BU-Cornell

[Josh '99]

[quote Robb][quote jtwcornell91]It is just "Screw BU" and I would come back from Germany to see Cornell-BU at MSG.[/quote]Heh.  I was already contemplating coming back from England![/quote]I would definitely travel there from however many subway stops away I'll be living at the time.

I guess it's not the same, really.   ::screwy::

[Desuetude Red]

As I recall this cheer started at the 1972 NCAA tournament at the Boston Garden, and the credit goes to Wisconsin fans.  That year BU defeated Wisconsin 4-1 in the semis and went on, tragically, to beat the Red 4-0.  It was during the semis that Wisconsin fans started the "Screw BU" cheer.  

The next year at Lynah BU crushed us 9-0 and I believe the only noise that night was the screw BU cheer.  Note that BU later had to forfeit that game and a rash of others because they had recruited and played a ineligible player, something about playing Junior A hockey.  It was Cornell who reported (or ratted out) BU.  Obviously there was and remains much bad blood between these two teams.

I hope I got me years correct on on this.  As I get older the cheese somtimes slips off the cracker.

[ursusminor]

More than you probably care to know about the Dick Decloe Affair which led to BU forfeiting 11 games. http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?A2=ind9404&L=HOCKEY-L&P=R9770&I=-3

Thanks to the Hockey-L archives from saving me the trouble of typing this all in every time it comes up somewhere.

[redice]

I'm pretty sure that the "screw BU" cheer started before that NCAA tourney in Boston.    It first happened, as Al described it, during one of the four straight ECAC titles (66-70).   I was there and remember the fun shouting over the BU fans.
And that God-awful 9-0 loss to BU in Dec 72......That's the first time I saw them lose; after watching them for 6 years!!   What a run!!   Not a good day.  When recalling the forfeit, the name Peter Titanic  comes to mind.  As I recall it,  CU ratted on BU  and  BU ratted on CU.   I don't remember who was the inital "rattee"  and  I don't remember if Peter was the inelible BU player or if he was the ineligible CU player in that mess.   Does anyone have clearer memories of this?

[Rich S]

Thanks Ralph, I remember well the uproar this created.  I was at Tech then and the entire ECAC was talking about it.

[jkahn]

I agree with Al's synopsis (although he may have missed a beat or added one in the da da dum dum part). My most vivid recollection of the cheer is the '72 ECAC's and NCAA's.  Thousands of dismayed Cornell fans shouting Screw BU to drown out the GO BU as BU's band played the thing over and over.  After hearing this several times, a large contingent of Wisconsin fans, being fairly clever, decided to turn it around further, adding "Cornell too" to our "Screw BU" at the NCAA's.

[Killer]

I was at the ECAC and NCAA games in 1972 and my recollection is that "Screw BU" started somewhere into the ECAC final game, though I don't remember it being picked up by everyone.  The next week, when we played BU in the NCAA final, virtually all of the Cornell fans chimed in, and for the early part of the game, I'd say we were louder than the BU fans.  BTW, we didn't care much for BU's "pep band" at those games.  A lot of them looked older than most student and they had electric guitars, a full drum set, etc., and had a special area set up for them rinkside.

As for the players involved in the forfeit, yes, it was definitley Titanic for us.  Can't remember who the BU player was.  I seem to recall that Titanic was declared ineligible partway into our freshman year.  I think he got to play a few games.  As the story I heard goes, sophomore year, he saw that one of his former teammates was playing for BU.  Figuring if that guy was eligible to play, he should be too, Cornell inquired about Titanic's reinstatement.  But the decision handed down was that Titanic was still ineligible, and the real mistake that had been made was in not declaring the BU player also ineligible in the first place.  I don't think there was any ratting going on, we were just trying to get our guy back on the ice.  But the upshot was that neither was allowed to play, and BU had to forfeit a number of games.

BTW, Screw BU!

[ursusminor]

[quote redice]I'm pretty sure that the "screw BU" cheer started before that NCAA tourney in Boston.    It first happened, as Al described it, during one of the four straight ECAC titles (66-70).   I was there and remember the fun shouting over the BU fans.
And that God-awful 9-0 loss to BU in Dec 72......That's the first time I saw them lose; after watching them for 6 years!!   What a run!!   Not a good day.  When recalling the forfeit, the name Peter Titanic  comes to mind.  As I recall it,  CU ratted on BU  and  BU ratted on CU.   I don't remember who was the inital "rattee"  and  I don't remember if Peter was the inelible BU player or if he was the ineligible CU player in that mess.   Does anyone have clearer memories of this?[/quote] See the link in the message that I posted a few minutes before your post. It quotes articles from The Intercollegiate Hockey Newsletter from that year.

[jkahn]

And in an earlier, similar ratting incident, in '66-'67 or '67-'68 we lost Bob McGuinn for a semester due to some technicality which was turned in by Gene Kinasewich, assistant coach at Harvard, whose brother Bob played for the Big Red.

[desuetude]

Thanks for the link.  It brings back old memories.  I believe to our credit Cornell never accepted the forfeit from BU, and officially lists the game still as a 9-0 loss.

We should all regret that Peter Titanic never played for Cornell.  I think his qualifies as the best Cornell hockey name ever, even better than Lance Nethery, who would have been his teammate.

[marty]

[quote Rich S]I have admired and been respectful of others' accomplishments.  But never jealous...that's a destructive emotion.[/quote]

Must have been someone else....

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

[quote jkahn]After hearing this several times, a large contingent of Wisconsin fans, being fairly clever, decided to turn it around further, adding "Cornell too" to our "Screw BU" at the NCAA's.[/quote]

And I thought we (Roy 82, I, and others) were being original when we did it in 1980.  I guess there's nothing original under the sun.  :-P

[Facetimer]

[quote jy3]al, I had thought that part of the reason for the screw BU cheer was the defection to hockey east[/quote]

Screw Vermont, BU too!

[Rich S]

[quote desuetude]Thanks for the link.  It brings back old memories.  I believe to our credit Cornell never accepted the forfeit from BU, and officially lists the game still as a 9-0 loss.

We should all regret that Peter Titanic never played for Cornell.  I think his qualifies as the best Cornell hockey name ever, even better than Lance Nethery, who would have been his teammate.[/quote]

We always liked Dave Peace...unfortunate that he didn't play at Clarkson with Steve Warr. :-}

[billhoward]

Al's right: The BU band was a one-trick musical pony. It annoyed Cornell fans of the early 1970s who, also annoyed at BU's rise to supremacy under its youthful coach Jack Parkier, fgured out that "Screw BU" could drown out "Go BU" when there were more Cornell fans in the building than BU fans, which would be at most games whether in Ithaca, Boston, or at Boston Garden.

And most impartial histories of college hockey say that the NCAA, which was even stuffier in some respects then than now (can that be possible?), declared ineligibile Cornell's Pete Titanic (for playing a bit of Jr A hockey and getting educational expenses paid), who turned around and asked howcum a BU player (Dick DeClore?) in a similar situation was eligible. Rather than letting Titanic play, the NCAA tossed out the BU player, too. Cornell also got dinged for having a couple prospects' trip to the NCAA tourney circa 1973 paid for by a Cornell alum and was on minor propbation (but not tourney ineligible).

This was against the backdrop of other Cornell recruiting violations in, of all things, basketball, for what seems like the quaint practice of Cornell coaches/assistant coaches Tony Coma and Tom Allen paying application fees under the table in order to get a few more people to apply. (That would have been a Cornell and Ivy League no-no, not NCAA rule, I believe). And also against the backdrop of Cornell lacrosse going from national powerhouse and NCAA champion in lacrosse (1971) to several down years prior to the arrival of Eamon McEneneaney and Mike French and the glory run of 1976-77. Ed Marinaro was gone from the football field so it was a pretty quiet couple years in sports.

Also note that in Jackie Parker's tenure at BU, the Terriers have played in one BU Arena and gotten two new ones built, while Cornell added a connector to the basketball arena so there's a warmer place to take a leak, and now is adding 400 seats. So there's a reason for the cheer.