Crimson Gets Fishy Treatment From Cornell

When the Harvard men’s hockey team hosts the Big Red of Cornell at the Bright Hockey Center tomorrow, it won’t be just another early season contest between two storied Ivy League hockey teams.

Instead, it will be the biannual matchup of the two squads with the most intense rivalry in ECAC hockey.

While the Harvard-Cornell series began long ago—during the 1909-1910 season—it only acquired its status as the Harvard-Yale of hockey in 1973.

On Jan. 6 of that year, a Crimson fan threw a dead chicken at Cornell goalie Dave Elenbaas, most likely making fun of the Big Red’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In the next game against Harvard later that month, Cornell fans retaliated, chucking dead fish onto the ice. But there's more...

Some threw the deceased fish to make light of Boston’s seafood industry, while others did so just to throw something disgusting at the Harvard squad. Whatever the case, the tradition lives on today, as the Crimson hockey players await a shower of dead fish each time they travel to Lynah Rink, the home of the Big Red.

In particular, the Big Red faithful throw all sorts of fish, including salmon, haddock, cod, trout, and bass, as well as lobsters, squid, a shark, and live goldfish in plastic bags. McDonald’ s Filet-O-Fish, cans of tuna, and even Swedish Fish have also made their way onto the ice.

While students are hurling fish towards the Crimson players, the Cornell band plays the theme song from the movie, “Love Story,” in which the Big Red defeated Oliver Barrett’s Harvard squad.

And before the game, the Big Red community dutifully prepares. Local supermarkets will have sales on fish and a sizeable cleanup crew readies itself even before the teams take the ice. They must act quickly as the fish can freeze fast.

Since the game on Friday is at home, the Crimson will be spared the barrage of fish, but in recent years the Bright Hockey Center has been dubbed “Lynah East” due to the influx of Big Red fans, who regularly outnumber their Harvard counterparts.

So Crimson fans, come out on Friday and bring a dead chicken if you are so inclined. Because this isn’t your average Ivy League game. The rivalry lives on.