1983 Harvard game question

JDIV · February 17, 2005, 02:49:39 PM

I found this great site when getting ready to attend last weekend's Yale game, which was the first game that I have attended in many years, and tremendously entertaining.

Can someone please help me with the following question:

I remember two notable things about the fall 1983 home game against Harvard. I clearly remember that Harvard scored four very quick and unanswered goals in the first period, yet Cornell ended up winning 6-5. I am less sure that I correctly remember that when the Cornell lineup was introduced, Mike Schafer skated to center ice and broke a hockey stick over his bare head. Am I remembering this correctly?

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide.

French Rage · February 17, 2005, 02:56:05 PM

While I was not yet 1 at the time and thus not there, I do know he broke a stick over his head (apparently pre-cracked in some versions) before some game to get the crowd excited.

JDIV · February 17, 2005, 03:02:22 PM

Well, the thing that makes the game so memorable for me ( it was my junior year) is that assuming my memory is correct, Schafer broke the stick over his head, and the crowd went absolutely insane. Just a few minutes later it was like a funeral in there as Cornell was down 4-zip. Yet Cornell won. It was the most dramatic game I ever saw.

Hillel Hoffmann · February 17, 2005, 03:07:14 PM

All of that is more or less correct (although for confirmation, you should check Greg Berge's fabulous TBRW Web site for a box score ... I bet it will posted here in minutes). The only bit that's off is the bare head. Schafer did indeed break his stick over his head during pre-game introductions, but he was wearing his helmet.

This was one of the most memorable regular season games of the 1980s. Mark Henderson's goal (the game-winner?) was the highlight. Arguably the fastest Cornell skater of the post-Ned era, Henderson used all that speed to skate onto a puck that had been cleared high out of the Cornell zone -- nearly as high as the lights, as I recall -- and scored on a breakaway.

I hated that Harvard team.

Edit: Deleted the reference to Armstrong -- I see that he wasn't in the Harvard lineup until 1985ish.

jtwcornell91 · February 17, 2005, 03:18:07 PM

[Q]Hillel Hoffmann Wrote:

All of that is more or less correct (although for confirmation, you should check Greg Berge's fabulous TBRW Web site for a box score ... I bet it will posted here in minutes). The only bit that's off is the bare head. Schafer did indeed break his stick over his head during pre-game introductions, but he was wearing his helmet.[/q]

I think it might have been Adam that observed that that story got more fantastic every time it was told for a while. Like the stick was on fire when he broke it or something. :-D

JDIV · February 17, 2005, 03:20:48 PM

I definitely would have remembered that, but the stick was, alas, not on fire.:-D :-D

Hillel Hoffmann · February 17, 2005, 03:38:28 PM

[Q]I think it might have been Adam that observed that that story got more fantastic every time it was told for a while. Like the stick was on fire when he broke it or something.[/q]
Amen to that, John. Although some of the more fantastic bits really did happen. Not only did Schafer break his stick over his (helmeted) head, but he skated menacingly toward the assembled Harvard players while doing so, looking at them while snapping his twig at center ice. I'd love to say it gave me goosebumps, but it was sorta embarrassing. I remember thinking: "Wow, he really is an asshole."

[Waiting for lightning to strike me or a crowd to assemble below my window with pitchforks and lanterns.]

Will · February 17, 2005, 03:51:18 PM

Hey, that's Coach Asshole to you! :-P

Steve M · February 17, 2005, 03:51:25 PM

That was by far the best game of a bad season, and all the comments posted above are correct. Schafer breaks a stick over his head in the intros, we fall behind 4-0 in the first, Henderson scores the winner (6-5) on a breakaway after collecting a pass that seemed to go through the rafters.

I was sitting in the second row of Section B at that game. I caught my first and only puck ever at a College or pro game. Needless to say I still have it. I engraved the score and date on the puck.

Trotsky · February 17, 2005, 04:21:54 PM

The box score: http://www.tbrw.info/boxScores/box19831210.html

msphi81 · February 17, 2005, 11:01:41 PM

The Schafer stick breaking incident was great!!

The most memorable game of that era at Lynah was probably the comeback victory against Providence in the ECAC quarterfinal playoffs in March 1979. I believe Cornell was down 5-1 with about 15 minutes left in the game and then scored 5 consecutive goals by five different players. Lance Nethery tied the score with about 15 seconds left by basically skating end-to-end past all five Providence players. Rob Gemmell won it with a slap shot in OT. However, if my memory is correct John Olds got the crowd back into the game by either getting away with using his stick to take out the outside skate of a Providence player during a face-off or doing a similar stick breaking play early in the third period. Anyone remember more of the details?

Hillel Hoffmann · February 17, 2005, 11:25:15 PM

The 1979 playoff game has been discussed here at such great length over the years that I'll resist the temptation to relive it again. It is, and likely always will be, the greatest single sporting event I've ever witnessed.

The only thing I'll add is that msphi81's description missed the two most bizarre aspects of the game:

1. Randy Wilson missing an unmolested, close-range shot at an empty net seconds before Nethery's end-to-end, game-tying rush. He wept like a child after the game.

2. Providence brought f-ing cheerleaders to the game. They were very annoying. They wept too.

msphi81 · February 17, 2005, 11:39:44 PM

Yes you are correct on the Wilson miss and the cheerleaders were more than just annoying. However, didn't Olds do something to get the crowd going?

BCrespi · February 18, 2005, 01:49:24 AM

Man, I love the analysis and mind-numbing statistical games we play here on elynah, but this is the real reason I love reading this site. Thanks guys for sharing all of your memories. As a fairly recent member to the Faithful family, please keep it up. Here's to making more this year. LGR

French Rage · February 18, 2005, 02:26:27 AM

[Q]BCrespi Wrote:

Man, I love the analysis and mind-numbing statistical games we play here on elynah, but this is the real reason I love reading this site. Thanks guys for sharing all of your memories. As a fairly recent member to the Faithful family, please keep it up. Here's to making more this year. LGR[/q]

Here, here! I could read this stuff all day.