Something Fishy at Lynah Rink

On Jan 6th, 1973, a Harvard Crimson hockey fan made the terrible mistake of throwing a dead chicken at the Cornell Big Red's goalie after the Crimson lost, 5-2.

This unleashed the fury of the Lynah Faithful. And the Lynah Faithful are not to be messed with.

For those not familiar, Cornell is very, VERY attached to its Division I hockey program. Lynah Rink, our home ice, is known as the most hostile venue in all of college hockey, and with darned good reason. The Lynah Faithful (i.e. Big Red hockey fans) have a long, long memory to accompany our sheer obnoxiousness... mess with us, and we'll make sure your grandchildren know about it. (Literally.)

About that chicken.

The Faithful took this as an affront to our agricultural school heritage, which is a button you really don't want to push with Cornell students. While the school has risen in stature in recent years, we're still sometimes seen as the un-Ivy Ivy League... the kind of country bumpkin cousin that you smile politely to at fancy parties but don't actually consider part of the family. So, needless to say, the chicken was not well received. The next time Harvard came to play at Lynah, the Faithful unleashed some Old Testament-style wrath unto them... in the form of a volley of fish and squid. Throw chickens at us, will you? Take THIS, ya smarmy Argyle-wearing coast-dwelling smarty pants.

Also very Old Testament-style is the fact that the tradition continues on their children (er, successive teams), and their children's children, and on to the seventh generation (and probably past that). Tonight's Cornell v. Harvard game had its traditional fish-pelting after the National Anthems, despite coat checks and dire warnings from the administration about repealing season tickets and so on. And kudos to the guy who held on to the whole octopus until the end of the third period... made a beautiful silhouette as it arced gracefully over the boards and, um, almost hit our player. But still. The thought was there. (And we won! 2-1! Yay!!!)

You just can't do school all the time... and hockey is such a wonderful way to vent your frustrations onto total strangers in a completely socially accepted manner! (That, and Block II continues to be less than thrilling, so I have nothing else to write about.)

History factoids courtesy of eLynah.com... where you can read about the rest of Cornell hockey lore if you like (Harvard isn't our only ancient grudge, just the most persistent!)