A crazy freshman rushing the
field carried by the cheers of
the audience, ice blanketed
with tennis balls and dead
fi sh during hockey games,
ancient rivalries and years of
sport history are what describes
the Ivy League. Although nowadays
theLeague is best known for its academics,
it was offi cially established
in 1954 as an athletic conference
for competition between the eight
most prestigious universities in
the country: Harvard University,
Yale University, Princeton University,
Columbia University, Brown
University, Cornell University, the
University of Pennsylvania and
Dartmouth College. For 50 years,
these rivalries have fostered many
traditions that continue to make
competition in the Ivy League more
than just a matter of sport.
HOCKEY
The ice rink, for instance,
provides a blank canvas for the
imagination of any hockey fan.
The College's hockey fans fi rst
threw the tennis balls at the Princeton
Tigers' players when the Big
Green scored for the fi rst time in
- As proved last Saturday, this
tradition has survived through
- Although fans passionately
try to keep it alive, the College's
hockey team is penalized with a
two-minute minor penalty every
time the tennis balls land on the
ice.
"It's upholding a long college
tradition after all, and I know it hurts
the team a little bit, but I'm sure they
understand the reasons behind it,"
said Nick Rolfes '11, who threw balls
at the Princeton players along with
other fans this Saturday. "It's also a
great fun to try to smuggle the balls
so that the [Safety and Security]
doesn't see them."
Rolfes said that the fans come
up with creative ways to hide the
balls.
"Some tape them to their backs,
others put them down their pants,"
he said. "Everything not to get
detected."
The College's hockey team has in
the past issued offi cial letters to its
fans asking them to stop throwing
tennis balls at the Princeton players,
because of the penalties imposed on
the team by the hockey league.
According to Dan Markowitz
'11, a member of the hockey team,
the fans threw less tennis balls at
the Princeton players this year than
they have in years past.
None of the fans or hockey players
interviewed by The Dartmouth
were able to give reasons as to why
the fans throw the balls.
"It's something we've been always
doing, right?" Rolfes said.
Markowitz '11 recollected times
when other schools' fans went even
more creative than the Big Green
supporters.
"When we played [University
of New Hampshire] they actually
threw fi sh at us when they scored
the fi rst time," he said.
The Cornell University fans have
also been known throughout the Ivy
League for throwing fi sh at their
biggest rival, Harvard University.
The Cornell-Harvard rivalry really
started in 1973, when a Harvard
fan threw a dead chicken on the
Cornell goalkeeper, poking fun at
the Cornell College of Agriculture.
Cornell fans answered next year by
throwing dead fi sh on ice during the
game, making fun of Boston's fi sh
industry.
FOOTBALL
Serious rivalries and vivid traditions
have been also important parts
of the Ivy League football games.
Dartmouth freshman rushing
the fi eld during the Homecoming
football game against Columbia
has become an important part of
the College's history. It has been
a way for incoming freshman to
demonstrate their dedication to
their Alma Mater, but the College's
administration deemed it illegal in
1980's. The students who decide
to rush the fi eld usually end up arrested
by the offi cers of the Hanover
Police Department and charged
with a misdemeanor for trespassing.
There is always, however, a
handful of students who risk their
clean criminal records and decide
to uphold the College's tradition.
"I was very afraid no one was
going to rush the fi eld this year,
so I had to step up," a student that
rushed the fi eld last fall but wanted
to remain anonymous told The
Dartmouth. "All of us ran straight
to the dorm after that, and no one
followed us, so we're clear. We upheld
the College tradition, and got
out of it with no consequences," he
said.
According to Donald Kephart
'11, a member of Dar tmouth's
football team, rushing the fi eld has
not been an issue from the team's
point of view.
"As long as the fi eld rushing
doesn't harm anyone or interrupt
the game it's not a big deal and
shouldn't have serious consequences,"
Kephart said. "There was not
much discussion about rushing the
fi eld among the football team."
The Harvard-Yale football rivalry
is another that has hallowed the
Ivy League stadiums for decades.
These two schools, which traditionally
compete also on academic
grounds, play each other in what
has been called The Game, a football
match that has taken place in late
November since 1875. The Game
was one of the fi rst matches ever
played between U.S. colleges and
helped shape the general rules of
the sport.
"You can really feel the enthusiasm
of the crowd," Kareem Halim
'11, who has attended The Game
several times, said. "There's nothing
better than to get a little buzzed
and go cheer with the fans -- college
experience at its best."
The Game has also been a target
of many Massachusetts Institute of
Technology pranksters, who traditionally
use every occasion to prank
Harvard, their Boston neighbor.
Halim recollected how two years
ago, two students with MIT painted
on their bodies, streaked the fi eld
during the game. They were tackled
right away, he said.
According to Halim, some undercover
Yale fans also distributed to
the Harvard audience placards in
2004, telling them that by holding
them up they would be spelling out
"Go Harvard."
"Instead, when they raised
their placards they spelled out 'We
Suck,'" he said. "It was a hilarious
prank."
The Harvard-Dartmouth football
game has also been getting a lot of attention
from the College's students
in the past years. This year, when
the game was played at Harvard, a
fair number of Dartmouth students
went to Boston to cheer for Big
Green. Colin Nichols '10, who went
to the game last fall, estimated that
there were 100 Dartmouth students
present.
"Most of the people arrived the
day before, and went partying at
Harvard," he said. "Some of them
were still sleeping, or too hung-over
to function at the time the game
started, so the attendance could
have been even higher than it actually
was."
RECRUITING IMPACT
An average Ivy League institution
is represented by 35 Division
I Varsity Teams. The Ivy League
conference, however, does not
allow its members to provide athletic
scholarships for the recruited
athletes, contrary to the policies
of most other Division I schools.
Despite this policy, the Ivy League
schools are still a very competitive
option for many athletes because
of the prestige of an Ivy League
education and the long-established
traditions of the athletic rivalries.
"I was looking for a comprehensive
'package,'" Markowitz said.
"Dartmouth has a great hockey
team, and in addition to that I'm
getting a great education here."
Markowitz also said that there is
a number of great hockey players
that either competed or currently
compete in the Ivy League, and he
was always looking to follow their
steps.
Kephart recollects that in terms
of college choice, the strength of
the athletic department was the last
thing he was looking at.
"I looked for the best schools
I could fi nd in terms of academic
offerings, location, campus life
and pretty much all of the things
a non-athlete would look for," he
said. "Once I had assembled a list
of schools I liked, I then began to
look at the athletic departments
to see if they offered the sports
I was interested in and had good
programs and facilities which I
would enjoy participating in."
Kephart said that Dartmouth
was the top of his list regardless
of athletics, and the "incredible
athletic tradition, fl exibility and
opportunity" merely cemented the
choice.
"Where else would the football
coach allow you to miss fi ve days
of practice the week before the
fi rst game to go canoeing?" he said,
referring to the freshman trips.
"He gave me the opportunity to
participate in what was one of the
most fun activities of my life."
By cultivating its long-standing
traditions, and upholding the
academic excellence side-by-side
with their athletic strengths, the
Ivy League institutions are able to
compete with schools featuring athletic
programs traditionally viewed
as being better at recruitment.
Yale and Princeton hold national
records for number of Division I
football championships. The Cornell,
Harvard and Brown rowing
teams continuously rank at the top
of the country, as do the Harvard,
Cornell and Dartmouth hockey
teams.
The history of the Ivy League
features glorious victories, original
pranks and dead chickens: a mixture
hard to live up to. Undoubtedly,
however, it is this heritage
that continues to attract
talented athletes to schools
like Dartmouth.
