Cornell Big Red

The Cornell Big Red are a Men's Division I and Women's Division I Ivy League team in the ECAC Hockey League.

History of the Men's Ice Hockey Program
Men's ice hockey at Cornell University began at the dawn of the 20th century. During one week in 1901, graduate student G.A. Smith coached Cornell in its first three games, against Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and Princeton, winning all three contests. Its next games were in 1902-03, a win against Princeton and a loss to Yale. Finally in 1906, Cornell played its first home game, a 7-0 win over Rochester. At the time and until 1957, Cornell's home games were played on the frozen Beebe Lake.

In 1909, Cornell gained entrance to the Intercollegiate League while being coached by Talbot Hunter. During its second year in the league, Cornell won the championship by achieving a perfect 10-0 record, with all games being played on the road. However, by 1916, the Cornell hockey program was disbanded due to the end of the Intercollegiate League.

The program restarted in 1920 under the tutelage of Nicholas Bawlf. He coached the team for 27 years until his death in 1947. Throughout this time, many home games couldn't be played because Beebe Lake did not freeze enough for games to be played. The program folded once more in 1948, after Balwf's assistant Arthur Boehringer coached the team to an 0-4 season.

Following the 1957 construction of James A. Lynah Rink, Cornell's first and thus far only indoor hockey facility, the Cornell hockey program was once again reborn. Under new head coach Paul Patten, the first few years were less than stellar. However, the team improved, and had a 13-5 record in the 1961-62 season, thanks in part to goaltender Laing Kennedy '63 posting ten shutouts. Patten left in 1963, and was replaced by former Rensselaer coach Ned Harkness.

The Harkness era is considered to be the greatest and most successful era in Cornell hockey history. During his 1963-70 tenure, the team achieved a record of 163-27-2. This period included four ECAC tournament championships (1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970) and two NCAA championships (1967 and 1970). Cornell also appeared in the 1968 NCAA semifinal and the 1969 final, but lost to North Dakota and Denver respectively. In the midst of this period, future NHL goaltending legend Ken Dryden '69 played for Cornell from 1966 to 1969, with a college career record of 76-4-1. Perhaps the most important accomplishment of the Harkness era, though, was the 1969-70 team (backstopped by Brian Cropper '71) going 29-0-0, becoming the only team to have a perfect season in NCAA Division I hockey history.

Harkness was succeeded the following season by former team captain Dick Bertrand '70. He rode the success of the Harkness days for a few years, making it to the NCAA tournament in 1972 final and 1973 semifinal, but they lost to Boston University and Wisconsin respectively. Cornell would not appear in the NCAA tournament again until 1980, only to lose to Northern Michigan in the semifinal. They appeared in every ECAC tournament during Bertrand's tenure except for his last year. Cornell won the 1973 and 1980 ECAC tournament championships and lost in the 1972 final against Boston University, but in the other years they did not get past the ECAC semifinal. Future Olympian Darren Eliot '83 tended goal for the final years of this era. Bertrand stepped down in 1982.

Lou Reycroft, Bertrand's assistant, became head coach in 1982. By 1985, Cornell was back in the ECAC tournament, led by defenseman Mike Schafer '86 and helped by future NHL star and Olympian Joe Nieuwendyk '88. The following season, Cornell won the ECAC tournament in overtime against Clarkson. The team gained admission to the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years, though they lost to Denver in the quarterfinals. In 1987, Reycroft left Cornell, only coaching for five years.

Another former team captain became the next head coach, when Brian McCutcheon '70 took over the reins of the program. His first few seasons included relatively lackluster team performances. Cornell barely made it into the 1991 NCAA tournament, but lost in a first-round best-of-three series against Michigan. Shortly thereafter, two Cornell players, Dan Ratushny '92 and Kent Manderville '94, departed the team to represent Canada in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Despite that loss of talent, Cornell was still able to reach the ECAC tournament finals in 1992. All-American goaltender Parris Duffus '94 left for the pros soon after, beginning a disappointing period for Cornell hockey that didn't end until McCutcheon's termination in 1995.

Mike Schafer '86 was the third former Cornell hockey captain to become head coach when he was hired in 1995. In his first two seasons as head coach, Schafer guided Cornell to back-to-back ECAC tournament championships and NCAA tournament appearances. Unfortunately, Lake Superior State and North Dakota ended their runs those two years. The team would not appear in the ECAC tournament final again until 2001, when they lost to St. Lawrence. In the next year's final, they lost again, this time to Harvard in double overtime. Finally in 2003, Cornell won in overtime against Harvard to gain their 10th ECAC tournament championship. Cornell made NCAA tournament appearances in 2002 and 2003, and made it to the Frozen Four in 2003 as the top overall seed in the tournament. However, both times, Cornell's run was ended by New Hampshire. This period was highlighted by the exceptional play of Hobey Baker Award finalists defenseman Doug Murray '03 and goaltender David LeNeveu '05, the latter of whom departed for professional play in 2003.

The Schafer era of Cornell hockey continues to this day, still producing strong, competitive teams. The 2004-05 team included 10 NHL draftees, and Cornell's excellent goaltending tradition endured with Hobey Baker Award finalist David McKee '07 who finished the season at the top of every major goaltending statistics list. The team achieved many accolades, including winning the ECACHL regular season championship and beating Harvard in the ECACHL tournament championship. Cornell appeared in the 2005 NCAA tournament, beating Ohio State in the opening round, but they lost to regional host team Minnesota in the overtime quarterfinal matchup.

Cornell Resources

 * List of Cornell honors