cek (02/20/83)
>From the Chicago Tribune, Saturday, February 19, 1983
Those who believe the Ivy League is the province of genteel
souls imbued with good sportsmanship must have missed the
Harvard-Cornell hockey game this week. Harvard won 3-2 in
sudden-death overtime as a prelude to a major brawl. The
brawl started when two spectators threw a wine bottle and
a beer can at Cornell goalie Darren Eliot. The game also was
interrupted earlier when when spectators-most of them Harvard
fans-bombarded the rink with 350 tennis balls and a live
chicken that had been painted pink. Harvard coach Billy Cleary
noted the behavior is hardly one-sided. In a game played at
Cornell, fans bombarded the Harvard players with more than
100 pounds of fish.hal (02/22/83)
The brawl at the Cornell-Harvard game was worse than the Chicago Tribune story implied. Darren Eliot, the Cornell goalie, was knocked unconcious when a full beer can thrown by a spectator hit him on the side of the neck, which is about the only part of a goalie's body that isn't covered by some sort of padding. Both benches emptied and it took both coaches, and the officials at least 5 minutes to separate everyone. The person who threw the been can was detained by some of the Harvard fans and ushers at the rink. The fellow was a senior and had been scheduled to graduate this May. A Harvard judicial board suspended him from school for a full year, and the Harvard athletic director called his Cornell counterpart to apologize. The Cornell-Harvard games always generate a lot of crowd harassment for the visiting team, but this is the first time someone got hurt. Fortunately, Eliot was not seriously hurt and was able to play the next day. Hal Perkins