The Cornell–Harvard hockey rivalry is a men's ice hockey sports rivalry between the Big Red of Cornell University and Crimson of Harvard University dating back to 1910.
Cornell and Harvard play each other twice each regular season with games at Cornell's Lynah Rink in Ithaca, New York and Harvard's Bright Hockey Center in Allston, Massachusetts. The success of both programs ensures that postseason meetings are common. The rivals meet more than twice each season frequently. Cornell and Harvard have met 158 times on the ice including their first contest on January 8, 1910. Cornell leads the series 79–70-13 as of September 4, 2023.
History
Early years
The rivalry between Cornell and Harvard pits the oldest member of the Ivy League that was founded 140 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence against the youngest member of the Ivy League that in April 2015 celebrated its 150th year of operation. One could muse that the rivalry began with the founding of Cornell University. Ezra Cornell, when confronted with an impasse to the creation of his university in the New York State Senate, quipped famously that "I am not sure but that it would be a good thing for me to give the half a million to old Harvard College in Massachusetts, to educate the descendants of the men who hanged my ancestors." Such animosity would have to wait nearly five decades before it found expression on ice.
Students of academic institutions along the East Coast began forming collegiate hockey clubs around the turn of the 20th century. Yale was among the first institutions to create such a program. It was not long until Cornell and Harvard joined the ranks of their peer institutions in the East on the ice. However, the two programs could not have begun their debuts to a sport, that they both went on to dominate, in more disparate manners. Harvard took the ice in 1898 and lost to future Ivy-League foe Brown 6–0. Cornell earned a 3–0–0 record in 1901, winning contests against Penn, Princeton, and Swarthmore.
Developing hockey powers of the East
The paths of the program diverged after that point. Harvard became the dominant program in Eastern play, especially among the members who would come to constitute the Ivy League. Cornell and Harvard had played fourteen times in the span between January 1910 and February 1962. Harvard held a 13–1–0 record over Cornell until February 3, 1962.
Lynah Rink at Cornell had been completed in 1957. Its potential lay dormant, with Cornell hockey drawing 2,000–3,000 fans per game in the approximately 3,800-seat arena. That all changed when the end of the 1961–62 season of men's ice hockey approached.
Cornell entered February 1962 with a 7–4–0 record. Cornell believed it was on the verge of earning its first winning season since Cornell hockey moved indoors from Beebe Lake. Cornell fans began to place emphasis upon a key clash on February 3, 1962, the opponent: Harvard. Harvard had dominated the Ivy League since its inception in 1954, winning all but one of the Ivy-League championships in men's ice hockey until that point. Cornell was in contention to win the title and reclaim its former glory with a win over the Crimson.
The February 1962 game was charged with passion among the Cornell fans. Harvard and its fans approached the game with a level of apathy. The excitement at Cornell gave rise to "The Line" before the Cornell-Harvard game. The February 1962 game was an inflection point for Cornell hockey and The Line became a rite of passage for all those who wish to join the ranks of the Lynah Faithful, the loyal and fanatical fans of Cornell hockey. Lynah was beyond capacity with 4,500 spectators watching as Cornell upset Harvard 2–1.
"The Canadians" against the Crimson
Cornell seized the momentum of the upswing in its fortune and its brightest days were ahead of it. Cornell hired college hockey coach Ned Harkness from RPI in 1963. An RPI fan asked Harkness on the eve of his departure from Troy, New York, why Harkness was leaving RPI for Cornell. Harkness responded, "because, Ithaca is exactly 90 miles closer to the Canadian border than Troy."
Reliance upon Canadian talent to forge winning traditions at the institutions where Harkness coached created enmity between Cornell and other East Coast programs, especially Harvard. This added yet another level to the increasingly heated Cornell-Harvard clashes.