Here in Buffalo, as well as in other hockey-loving towns across the continent, there has been a lot of hoopla amidst the New Year’s Day Ice Bowl – a ‘Winter Classic’ NHL hockey game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins played outdoors in front of 73,000 screaming fans. Given Cornell’s reputation as a hockey school, and the recent success of the sold-out BU game in Madison Square Garden, could a similar outdoor hockey game feature the Carnelian and White against an ECAC foe? Clarkson? Or Harvard? Long-time Big Red hockey fans may remember the pre-Lynah age when games were played on Beebee Lake:
Skeptical? It’s been done in NCAA hockey before. In 2001, Michigan and Michigan State faced off in the Cold War. And in 2006, Wisconsin hosted Ohio State on the Frozen Trundra of Lambeau Field.
So could Cornell host an outdoor hockey game in front of 40,000 fans at Schoelkopf? Anything is feasible if students, alumni, and the administration put their hearts behind it. It would certainly bring a little bit more of a Big 10 atmosphere to East Hill—something that MetaEzra certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
