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NOV/DEC 2021 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM // 37 The Rich Tradition Lives On Whenever Harvard And Yale Meet On The Ice by Joe Paisley HE HARVARD -YALE MEN'S ICE HOCKEY RIVALRY stirs in the h e a r t s o f a t h l et e s a n d a l u m n i , especially for those who missed out last season when the Ivy League shut down winter sports due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. "It's been on our minds for a very long t i m e ," H a r v a r d s e n i o r c a pt a i n C a s e y Dornbach said. "We're hungry to get back after it." The sports rivalry began with the first intercollegiate crew competition in the U.S.in 1852 followed by the first football game in 1875. Ice hockey followed suit on Feb. 26, 1900, after several years of nego- tiation, according to the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Daily Eagle. The game was played in New York City where most alums lived. Yale defeated Harvard, 5-4, before 2,000 rowdy fans at Manhattan's St. Nicholas Rink. It made for a memorable scene with the Yale fans celebrating with the traditional "Long Cheer" according to a 2014 article in The New York Times. The chant "Brek-ek-ek-ex ko-ax, ko-ax," which started at an 1884 football game, mimics the frogs on the banks of the River S t y x f r o m A r i st o p h a n e s ' " T h e Fr o g s," according to chief research archivist Judith Ann Schiff in the May 1988 issue of Yale Alumni Magazine. The stakes were raised when Harvard d e f e a t e d Ya l e , 4 - 3, i n t r i p l e o v e r t i m e to win the 1904 Intercollegiate League championship. The rivalry continues to build on its rich tradition, whether the game was played last week or decades ago. "Seeing and hearing what the rivalry means to the alumni definitely gives you a little extra motivation as a player to con- tinue to build upon the program and legacy that the alumni have built," Yale junior captain Graham Lillibridge said. The competition has gone through its ups and downs based on each program's success, but it has never lost its significance. "So when I was in school, Cornell was the big game for us," said former Harvard goalie Joe Bertagna. "However, once you step on campus, you have an awareness of this thing, Harvard vs. Yale. It's the only foot- ball game that gets sold out and the whole weekend all these other sports are playing each other, the intermurals are playing each other. So you get it from the older genera- tion that Yale is a big deal." T h a t c a m p u s -w i d e a t m o s p h e r e h a s changed with fewer Yale-Harvard match- ups on the same weekend but remains exciting for most. "I know when I was playing it was the last two Saturdays of our season," U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer Ben Smith of Harvard said. "Now the Yale-Harvard game could be i n t h e m i d d l e o f O c t o b e r, N o v e m b e r, December, January. So for me, it's not the same as it was before." Postseason meetings stoke a rivalry 's fire, including Yale's, 3-1, win over then- No. 1 ranked Harvard on Jan. 31, 1989. The sting was soothed by Harvard's first NCAA championship that season. Yale won its first NCAA title in 2013. " We're all competitive by nature and there's a lot of respect for what they stand for and the success they've had," Harvard coach Ted Donato told The New York Times in 2015. "But there's certainly something in the water at Harvard that the school in New Haven is not our friend. And when both teams are going well, it certainly adds to the rivalry." The competition was invigorated by the first Rivalry On Ice game on Jan. 11, 2014, at Madison Square Garden. It was the first NYC game since 1970. "When I heard the game was going back to the Garden, the first thing I did was put a marker on my schedule," former U.S. PHOTOS BY Getty Images RIVALRY THE AGES