Best cheers, best insults

[Josh '99]

I don't think anything I've ever said can legitimately be claimed to be one of the "all-time best cheers", but I figured I'd throw in 2 cents anyway...  I personally favor yelling things that will legitimately get you into the goalie's head.  (I am, of course, but an apprentice to the superior experience of Scersk and Rich.  ;-))  The way I see it, in any case, there's no better way to get a goalie off his game than to get his mind on his own real shortcomings.  To that end, every uncontrolled rebound, every post hit, every shot that trickles through the five-hole and just wide, is just further ammunition to remind a goalie (oops, that is to say, a sieve) that it's just a matter of time before all those miscues start finding the back of the net.  Because Dov *knows* that he doesn't always control his rebounds all that well, and if he's thinking about that for a split second more than he normally would, then that's a split second less that he's thinking about how to deal with the next one.

Anyway, enough philosophy.  Maybe it works, maybe it's just the cheering equivalent of self-gratification, but I can't imagine it hurts any (other than my vocal cords).

[cornelldavy]

One that I liked that never gets used much is when Cornell ices the puck, if you're quick enough to see the play coming, call out, "Raise your hand if you suck!" before the opposing goalie raises his arm to signal that he wants the automatic icing call. Can't do this one at NHL games, though.

[billhoward]

[Q]cornelldavy Wrote:

 One that I liked that never gets used much is when Cornell ices the puck, if you're quick enough to see the play coming, call out, "Raise your hand if you suck!" before the opposing goalie raises his arm to signal that he wants the automatic icing call. Can't do this one at NHL games, though.[/q]

This is good. Right, you have to be quick. You can also get him at the start of the period when he raises his arm for the ready signal, you just have to get the timing right so it's not when McKee raises his hand and you have to be at the visitor end of Lynah.

Speaking of which, it's interesting that Cornell for two periods attacks away from the majority of fans toward the open end of the horseshoe. Maybe there's less visual distraction that way. Maybe the Cornell fans screaming in the first and third periods at the closed end of the horseshoe is more distracting to the visitors. Maybe there's something psychologically better about the defense being part of a closed not open part of the loop. I bet there's a psychology of sport thesis in there somewhere.

[billhoward]

"Cornell rejects" makes sense for a Colgate where the applicant probably got the two schools confused, or RPI. They have some pretensions to academics.

Kind of uppity when it's Cornell vs. St. Lawrence or Niagara. Because the St. Lawrence fans are thinking, "Yeah, and you know *you'd* be in Cambridge not Ithaca if your SATs were 50 points better."

[Greg Berge]

It used to be an advantage of sorts because of the "Lynah Bounce," but sadly that is no longer an issue.

[RabidSewerRat]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 "Cornell rejects" makes sense for a Colgate where the applicant probably got the two schools confused, or RPI. They have some pretensions to academics.

Kind of uppity when it's Cornell vs. St. Lawrence or Niagara. Because the St. Lawrence fans are thinking, "Yeah, and you know *you'd* be in Cambridge not Ithaca if your SATs were 50 points better." [/q]
Yup, that's exactly what Colgate fans were thinking last year, but we had a response to it, as I remember:
Colgate: "SUNY Ithaca! SUNY Ithaca!"
Cornell: "Cornell rejects! Cornell rejects!"
Colgate: "Harvard rejects! Harvard rejects!"
Cornell: "Didn't bother! Didn't bother!"

[CowbellGuy]

Actually, the reply to "SUNY Ithaca" is/was "SUNY Rejects"

[Harrier]

What ever happened to "Scrape him off the Ice!!"

[billhoward]

[Q]Harrier Wrote:

 What ever happened to "Scrape him off the Ice!!"[/q]

Too insensitive?

[schoaff]

[Q]Greg Berge Wrote:

My favorite Cornell cheer was in the mid-80's, during Laing Kennedy's "War on Profanity" (which was about as successful as the War on Drugs), we were warned that if we chanted "The Ref Fucks Sheep" anymore we'd get a penalty.  On the next poor call, the student section rose en masse and chanted, "We Beg to Differ"![/q]

From the same era we managed to pull off once, "The ref has been seen loitering near bars which loose sheep are known to frequent." Since it was passed around mouth to ear like a game of telephone I have noidea what most people actually shouted for that one, but they seemed to get the scansion right.

I also remember one game where a group of about 30 students had been getting harassed by the ushers all day about borderline language.  With a few minutes left in the game, knowing they'd all be thrown out, the entire group stood up and shouted, "Fuck Fuck Fuck, Sheep Sheep Sheep, Fuck Sheep Fuck Sheep Fuck." Not exactly high wit, but we were all in tears laughing as they filed out of the rink.

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!"

[Facetimer]

There's the notorious cheer coined by one Mike Rosenberg '04 (aka A-19).  I think it is Greg Berge's favorite too:

"Which team is the Ivy League?"
"Which team isn't even a school at all?"

[billhoward]

This makes a better sign than a cheer:

HARVARD, MIT, BU
Boston's 2 bests schools plus a bridge

[KeithK]

[q]Speaking of which, it's interesting that Cornell for two periods attacks away from the majority of fans toward the open end of the horseshoe. Maybe there's less visual distraction that way.[/q]Might be the fact that you can see the clock when going that way.

[dss28]

My uncle was saying that while he was there (he graduated in '81), they used to attack the fan-encompassed side twice, and was disappointed that they'd changed it.  He theorized it was probably giving Cornell too much of a psychological advantage over the opposing goalie ;-)

[Tub(a)]

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.

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.