to trying to beat Cornell. Might have been in the '68-69 season, but I'm not sure.[/q]

That's undoubtedly the same game I remember.  It feels like something Harvard would have done.

I don't know when the rule changed.  I have the 1969 and 1975 rule books, and they both call for a coin toss (as I quoted).  The current book http://www.ncaa.org/library/rules/2004/2004_ice_hockey_rules.pdf says the home team gets to choose.