Lynah Faithful in the News

With Cornell having played in the Florida College Hockey Classic in all eight years of the tournament's existence, the locals have grown accustomed to the traveling Lynah Faithful and our antics. This was the seventh straight year we've come down to watch, and Cornell always twice as many fans as the other three schools combined. It's obvious that some of the things we do -- yelling "red" during the anthem, standing for the whole game, chanting and yelling throughout -- aren't commonplace at the Germain Arena.

This is why it's always fun to read what the local press has to say about the Cornell fans.

The Fort Myers News-Press story about the first game led with this:

A group of about 100 Cornell University fans sat together in the south end of Germain Arena for Saturday night’s game. Dressed in red jerseys, the fans chanted “Let’s Go Red” throughout the contest.

The Big Red are 1,300 miles away from their Ithaca, N.Y. campus, but they feel at home in Southwest Florida.

I think 100 is a low estimate, but we'll take the attention.

The Naples Daily News also led with a shout-out to our fans:

If any Division I college hockey team is at home at Germain Arena, it’s the Cornell Big Red, who have played each year of the Florida College Classic as its de facto host team.

And Cornell looked right at home on Saturday night in the first round of this year’s tournament, beating St. Cloud State 3-2 to advance to today’s championship against Eastern College Athletic Association rival Colgate, at 7:35 p.m. at Germain Arena.

“Yeah, I think we probably have the most fans,” Big Red forward Joe Devin said, smiling.

Go us.

We didn't get quite as glowing coverage after yesterday's games, but here was one reference:

Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens stopped Colgate shooter Tom Riley on the next shot, and then the stands full of Big Red faithful in Section 114 erupted.

However, that same story also had this:

It wasn't upstate New York, and rowdy college students didn't crowd the stands shouting: "Go Big Red" or "Go Raiders!"

Where were they? I led at least three "Let's go red" cheers in the game.

The News-Press lead was also weak:

Seventy-five miles separates Cornell and Colgate’s campuses in central New York. That closeness makes these Eastern College Athletic Conference opponents bitter rivals in every sport, but hockey draws a special atmosphere.

Students from both campuses stand in line for hours to score tickets to Cornell-Colgate games.

I wouldn't exactly call us "bitter rivals." Despite our proximity, the Harvard rivalry is a much bigger deal for Cornell. And "every sport?" Really? Colgate isn't in the Ivy League so we don't even play them in most other sports. Do some research.

And that last part...Cornell fans wait in line to buy season tickets, which happen to include the Toothpaste game. Given the empty seats at the Colgate game at Lynah this fall, I don't think demand was that high.

And as for our friends over in Hamilton, their idiot students only go to that game because they're bribed with free tickets, free pizza, and instructions on how to cheer.

The Toothpaste coach got it right:

“I think it’s more of a rivalry for us than them,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “Cornell’s top rival is probably Harvard. But this is a pretty strong rivalry. I think the success of these two programs in the past seven to eight years has really helped.”

I also heard from a local that we were on the 6:00 news yesterday for our newspaper waving during the starting lineups.

She also said that the Everblades fans have adopted our "it's all your fault...it's all your fault" chant after each goal.

I have a Facebook album up if you want to see some pictures from the trip.

Lastly, sorry for the delay in posting, but I didn't have a chance to blog during the tournament.